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A limit on the number of charter schools in Hawaii would be lifted if the recommendations of a task force are adopted.

But that wouldn’t mean accountability would suffer, because the task force is recommending tighter regulations and a new way to oversee the schools that, while public, operate independently under charters with the state.

Senate Education Chairwoman Jill Tokuda, who chaired the task force, said getting rid of the limit on the number of charter schools makes sense because even now the number of applicants doesn’t come close to the number of available slots.

“Beyond that, though, we’ve tightened the accountability so much that that’s the ultimate cap.” she said. “And at the same time, we’re making sure that when you’re a high-quality charter school, you can get started.”

But for high-quality charters to thrive, they need a good governance structure, she said. And the state’s current charter school governance structure is the result of early, vague interpretations of a movement that has since taken on a more definite shape.

“I think with the old law, people did their best to respond to changing needs, but the end result was something of a Frankenstein, trying to fix issues as they arose and put out fires, not looking at how it fits into overall system,” Tokuda said. “That’s no criticism to those who have worked on it before, because if you look across the country, everyone is reassessing.

“I think it’s Hawaii’s time to reassess our charter school law and do right by our students.”

The 11-member panel’s , released Wednesday, capped off five months of intensive study into both local and national charter school governance structures and laws.

The 31 pages of recommendations include:

• Eliminating the Charter School Administrative Office.
• Strengthening the role of the Charter School Review Panel, which is currently tasked with authorizing charter schools and holding them accountable; adding staff to support its responsibilities; and changing its name to the Public Charter School Commission.
• Allowing more than one agency to authorize charter schools.
• Introducing performance contracts for schools with their authorizers.
• Placing more administrative responsibilities, like payroll, data reporting and technical support, at the school level.
• Getting uniform reporting systems so charter school data can be compared with data from regular public schools.
• Changing charter schools’ “local school boards” to “governing boards.”
• Representation of certain skill sets on the governing boards, such as at least one member with accounting skills, one with business skills, etc.

The recommendations come in the wake of several charter school scandals involving nepotism, messy books and potential ethics violations.

While the task force refrained from talking about specific cases, the performance contracts, paired with enforcement by an authorizing agency with a beefed up job description, aim to prevent such incidents from now on.

“With the commission, or panel, we’ve really clarified the role of the authorizer and what is expected out of them in the way of annual report requirements, performance contracts, etcetera,” she said. “While some may say, ‘Shouldn’t the authorizer already have been doing that?’…there have been gray areas in the past. And that’s why we were here.”

The changes won’t happen overnight, but Tokuda said the review panel, soon to be the Public Charter School Commission, will soon begin making decisions that reflect a body vested with real authority and responsibility. Until now, the roles of the administrative office and review panel have been confused, creating what one ex-director called a Gordian knot of authority and responsibility.

At its final meeting, the table was filled with policymakers from all corners of the charter school movement, and their tone was largely positive about the recommendations.

But Tokuda said the real work begins now.

The recommendations now must be addressed by the Legislature because most of them require changes in state law.

Tokuda plans to introduce at least two bills next session: One overhauling the state’s and one proposing an implementation plan, which she says is just as important as the transformation itself. Without a transition plan, all the task force’s work will be for nothing.

“We are presenting a very substantive package of recommendations that preserves the flexibility that charters need to be innovative, but it also improves the governance structure to ensure that there are lines of accountability,” Tokuda said.