A Republican attempt to ease charter school restrictions failed this week after legislative leaders scuttled an amendment that would have allowed high-performing charters to open new locations.

Instead, Democrats opted to support a bill, Senate Bill 704, that allows local school boards to incorporate charter-like elements into low-performing traditional public schools. The measure passed the House 70-43 Wednesday.

The bill fell short of school choice advocates’ hopes that the General Assembly would address quickly the charter school cap in the short session. They also say it damages North Carolina’s chances of snagging a second round of federal Race to the Top grants, which are allocated partly on the basis of a state’s friendliness to charter schools.

The state imposes a cap, limiting the number of charter schools at 100. The state received only 23.4 out of 40 possible points in the charter-school section of the first round of Race to the Top awards — by far the lowest score in any category of the 500-point evaluation process.

At a press conference Tuesday, Darrell Allison, president of the school choice group Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, said that the state risks losing hundreds of millions of dollars by not pushing legislation promoting charter schools more aggressively.

“We believe that [S.B. 704] is not the best action that we need to take in order to be successful in our application for federal dollars,” Allison said.

Michael Pratt, headmaster of the charter school Rocky Mount Preparatory School, called the bill “smoke and mirrors.”

“We need to get on the money, on the target, and do the right thing,” he said.

Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, had requested S.B. 704 in advance of the June 1 application deadline for Race to the Top funds. The state was a finalist but failed to secure any funds in a first round of grants. Supporters say that the bill might improve the state’s chances this time around.

“It would put us in position to improve students’ performance, and if by the same token it helps our chances of receiving additional funds in the state, that much the better,” said Rep. Marvin Lucas, D-Cumberland.

But attempts to make the bill friendlier to charter schools — public schools that have more freedom to set curricula and hire and compensate staff than traditional district schools — miscarried Tuesday. Rep. Laura Wiley, R-Guilford, offered an amendment that would have allowed top-tier charter schools to open a new school without it counting against the 100-school cap.

“Washington has been very clear: you need to do something with charter schools,” Wiley said.

Speaker Joe Hackney, D-Orange, ruled the move out of order. A subsequent attempt by Republicans to suspend House rules so that Wiley’s amendment could be considered failed on a party-line vote.

“It’s been interesting to hear the comments from the other side about reform, but apparently the motto really is, ‘Reform, but only our reform,’” said Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, a supporter of S.B. 704. “Well, what this does is give multiple options of reform.”

School choice activists still hope the short session will take up another bill, House Bill 856, that would raise the charter school cap to 106. It passed the House nearly unanimously last year, but has since sat dormant in the Senate Education Committee.

The proposal, however, has gotten mixed reviews from alternative school supporters since it would impose new regulations on charter schools.

David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.