NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers are scaling back Gov. Bill Lee's proposal to make it easier to open high-quality charter schools and close poor performing ones.

Lee first made the pitch to lawmakers during his State of the State address earlier this month. Immediately following the speech, Lee's team submitted legislation allowing charter schools to bypass local school boards in their quest to get approval to open.

However, that bill has since been significantly amended. On Wednesday, the House Education Committee narrowly advanced a version that simply creates a new state charter school commission in charge of handling appeals of charter school denials.

Committee Chairman Mark White says the nine-member commission will be appointed by the governor and would take over the appeals responsibility currently residing with the State Board of Education.