The Assembly's fiscal committee has voted to put in its suspense file a CTA-opposed charter school plan that would have allowed higher education agencies to authorize K-12 charter schools. The action effectively kills the bill for this legislative year.
AB 2764 by Assembly Member Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Nigel) would have undermined the governance of K-12 charter schools and undercut the role of duly elected school boards.
Under pressure from CTA, the proposal had been scaled back to a pilot program, but CTA advocates note that, if the measure had been approved, it could have grown to larger proportions. As it was, the bill would have allowed the University of California, the California State University and the community college system to approve up to 60 charter schools.
The Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) and the California School Board Association (CSBA) joined CTA in opposing AB 2764.
Another charter reform measure, AB 1860 by Assembly Member Sarah Reyes (D-Fresno), would make it clear that the state's open meeting law (the Brown Act) applies to charter schools, which are public schools, and that the public has a right to scrutinize decisions made by charter school operators. The measure, which is backed by CTA, would also spell out the process that must be followed in collecting signatures to start new and conversion charter schools.
The bill would have prevented the kind of "hostile takeover" that occurred when the Sacramento City Unified School Board closed down Sacramento High School rather than try to collect teacher signatures in the conversion process. The board skirted the law by quickly reopening the school as if it were a "new" charter institution.
Len Feldman