California State Legislature: February 2020 Update

Friday, February 21st was the last day to introduce bills in the California State Legislature. The State Assembly saw over 1,500 measures introduced this year while the State Senate had over 700. These measures will now begin to have hearings scheduled in legislative policy committees. If they are passed out of the policy committee and have a fiscal impact then they will head to the Appropriations Committee.

Unlike last year, there has not been a lot of bills introduced that impact charter schools. Clearly, members of the Legislature and the administration believe that charter schools will have a tough enough time implementing SB 126, AB 1505 and AB 1507 from last year.

This year, only two bills have been introduced that are charter school-specific: SB 1423 which makes some changes to the Charter School Facility Grant Program and SB 1449 which is a charter school spot bill.

A spot bill is a measure that has not been fully amended yet but states that the intention of the bill is to change the charter school law in some manner. There are a plethora of bills that will be heard this year and I am attaching a matrix that will list a number of them, by bill number, and contains a short description of each bill’s contents.

As the year moves along and bills are amended and changed in the California State Legislature, we will keep you updated as to the measures that may impact charter schools.

Click to download the detailed list of bills here: 2020 California Legislature Bill List

Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We help schools access, leverage, and sustain the resources charter schools need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most – educating students. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $2 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

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The 2020 Ranking of Public Charter School Laws

Editor’s Note: We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support school choice, charter school growth, and the advancement of the charter school movement as a whole. We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable.

The following report and content are from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

For more than a decade, this charter law rankings report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has analyzed how well each state aligns its charter school law to their “gold standard” model law.

Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws

This report draws on best practices in state policy that have led to the growth of high-quality charter schools, while also addressing weaknesses that, in some cases, have allowed underperforming charter schools and ineffective authorizers to avoid accountability. For example, the model law follows and builds on a report [from 2016] where the National Alliance called for reform of full-time virtual charter schools, too many of which significantly underperform.

The current model law encourages states to provide more equitable support to charter school students, allow for more flexibility to charter schools, and strengthen accountability for charter schools and their authorizers. Specific revisions to the model law include policy updates on full-time virtual schools, funding, authorizers, facilities, flexibility, and discipline.

These 2020 charter school law rankings are the first rankings to reflect the impact of the 2018 election cycle. States like California and Illinois, where previous governors supported charter-friendly policies, elected officials who allowed charter opponents to make headway on anti-charter-policies. Those states saw a drop in their rankings. At the same time, advocates made improvements in funding and facilities policies in many states, with Idaho and Tennessee making the biggest jumps.

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2020 California Legislative Prospectus

With the year ending, it is time to focus on where the 2020 California Legislature may go on charter schools next year. This year, we saw the passage of AB 1505 and AB 1507 which changed the way that charter schools will be approved and renewed. The bills also put major restrictions on non-classroom based charter schools including a two-year moratorium on their authorization. Finally, AB 1507 placed new limits on where these charters can locate and where they can have resource centers.

During the two year moratorium, we should expect to see a further examination and crackdown on non-classroom based charters. Some members of the State Assembly have made it clear that they view AB 1505 and AB 1507 as just the start of chaining the laws that govern charter schools. We also anticipate that there will be both Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Teeam (FCMAT) and Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC) audits on several of these type of charter schools, which will give the Legislature several different ways to put these charter schools under a microscope. The FCMAT audits would be requested by local education agencies (LEAs) while the JLAC audits would be requested by the Legislature.

Additionally, the administration has expressed a clear concern about two different aspects of non-classroom based charters:
1. How they generate Average Daily Attendance (ADA)
2. How many charter schools should small school districts be allowed to authorize?

The ADA questions is much broader than charter schools and would focus on how independent study programs generate ADA since charters generate ADA the same way. The focus on small school districts is much more concerning because a lot of small districts use non-classroom based charter schools to supplement programs that they cannot manage themselves, thus serving a student population that may be difficult to serve.

As the new year begins and new California legislative measures are introduced, we will keep you updated as to the impact they will have on charter schools.

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The 2020 Election Charter School Divide: White Dems v. Minority Dems

Editor’s Note: This article discussing the political charter school divide, was originally published here on May 23rd by the Washington Free Beacon and was written by Charles Fain Lehman, a staff writer for the Washington Free Beacon.

Across the U.S., the charter school debate rolls on. Democrats are often broadly painted as opponents to school choice. But the story is not nearly so simple. This article shows an evident divide between white democrats, who are more often against charter schools, and minority democrats, who are much more inclined to be in favor of charter schools and school choice.

We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support school choice, charter school growth, and the advancement of the charter school movement as a whole. We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable.

Read the full article below to learn more about the racial disparity around the charter school divide.

