AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A top state senator said Wednesday that a new law dramatically expanding the number of charter schools allowed in Texas might never have passed if the authority to approve new charters hadn’t been stripped from the State Board of Education.

Dan Patrick heads the influential Education Committee in the Texas Senate and authored the law, which the Legislature approved overwhelmingly, It increases the maximum number of charter schools licenses from 215 now to 305 by 2019 — the largest expansion of its kind in Texas since 2001.