Minn. charter schools get 1-year extension on new rules

Charter schools in Minnesota are getting a one-year reprieve from a deadline that threatened to close dozens of schools.

Those schools' sponsors were facing a summer deadline to continue sponsoring schools under a new system created two years ago. Schools without a sponsor, or authorizer, by this July would have had to close.

Gov. Mark Dayton signed legislation into law Wednesday that extends that deadline until next summer.

Eugene Piccolo with the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools said the deadline worried many schools.

"There's a lot of things authorizers have to put in place now that are part of the new standards, and it takes time to do all that," Piccolo said. "There just wasn't enough time to get everybody up to speed to get through the process in time."

Piccolo estimates 30 to 50 charter schools in Minnesota were in danger of closing because they hadn't found new authorizers.