BOISE - Idaho's charter schools, for the first time since they emerged on the state's educational landscape more than a decade ago, are on the verge of getting state aid to help pay mortgages and other facilities costs.

The Senate passed a bill on a 20-15 vote Thursday that would begin directing about $1.4 million next fall to the 40 charter schools across the state. The schools will get a share of tax dollars - based on a funding formula that factors in the total number of school levies and the number of public school students in the state - to support facilities and maintenance costs.

The annual payout would grow to $2.1 million in the second year, and even more in subsequent years.

The measure has already passed the House and is en route to the desk of Republican Gov. Butch Otter.

Proponents say the money - estimated in the first year as $34,000 per charter school - is essential to helping the nontraditional schools survive and leveling the playing field with traditional public schools. Unlike traditional schools, charters don't have the authority to ask local voters to approve bond levies to offset expenses, build new schools or pay for remodels.

Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, said chipping in funding is an important way to safeguard charters' future, adding the state's public schools already receive a significant chunk of change from the state each year.

"We fund traditional schools as if they were a Chevy Malibu, and we fund charter schools as if they were a Chevy Nova," he said. "There's less money."

But Republicans and Democrats who opposed the bill criticized sending money to charters when traditional schools are in just as much need.

Republican Sen. Shawn Keough of Sandpoint, who sat on the Senate Education Committee in 1998 when the state originally authorized charter schools, said they were designed as a testing ground for new education techniques that could be applied to the state's K-12 system.

She argued it's time for lawmakers to look at integrating those methods across schools instead of passing measures that reinforce two separate systems, each battling for state dollars.

"(When) we were setting up a system, it was about innovation and laboratories of experimentation that could provide choice," she said. "I think it's been long enough that the charter system has been established that we should take a holistic look."

The Senate also approved a second charter school measure Thursday. A bill approved on a 28-7 vote allows Idaho public universities to establish charter schools.

The proposal governs how universities would be supervised if they move to open alternative schools. It also creates contractual benchmarks for charter schools, to demonstrate that they are flourishing and accountable to the state.

Sen. Elliot Werk,D-Boise, acknowledged the bill adds necessary oversight measures, but opposed it citing examples from other states where adding university-supported charter schools resulted in mass closures.

"In Arizona, since 2006, 133 charter schools have closed, and today they have about 539 charter schools," he said. "Twenty-five percent that have been authorized then didn't make it."