Dive Brief:

• The West Virginia Senate Education Committee has approved a bill that would allow charter schools to open in the state. 
• While the charter schools won't have to follow the state's union-approved rights (such as prep periods and lunches without cafeteria duty), they will have to place all students in a random lottery to be selected for all of the state's charter schools — an amendment that Democratic Sens. Mike Romano and John Unger pushed into place.
• The Charleston Gazette notes that studies on charter schools have found that they educate students neither better or worse than traditional public schools.

Dive Insight:

When the American Legislative Exchange Council published the 18th edition of its state-by-state education rankings, it found that West Virginia ranked among the bottom in the nation — and much of that was due to its lack of a charter school system. Whether or not that is a good thing, however, is up for debate. 

Proponents of charter schools argue that school choice and competition will help weed out poor-performing schools, additionally citing the positive impacts of flexibility in curriculum, as well as hiring and firing (charter schools typically don't have unions). Those against the movement see charter schools as draining resources from traditional public school districts, breaking up neighborhood and community schools, contributing to the privatization of public education, and not necessarily providing better results.