In 2012, amid several cases of glaring misuse of public education funds and administrators faulted for hiring their relatives, the Legislature moved to reform the state’s charter schools program, which had been more focused on support services rather than accountability standards.

The Legislature created the Public Charter School Commission as part of an overhaul of state law, tightening oversight and accountability for the schools that first came on the scene here in the mid-1990s.

This new, tougher approach manifested itself most recently on July 13, when the commission approved one application for a new school while turning down two others because they didn’t meet the requirements. The approved school, DreamHouse Ewa Beach, will open in 2018.

“We’re supposed to be approving high-quality charters from the get-go, and not expecting high quality in the end,” said commissioner Roger Takabayashi.

It’s a stricter approach, and the right one. It has helped make Hawaii’s 34 charter schools more structured and less free-form, while still serving as incubators of innovation.

Now, as the 2017-18 school year approaches, it’s a good time for policymakers to find ways to help these schools continue this progress.

Each charter school has built-in flexibility that can stretch beyond what we see in a typical traditional public school. Some cultivate an independent atmosphere we associate with private schools.

While they’re allotted more freedom than most public schools over budgets, staffing, curricula and other operations, they’re supposed to hold to academic and financial accountability measures similar to those for traditional schools. And despite commendable efforts to meet the state’s stepped-up expectations, some charters still struggle with funding problems.

That’s largely because charters don’t get state funds specifically tagged for facilities and capital improvement projects. So, cash-strapped charters turn to their state per-pupil funding — about $7,000 for each enrolled student — to pay for both core operational costs and bricks-and-mortar issues. In recent years, the commission has repeatedly supported unsuccessful proposed legislation to establish a flow of facilities funding. State lawmakers should find a way to ease this problem for charters, which enroll about 10,000 children, or about 6 percent of public school students.

Meanwhile, one charter is now tackling the problem by way of a promising partnership with a traditional public school. Green-focused SEEQS — the School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability — is leaving its rented space in Kaimuki to move a few miles down the road to the Kaimuki High School campus, which has space to spare.

Designed for 1,400 students, Kaimuki High’s enrollment has remained at 750 students in recent years due in part to the aging population in nearby neighborhoods. SEEQS will be getting six classroom spaces, a section of the cafeteria — and big savings on rent. Since opening its doors in 2013, SEEQS has spent $150,000 annually on rent and utilities at a Salvation Army property on 22nd Avenue. That chewed up 15 to 20 percent of the school’s budget. At the high school, other than nominal charges to help cover utilities, that expense is all but erased.

This could be a win-win arrangement, and model for other public schools. In the interest of maintaining full use of its campuses, the state Department of Education should update its enrollment/capacity inventory with an eye on considering other charter-traditional pairings. A DOE study based on 2013-14 figures found that several campuses have classrooms that are not being used for teaching or other school-related functions. At Kaimuki Middle School, for example, capacity was 1,675 students; enrollment, 979; and the campus had 11 unused classrooms.

Formed to authorize high-quality charter schools, the commission should be applauded for establishing performance contracts with renewal criteria — both academic and financial — for these semi-autonomous schools of choice, and instituting a rigorous application process to approve new charter schools. With clearer lines of authority now in place, charters will be more likely to thrive, and the DOE should find it mutually beneficial to form closer partnerships with them.