AUGUSTA -- Maine charter school advocates will have to wait another year before they have a chance at getting the independently run public schools legalized in the Pine Tree State.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron told lawmakers Tuesday that Gov. John Baldacci's administration won't introduce a bill to legalize charter schools this winter.

Since it's too late for legislators to sponsor new bills for the upcoming four-month session, a bill from the governor was the only opportunity the advocates had for keeping the charter school debate alive in the Legislature.

"I think we have other challenges that we're going to have to look at as a state for Race to the Top," Gendron said, referring to a competition among the states for $4 billion in federal money aimed at education innovations.

The U.S. Department of Education last week released final guidelines for the $4 billion contest. The guidelines put less emphasis on encouraging charter schools than on other Obama administration priorities, such as allowing teacher evaluations and pay to be tied to students' academic performance.

"There are lots of points of discussion," Gendron told members of the Education Committee. "Charter schools are probably lowest on the list of what I think we have to solve."

Maine law, Gendron said, currently doesn't allow teacher evaluations to be tied to student test data.

Maine is also one of 11 states whose laws don't allow charter schools. And federal education officials warned throughout the spring that those states would be at a disadvantage in the grant competition.

Despite those warnings, the Maine Senate defeated a bill in June that would have allowed the state's first charter schools. Baldacci and the Maine Department of Education supported that bill, sponsored by Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Trenton.

Charter schools are public, but free from the many of the restrictions that govern traditional public schools. The schools often cater to specific learning styles and interests, such as the arts or the outdoors. They can't choose their students.

Most charter schools are not unionized and they can more easily hire teachers who don't have state certifications.

The Maine Education Association, the state's primary teachers union, opposed allowing charter schools. Chris Galgay, the union's president, couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

The Maine Association for Public Charter Schools, which has been pushing for a charter school law this fall, lamented the news that Baldacci won't introduce charter school legislation this winter.

"The governor could show leadership on this issue and Maine could lead the last of the 11 states without a law by enacting one," Roger Brainerd, the group's executive director, said in a statement. "Instead, Maine has cast itself as a backwater in the area of education innovation, despite the president's call for the expansion of charter schools."

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com