RALEIGH -- N.C. charter schools want a court to force counties and school districts to consider their requests for the same funds traditional schools receive for buildings, new buses and equipment.
Seven of the alternative public schools and more than 50 students and parents who filed suit Monday in Mecklenburg County Superior Court believe the state and federal constitutions give them the same right to access capital money.
The 1996 law creating charter schools and a 1998 opinion by state attorneys say the schools essentially can only receive money from state and local governments to hire teachers, buy textbooks and other operating expenses.
Although some public funds can be used by charter schools to lease buildings, a dedicated capital outlay fund held by counties with county and state funds, such as proceeds from a share of corporate income taxes and North Carolina Education Lottery profits, is off limits.
House votes to extend benefits
WASHINGTON -- Jobless workers in imminent danger of losing their unemployment benefits would get a 13-week reprieve under legislation approved by the House on Tuesday.
The House bill, which applies to 27 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico with unemployment rates of 8.5 percent or higher, would add to the already-record levels of benefits that have been available to the jobless as the country struggles to recover from its prolonged economic malaise.
The bill passed easily, 331-83. The bill, if enacted, would offer a reprieve to more than 300,000 jobless workers who are slated to run out of unemployment compensation at the end of September and the more than 1 million expected to exhaust their benefits by the end of the year.
BofA, JPMorgan overhaul fees
NEW YORK -- As lawmakers prepare to implement sweeping credit card reforms, Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are moving to overhaul overdraft fees and practices that have been criticized industrywide as excessive and harmful to consumers.
Bank of America Corp. said Tuesday it will cap the fees it charges customers for overdrawing their accounts, backpedaling on the hikes the company imposed just this year. Starting Oct. 19, Bank of America no longer will charge overdraft fees when a customer's account is overdrawn by less than $10 in one day.
A $35 fee will still be levied if the account isn't brought into balance within five days.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank also will limit to four the number of times an overdraft fee can be charged on an account per day.
Enrollment in the bank's overdraft program is currently automatic for new customers, and opting out is possible only in "very limited" circumstances, said Anne Pace, a Bank of America spokeswoman.
JPMorgan Chase Co. also will be overhauling its overdraft fees, a spokeswoman said late Tuesday. Starting in the first quarter of 2010, the bank will make overdraft protection opt-in for all customers, post transactions to accounts as they occur, and eliminate fees when accounts are overdrawn by $5 or less. It will also reduce the maximum number of fees per day to three from six.
-- From wire reports
