For years, charter schools have been popping up all over the map in Utah, with about a third of those in Utah County.

But with a cap set by the state Legislature for new charter schools already met for the 2007-2008 school year, the future is uncertain for at least 13 groups of parents looking for new education options.

Before this year, 53 charter schools had been authorized to serve nearly 21,000 Utah students. But state law this year limited new charters to five serving a total of 5,000 students for 2007-2008, paired with a study of state charter school funding.

After two of the charters were awarded earlier in the year, 18 applications went to the state Charter School Board for the remaining three spots, including two proposed Utah County schools.

Two schools dropped out because their applications were incomplete, said state charter schools director John Broberg, and the charter board ranked the others and recommended three for approval by the state Office of Education. They were the Karl G. Maeser Academy in the Alpine School District, Guadalupe Schools in Salt Lake City and Canyon Rim Academy in the Granite School District.

Maribel Rees, a founding parent of the Robert Henri Academy of Arts planned for opening in the Alpine School District, said she was so turned off by the "unprofessional" methods the state used to award the new charters that she has dropped the idea of the school indefinitely.

She said the process used to rank the applications was not disclosed, leaving the reasons why the three schools were chosen unclear.

Now Broberg said the charter board needs permission from the state Legislature to approve schools in the future. "This is a time that the Legislature is trying to decide what they'll do with this program, and they could just put a permanent moratorium on this," he said. "The rules they may come up with might truly limit what charter schools can do. We don't know, but I think it's something that should concern us."

Some charter schools cater to students with disabilities such as autism, while others emphasize academic areas such as arts, science or liberal arts. "I believe the charter schools are fulfilling a need," Broberg said. "If you can't grow, you step backward, and that is a concern."

Kim Frank, a founder of John Hancock Charter School in Pleasant Grove and executive director of the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools, said the law may not have curtailed all new charter school approvals. "I have also been told by members of the Legislature that was just a cap for this year and next year we revert to the old law that had no cap at all."

Rep. Craig Frank, R-Pleasant Grove, agreed with his wife, saying Broberg's office has misinterpreted the law, which was "just intended for that school year and not for future years." If the uncertainty continues, the Legislature might need to act to clarify the law, he said. "I'm not familiar with anything that's being drafted right now. More than likely if it's not addressed shortly, though, I might have to look into it."

Kim Frank said she and other parents and association members will fight for charter schools but she understands concerns about keeping the costs in check.

"I think most of it is, if you look back at the history of charter schools, each year we have doubled in growth, and I think that's unexpected. Now that we're growing so fast, I think the Legislature wants to take a step back and look at it and figure out a way to fund it and have responsible growth," she said.

In the past, the state Charter School Board has granted 12-15 new charters a year, she said. "I'm comfortable with that. I'd like to see growth somewhere in that range in the future."

This year, the Legislature provided about $21.5 million in basic funding for charter schools and an additional $7.1 million to help replace local property tax dollars, which charter schools are not authorized to collect.

Kim Frank said legislators she's talked to have been guarded about what they see in charter schools' future, saying they'll wait until the state audit is complete.

"I don't think anybody really knows exactly what will happen until the study comes out, and then they will make their decision, " she said.

Eric Smith, a state Charter School Board member from Lindon, said the state's burden could be eased by making sure local property tax money follows students to charter schools. Smith's wife helped found the Karl G. Maeser Academy, and he also has been involved in starting other charters, including Timpanogos Academy in Lindon.

Craig Frank said the local property tax issue must be resolved. "I believe all public education entities should be funded equitably."

Local money that now stays in the school districts after children leave for charter schools could be pooled across the state and redistributed on a per-student basis to charter schools, Smith said. "There are anomalies in the way charter schools are funded that don't scale well. Until we resolve that problem, there will be caps, but it won't be capped at zero."

Local and state arts groups had expressed interest in the Robert Henri Academy of Arts, which would have focused on drama, dance, music, visual arts, literary arts and media arts.

But Rees said because of uncertainty about what will become of charter schools in Utah and the bad taste she got for the process, she's putting it on hold. "They did say, 'Why don't you guys apply for next yearfi' and we were like, 'I don't know if I want to go through this.' "

Anna Chang-Yen can be reached at 344-2549 or annac@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.