A pair of bills to overhaul Hawaii’s charter school system are up for final vote in the Legislature on Thursday, the session’s last day. 

Senate Bill 2115 is 90-some pages of legislation that completely recodifies the current law governing charter schools. The primary goal is improving accountability.

Senate Bill 2116 ponies up $500,000 to implement the broad reforms. This includes a new position, transition coordinator, to oversee the effort.

Lawmakers had to fix a controversial ethics exemption before passing SB2115 out of conference committee last week. They did so by requiring all charter school employees and members of governing boards to be subject to the state Ethics Code.

If the legislation become law, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools says Hawaii’s national ranking on charter schools would jump 14 spots from 35th to 21st out of 42 states.