House Education Committee Chairman Bob Nonini, R-Post Falls, introduced a bill Monday to remove the cap on charter school creation in Idaho.

The bill was introduced unanimously by the panel and will receive a formal hearing in the next week or two.

The push to remove the cap has been around for years and it almost came to fruition last year, but the lateness of the effort may have doomed the idea in the last legislative session. A bill to remove the cap made it through the House last year in the final days of the 2011 session, but the Senate never took up the measure.

The Senate Education Committee cleared a bill to create a cap exemption two years ago that would have allowed districts to provide charter programs for underserved student populations, including gifted or minority pupils. That measure failed on the Senate floor.

Idaho caps charter school creation at six per year.