Hawaii’s charter school system was always meant to be a work in progress, and though progress has been a long time coming, the proposed amendments to the enabling law have the potential to make some welcome improvements.

The Charter School Governance, Accountability and Authority Task Force last week finished almost half a year’s work on a reform plan, a worthy proposal that will go to the state Legislature in January for enactment.

For starters, the task force checked off a key goal by proposing that each public charter school be put on an annual performance contract, ensuring regular review on set criteria.

Too often the success or failure of a charter school in its education mission fell beneath the radar screen. Especially in the early years of the movement, the faltering performance of some charters, judging by test scores, was allowed to go on too long without challenge.

While the institution of the statewide Charter School Review Panel made a start at addressing that problem, it’s also good to see that the volunteer panel would be replaced by a fully staffed Public Charter School Commission, under the plan. The Charter School Administrative Office, which now handles both administrative tasks such as payroll and the work generated by the review panel, would be phased out, its administrative jobs shifting to the individual school governing boards.

This is a more efficient setup, enabling schools to handle some of its critical functions more independently. Open for discussion is whether there is any institutional support the Department of Education may provide to help the smaller startup charters in particular. Training should be provided, either by the commission or the Hawaii Charter School Network, the membership organization geared for helping to boost the capacity and professionalism of charter schools.

The task forces favors another wise refinement in regulating the makeup of those school governing boards. Instead of having members elected by specific constituency groups — teachers, administrators and parents, for example — members would be selected based on qualifications and experience in financial and academic arenas. Those are the skills needed of any governing body that is expected to ensure the best use of resources in educating children.

The plan also would enable multiple authorizers of charter schools, but they would have to first apply with the new charter school commission. The authorizers could be governing boards of accredited public and private postsecondary institutions, a county or state agency or governing boards of nonprofit or charitable organizations, excluding those with a religious purpose. The oversight of the commission is necessary.

Opening the door in this way could allow for a more vibrant and diverse range of educational opportunities through charter schools. But nationally the charter schools movement has spawned for-profit management companies developing chains of public charter schools. And, in this environment, care must be taken to keep close tabs on which entities tap the public purse.

Some refinements are sure to emerge once the plan goes through the scrutiny of public hearings. But it appears that the task force has done a good job in striking a needed balance, between public accountability and maintaining a measure of independence. Charter schools need that to become the laboratories that can yield new ideas about teaching Hawaii’s youth.