Contact Assembly Leaders, Ed. Panel on Charter Bills
CTA is working to defeat two opposed charter school measures that would undermine K-12 school districts and/or violate key constitutional provisions.
Your help is urgently needed to ensure that Assembly leaders and members of the Assembly Education Committee understand the dire need to defeat AB 2764 (Bates) and AB 2781 (Benoit). Please generate phone calls, e-mail, and letters.
AB 2764 is scheduled for an April 14 hearing in the Assembly Education Committee. AB 2781 will be heard there soon.
AB 2764 would let colleges and universities approve charter schools. AB 2781 would eliminate the cap on the number of charters that could be approved annually.
If you need any more information, please contact Legislative Advocate Sharon Scott Dow or GR Communications Consultant Len Feldman at 916.325-1500.
Thank you again for your hard work on behalf of your colleagues on this key issue.
Urge Assembly Education to Defeat Two Charter Bills
CTA is urging all members of the California Assembly Education Committee to defeat two CTA-opposed charter school measures, even if they are amended. The first measure, AB 2764 , by Assembly Member Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Nigel), is slated to come before the committee on April 14. It would authorize higher education institutions to authorize K-12 charter schools. The second proposal, AB 2781 by Assembly Member John Benoit (R-Palm Desert), would completely eliminate the current cap on the number of charter schools that can be authorized in any single year. It could come up in the committee soon.
Two Very Bad Ideas
AB 2764 (Bates) allows the governing boards of the University of California, California State University, and the Community Colleges to create a chartering authority that could authorize and oversee K-12 charter schools:
- It would likely violate Article IX, section 6 of the California constitution that reads: "No school or college or any other part of the Public School System shall be, directly or indirectly, transferred from the Public School System or placed under the jurisdiction of any authority other than one included within the Public School System." Imagine a K-12 district trying to set up and oversee a college campus using UC or Cal State funding.
- Current law already provides exceptional opportunities for the creation of new charters.
- Universities can already sponsor schools by applying for a charter through a local school board. There are already many examples of these types of sponsorships operating under the current charter law, including the Preuss Charter, sponsored by UC San Diego.
- There are already 1,114 authorized chartering entities. Adding more of a totally different type will create monitoring and reporting chaos.
- California law also provides for an appeal process, in case a school board unreasonably rejects a charter proposal.
- The proposal violates the agreement reached by charter leaders with members of the education community in AB 544, by then-Assembly Member Ted Lempert.
AB 2781 (Benoit) also is a bad idea. It would simply remove the current annual cap that limits the state to authorizing no more than 100 charter schools annually. The cap is intended to maintain stability among the state's schools. Charter schools have also not shown greater student achievement than regular schools. Currently, there are 471 charters operating with a cap this year of 650. Next school year, the cap will be 750.
Contact Your Legislators Quickly
It is crucial to kill both of these bills in their first policy committee, Assembly Education. Contacts for Assembly Education Members and Assembly leaders - Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Assembly Members Dario Frommer, Sally Lieber, and Leland Yee --should urge their lawmakers to oppose both bills.
Although there is some lead-time, contacts should generate as many letters and phone calls as possible immediately. Lawmakers begin their Spring break on April 2 and are slated to return to Sacramento on April 12. Some may be back in their legislative districts, but some may be on vacation during that period. For more information, contact CTA Legislative Advocate Sharon Scott Dow or GR Communications Consultant Len Feldman at 916.325-1500.