Charter School Funding; local boards of education to treat local charter schools no less favorably than other local schools; expenditure of the proceeds of a special purpose local option sales tax; require

The bill's primary focus shifted from solely funding charter schools to also addressing the legal process for dissolving independent school systems. While the original version only required school boards to treat charter schools fairly regarding sales tax funds, the final version added specific rules requiring a petition signed by 10% of voters to trigger an election for merging independent schools with county systems. The charter school funding provision was retained but expanded to explicitly exempt school boards from using sales tax funds to buy or improve property owned by charter schools.