Contact Assembly Leaders, 2 Panels on Charter Bill
CTA is working to defeat an opposed charter school measure that would undermine K-12 school districts and/or violate key constitutional provisions. We need your help to mobilize local chapters, administrators, and school board members to defeat AB 2764 (Bates) in either the Assembly Higher Education Committee or the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Please generate phone calls, e-mail, and letters.
AB 2764 is scheduled for an April 20 hearing in the Assembly Higher Education Committee. If it survives there, it will head quickly to the Assembly Appropriations panel. AB 2764 would let colleges and universities approve charter schools. As amended, the bill would let UC, CSU, and the community colleges authorize 20 state higher education campuses to approve a K-12 charter school for a total of 60 schools. Although this is a pilot, it could rapidly become much larger.
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 to Defeat AB 2764, CTA-opposed Charter Bill
CTA is urging all members of the California Assembly's Higher Education Committee and its Appropriations Committee to defeat a CTA-opposed charter school measure. The bill, AB 2764 by Assembly Member Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Nigel), is slated to come before the Higher Education committee on Tuesday, April 20. The bill would allow the University of California, the California State University, and the Community Colleges to designate up to 20 campuses that would be empowered to authorize a charter school as part of a "pilot program."
If the measure survives efforts to kill it on April 20, it would be scheduled for a hearing soon after in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
A Very Bad Idea
- AB 2764 (Bates) 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, facilities and students.
- 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.
Contact Legislators, Allies Quickly
It is crucial to kill AB 2764 in the next policy committee, Assembly Higher Education. Members of Assembly Appropriations should also be contacted, in case AB 2764 escapes from Assembly Higher Ed. Contacts for Members of both Assembly Higher Education and Assembly Appropriations and Assembly leaders - Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Assembly Members Dario Frommer, Sally Lieber, and Leland Yee --should urge their lawmakers to oppose AB 2764. To help generate as many letters and phone calls as possible quickly, contacts should
- Urge their lawmakers to oppose AB 2764.
- Get in touch with CTA Chapter Presidents in their area and have them mobilize their chapters against the bill.
- Urge Chapter presidents to get in touch with their local superintendent and school board members and urge them to mobilize their forces against the Bates bill.
Both the Association of California Administrators (ACSA) and the California School Boards Association (CSBA) also oppose AB 2764.
Contact members of the Assembly Higher Education Committee today
Contact members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee today
For more information, contact CTA Legislative Advocate Sharon Scott Dow or GR Communications Consultant Len Feldman at 916.325-1500.