1. A. The purpose of the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act is to:

   1. 1. Improve student learning;
   2. 2. Increase learning opportunities for students;
   3. 3. Encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods;
   4. 4. Provide additional academic choices for parents and students;
   5. 5. Require the measurement of student learning and create different and innovative forms of measuring student learning;
   6. 6. Establish new forms of accountability for schools; and
   7. 7. Create new professional opportunities for teachers and administrators including the opportunity to be responsible for the learning program at the school site.
2. B. The purpose of the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act is not to provide a means by which to keep open a school that may otherwise be closed. Applicants applying for a charter for a school which is to be otherwise closed shall be required to prove that conversion to a charter school fulfills the purposes of the act independent of closing the school. Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to preclude a school designated as a "high challenge school" from becoming a charter school.

Laws 1999, HB 1759, c. 320, § 6, emerg. eff. July 1, 1999.