Charter Schools in California

Law:   Passed in 1992

Rank:   15th strongest of the nation's 40 charter laws

CER Grade:   B

Schools:   428

Students:   153,935

POLITICS:

TERM LIMITS: The Los Angeles School Board has voted to allow the high-achieving Granada Hills High School to convert to a charter school. Charter status will free the school from some of the district bureaucracy, but the one-year term presents its own problems. Read more in CER Newswire May 20, 2003. As CER President Jeanne Allen told USA Today, ''Our education crisis is not limited to the urban areas.... The parents of the children in these Los Angeles-area schools, even though they have more advantages than others, are enormously frustrated that they can't get a higher-quality education for their kids.'' Read more coverage in the Los Angeles Times.
NEGATIVE CHARTER REPORT SERIOUSLY FLAWED: A new charter report released by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) offers a distorted view of charter schools that focuses on inputs and completely ignores the documented charter achievement gains that render those inputs meaningless. Click here for more CER analysis. The Charter School Leadership Council also rebukes PACE 'analysis' as biased, politically motivated.
WORK IN PROGRESS: A recently introduced bill by Assemblywoman Patricia C. Bates and supported by the state's charter schools and its association, CANEC, will expand the number of charter authorizers beyond the local school boards. New authorizers allowed under the new legislation would include state colleges and universities, mayors of large cities and non-profit organizations. If passed, the legislation will also counteract a law passed last year that imposed additional oversight and restrictions on the Golden State charters. Get more details in CER Newswire March 18, 2003.

SLIP-SLIDING: California gets a "B" because its law provides for a strong appeals process and the potential for equitable funding. However, it fell four places in this year’s ranking because it enacted legislation that allows for more regulation, including a new three-tiered oversight provision which enables the district, the county or the state to request information from charter schools at a moment’s notice. Charter School Laws Across the States: Ranking Scorecard and Legislative Profiles, January 2003.
OVERSIGHT: Recently the Bureau of State Audits was asked to examine how well the state's charter school oversight system is working. What it found was that a few of the largest authorizers -- like Los Angeles and Oakland Unified -- are not living up to their responsibilities. The auditors also found that the California Department of Education (CDE) isn't helping. More details in CER Newswire, November 19, 2002.
LAW-LESS: California’s law is being eroded by false friends who want to curb problems but in so doing, have created processes that add layers of bureaucracy to the chartering process. The legislature has approved a bill that seriously impedes charter school autonomy and sets up more rules and hoops for would-be charters to jump through. The bill, AB 1994, restricts and removes by 2005 any charters that operate outside of the district in which they were approved, sets up a false sense of new chartering to county boards and the state board that can hear applications on appeal but only under convoluted circumstances, and basically continues to whittle away at charters as if they are some misdirected concept. From CER Monthly Letter Back to School 2002.
SHORT ON LOGIC: Indio Charter School has been thwarted in its fourth year of business from receiving the funding to which it is entitled. The excuse being used by state bureaucrats is that Indio only holds classes Monday through Thursday, not five days a week. They say twenty percent fewer days equates to a twenty percent reduction in funding. What they ignore is that the schools’ days are greatly extended, and that all told students are in school 20 percent longer than state law requires. They also ignore that last year the charter produced the highest Academic Performance Index scores of all 13 schools in the Indio district, as well as the highest SAT-9 reading scores. From CER Monthly Letter Back to School 2002.
BAIT AND SWITCH: The Sequoia School District, in the heart of Silicon Valley, is trying to avoid paying facilities money due the Aurora Charter High School in San Carlos via an $88 million district bond measure under the recently passed Prop. 39. The district filed a lawsuit two weeks ago to prevent the school from receiving its facilities aid. Sequoia claims they shouldn't have to provide facilities funding for the school since a neighboring district granted the charter. Redwood City District did so after Sequoia, mindful of its unique tax status (school funding based on tax assessments rather than state formula), persuaded the school's founders to withdraw their application for the high school and submit it in the Redwood City district. From CER Newswire July 10, 2002.
UPDATE: SUCCESS: San Mateo Superior Court Judge Quentin Kopp put an end to Sequoia's shenanigans, ordering the district to comply with its obligation to provide classrooms for the charter school. From CER Newswire September 3, 2002.

DEVELOPMENTS:

CHARTERS TO THE RESCUE: According to a new report by WestEd, the Los Angeles Unified School District is a decrepit mess almost totally impervious to reform, paralyzed by bureaucratic and political gridlock. In Creating Excellence for all Students: Transforming Education in Los Angeles, the authors write that: “The governance system is characterized by a set of structures and a culture that are highly resistant to change, leadership constraints that impede the progress of the superintendent, a school board operating in a politically charged environment, limited school autonomy, and unclear accountability at all levels. It is no wonder that the results of past education reforms have been limited.” Fortunately, the authors think they have found a way to save L.A.: Charter schools, and lots of them. Read the entire report, and the reasons behind the clarion call for charter schools in the City of Angels, at WestEd’s site.
FEDERAL FUNDING: The feds announced the delivery of new federal funds under the public charter school grant program. The program provides up to $198 million for individual charter schools, research grants and best practices dissemination. Charters in California will be pleased to know that their state received $24 million. Several of them have had to fight for their start up funds from the state each year, but given the amount, Golden State education officials shouldn't have any excuse this year. From CER Newswire October 8, 2002. For a complete list of the grants, go to http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/10-2002/10072002.html.

ACHIEVEMENT:

GAINING GROUND: California charter schools are proving more effective in improving academic achievement for low income and at-risk students than their non-charter public school counter-parts according to a new study from California State University, Los Angeles. See CER's press release Achievement Gains Found at California Charter Schools, March 11, 2002, for more information and a link to the study.

RESOURCES:

Profile of California Charter School Law .

Links to California Charter School Websites .

SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS:

California Network of Educational Charters (CANEC) 1139 San Carlos Ave, #304 San Carlos, CA 94070	Contact: Susan Bragato Tel: 650-654-6003 Fax: 650-654-4267 Email: goCANEC@aol.com
Website: http://www.canec.org
CANEC is a state-wide, nonprofit, non-partisan association of individuals who support charter schools as exciting options for meaningful education reform that allow communities to invent the type of schooling that best meets their unique needs. CANEC is committed to networking charter school participants and facilitating dialogue on these relatively new educational institutions.

Charter Schools Project Institute for Education Reform, California State University, Sacramento 6000 J Street Sacramento, CA 95819-6018	Contact: Eric Premack Tel: 916-278-4611 Fax: 916-278-5014 Email: epremack@aol.com
Website: http://www.csus.edu.ier
The Charter Schools Project provides policy development and technical support to charter school developers, sponsors, and policy makers in California and across the US and Canada. The Project works to link university and state policy makers with important developments and concerns within the K-12 education community and to provide assistance to K-12 schools which are undertaking or contemplating major reform activities.
Pacific Research Institute's Center for School Reform 755 Sansome St. San Francisco, CA 94111	Contact: Pam Riley Telephone: (415) 989-0833, ext. 106 Fax: (415) 989-2411

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION:

California Department Of Education 560 J Street, Suite 170 Sacramento, CA 95814	Contact: Colin Miller , Charter Schools Office Tel: 916-327-5929 Fax: 916-322-1465 Email: comiller@cde.ca.gov
Website: http://www.cde.ca.gov/charter/