BATON ROUGE - Gov. John Bel Edwards' effort to remove an unused method for creating charter schools has passed its first hurdle in the House, after earlier winning Senate support.

The House Education Committee voted 7-5 Tuesday to advance the bill to the House floor for debate, after previously rejecting similar legislation.

A law enacted in 2012 allows state-approved local groups to authorize the creation of charter schools, which are public schools that run separately from the management of local school boards.

No local charter authorizer has been approved since the law was passed, and the Senate-approved bill from Sen. Dan "Blade" Morrish, a Jennings Republican, would scrap the law allowing local charter school authorizers.

Charter schools could continue to be created by state and local education boards.