BURLINGAME – The California Charter School Task Force created by Governor Gavin Newsom and led by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond released its recommendations today, which reiterate the need for accountability and changes to the laws authorizing and operating California’s charter schools. The report recommendations reflect the intent of bills currently being considered by California lawmakers. The majority of the body charged with considering the economic impact of charter schools on neighborhood public schools and recommending policy proposals heard and acknowledged the concerns and hardships posed on California’s students.

“It has been an honor to serve on this task force while representing my fellow educators and the students we teach and work with every single day. As a task force, we had many, many difficult conversations, and as the lone, current practitioner of the group, I urge everyone to keep the kids at the center of all we do,” said Erika Jones, a 14-year Los Angeles Elementary School Teacher who also sits on the CTA Board of Directors and served on the task force as the lone teacher representative. “I have seen firsthand how our marginalized school communities have been deeply impacted when districts are forced to make difficult decisions and lacked the discretion they needed. The struggles our students face are and always will be reflections of how hard we fight for them and how much of a priority we make their education.”

The following recommendations made by the majority of the group will assist lawmakers as they consider charter school legislation:

• Giving charter school authorizers more discretion when considering whether to approve or deny new charter school applications, including when the new school will have an adverse economic impact on district students, when the saturation of schools (district and charter) in the district – or its neighborhoods – is already too high, and when there is a need for more schools based on the academic offerings of existing schools. Based on the extensive presentations from academics and school finance experts on this issue, they found the evidence compelling that the unregulated growth of charter schools in the state is causing financial hardships in many districts that are leading to cuts to staffing and services that hurt students.

• Extending the deadlines to approve or deny a charter school petition – to give authorizers more time to do appropriate due diligence. Analyzing the impact that adding a charter school to a local school district takes time in order to make the best decision for its students.
• Empowering a state entity with the responsibility of creating training and oversight materials for charter school authorizers, which will ensure a uniform approach to authorizing while following a standard set of expectations.
• Limiting charter school authorization to local school districts with a limited appeals process at the county board of education, which are in the best position to make decisions about both the need for, and impacts of, new schools for students in their districts – with limited procedural appeals to County Boards of Education. Local accountability is good education policy. The local school board is most knowledgeable of education programs and needs within its jurisdiction, and invests significant time and resources reviewing proposed charter school petitions. Approving and renewing charter petitions should be made by the school communities in which the charter will be located. Studies show that in five California school districts alone, neighborhood public schools lost more than $762 million that was shifted to charter schools.
• Remove the California State Board of Education from hearing appeals of charter petition denials. In addition, the majority recommended ending the practice of the California Department of Education performing oversight of schools approved by the SBE on appeal. The recent practices of county offices of education and the State Board of Education in overturning evaluations of charter petitions by local school boards undermines local communities and hurts students. One study shows that confirmed fraud and waste in California charter schools has reached more than $149 million.

• Enacting a moratorium on new virtual charter schools – which have been in the news recently due to an indictment of 11 charter school operators criminally charged for conspiracy, personal use of upwards of $81 million of public money, grand theft and financial conflict of interest. Another news report found two charter operators siphoning more than $50 million from the state in a long-term charter school funding scheme. Imposing a moratorium allows for time for these much-needed changes to take place.

• Prohibiting school districts from authorizing charter schools that are outside of their district boundaries, which allows local decisions to be made by local elected officials who have developed priorities and plans with input from all stakeholders including parents, students, teachers, and community members. The local school board is elected to make decisions, with input from parents, educators, community members and students, in the best interest of the children living in their district and is most knowledgeable of programs and needs of local students. This is why local school districts must have the authority to decide if a charter school opens and operates in their school district. A school board should not make decisions about locating a charter school in another school district. AB 1507 would keep these local matters local.

“The recommendations in this report are a good start and affirm the work we’ve been doing collectively as educators, students, parents, labor partners and community groups in actively supporting AB 1505 which is making its way through the legislative process,” said CTA President Eric Heins. “Despite the task force having a majority with personal and professional ties to the charter school and privatization industry, the recommendations made by the majority of the task force further solidify the need to pass AB 1505 and, quite frankly, the evidence some were waiting on to vote in favor of AB 1505.”

AB 1505 and AB 1507 will be heard in the Senate Education Committee in early July.

“Along with our coalition partners, we look forward to working with the authors, legislators and the governor to fix these laws for the sake of our students,” said Heins. “Our students are counting on all of us to provide them with the resources and public education they need and deserve.”

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