On April 8th the Assembly Education Committee voted to pass AB 787 on a party line vote.
Assemblywoman Shirley Weber was the only Democrat to vote against the bill.
The anti-charter bill requires the charter school authorizer to appoint a majority of the charter school’s board members. AB 787 would effectively gut the entire charter school law by removing any autonomy that the charter school has. Charter schools would all become dependent of their authorizer and would no longer be schools of choice.
A host of groups and individuals lined up to oppose the bill while the entire labor community supported it. Assemblywoman Weber made an impassioned speech against the bill and brought up several good points while describing her opposition to it.
The measure now moves forward to the Assembly Appropriations Committee where it faces an uncertain fate because of the costs to have authorizers implement the policy.
Last year AB 1531, a similar bill, was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee because of its costs.
Month: April 2015
In a big victory for California charter schools, the California Supreme Court ruled that the Los Angeles Unified School District was required to reevaluate the method with which they’re assigning facility space to charter schools.
According to the California Charter School Association (CCSA), who filed the initial lawsuit, “The Court’s decision affirms CCSA’s position that the district’s methodology was not legal or fair, and potentially denied classrooms to charter public school students. This ruling requires L.A. Unified to make changes to its Prop 39 process in order to ensure that its method of allocating classrooms to charter public schools is lawful.”
Legislative consultant Branche Jones said, “It’s great to see the court confirm that LAUSD has been out of compliance by not meeting its Prop 39 obligation and providing facilities for charter schools. Hopefully the district will now revise their policies.”
Read more about the ruling on the CCSA website or in this LA Times article.