White Dems Oppose Charter Schools; Minority Dems Support

New data shows likely fault line in 2020 primary

While Democrats are often thought of as opponents of school choice, new data show the story is not so simple: an examination of trends from 2016 through 2018 revealed that while white Democrats have grown staunchly opposed, their Black and Hispanic peers remain in favor of charter schools.

In an already hot 2020 campaign, charters have become targets for left-leaning candidates. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) in a speech Saturday called for an end to federal funding of for-profit charter schools, and a prohibition on funding of new charter schools, including not-for-profits. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) sided with Sanders, calling for-profit charters in particular “a real problem right now.”

Sanders and Warren are, broadly speaking, in line with the majority view of their party. Education Next, a pro-reform journal, has polled Americans on their views on charter schools since 2013, providing detailed data on party breakdown since 2015. Their polls indicate that charters are consistently more popular with Republicans than with Democrats, and that the schools have slipped to being net unfavorable with the latter group in recent years.

However, this overall unpopularity hides a surprising trend within Democrats. Chalkbeat, an education news site, asked Education Next to provide it with racial decomposition of support for charters within Democrats. The results were startling.

Charter schools have enjoyed net support among Hispanic and Black Democrats for at least the past two years, the Education Next data indicate. But support has cratered among white Democrats. In fact, as of 2018, nearly twice as many (50 percent) of white Democrats opposed charters as supported them (27 percent).

The reason for the emergence of this racial disparity is unclear. Chalkbeat speculated that it may be because Black and Hispanic parents have more direct exposure to charter schools: The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools estimates that compared to regular public schools, public charters enroll more Black (27 percent versus 15 percent) and Hispanic (26 percent versus 22 percent) students.

It could also be because Black and Hispanic parents are more dissatisfied with their current school options. Chalkbeat pointed to a recent Pew poll finding that black voters tend to care about access to school diversity over local schooling, while white voters prefer the opposite, signaling that white respondents are happy with what they have while black respondents want better opportunities. (Hispanic and Asian parents were evenly divided.)

Regardless of the underlying cause, this divide over charter schools will likely prove important in Democratic politics in the near future. This is especially the case because, as recent research from the American Enterprise Institute shows, most figures in the “school reform” movement are Democrats. Notwithstanding broad Republican support for charters, conflict between major players in the school reform movement and their opponents is essentially an intra-party fight.

That fight will likely have consequences for the 2020 primary. Charter-opponent Sanders struggled to garner the support of black primary voters in 2016. His choice of “teachers unions over black voters,” as the Wall Street Journal framed it, may further cement his second-place status compared to front-runner Joe Biden (D., Del.), who has taken the lead among even younger black voters.

In fact, opposition to charters may have already cost Democrats not only votes, but at least one major election. Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R.) narrow victory over Andrew Gillum (D.) in Florida’s 2018 gubernatorial election was partially thanks to a surprisingly high number of votes from Black women: 18 percent gave him their support, double the backing Sen. Rick Scott (R.) received.

The reason for this, William Mattox of the Marshall Center for Educational Options argued in the Wall Street Journal, was DeSantis’s support for school choice.

“More than 100,000 low-income students in Florida participate in the Step Up For Students program, which grants tax-credit funded scholarships to attend private schools. Even more students are currently enrolled in the state’s 650 charter schools,” Mattox wrote. “Most Step Up students are minorities whose mothers are registered Democrats. Yet many of these ‘school-choice moms’ vote for gubernatorial candidates committed to protecting their ability to choose where their child goes to school.”

DeSantis has responded to this signal: earlier this month, he signed a new school voucher program for low-income Floridians into law.

Data, meanwhile, continue to support the efficacy of charter schools over traditional public education. A recent study of Boston’s expansion of its charter program found that previously successful charters were able to “scale up,” serving more kids without losing any of their benefits to SAT scores and college enrollment compared to non-charter schools.

End of Session Florida Legislative Update: Some Good News for Charter Schools

Here’s your Florida legislative update:
The 2019 Regular Legislative Session in Florida ended in overtime as budget negotiations went several hours longer than anticipated in the last week forcing lawmakers to extend the session by one day. But in typical “last minute” fashion they finalized what would end up being some of the most significant education policy in recent years.
In the final weeks of the session, policy and budget negotiations between the House and Senate began to merge, with the final days leading to a tennis-match-like back and forth between the two chambers. Lawmakers would take up bills, add amendments and send them over to the other chamber to be passed. Many times, the members in the other chamber wanted different language, so they would add amendments of their own and send it back to be considered. This “bouncing” of bills back and forth in the waning hours of session can be quite unnerving. It is possible for the session clock to run out before compromises are agreed upon and an identical bill passed by both chambers, which can lead to the bill dying in the process before it can be passed by both chambers.
This happened with one bill in particular that included some significant language pertaining to funding Florida charter schools.
Over the last several years, voter-approved special referendums have become very popular with Florida school districts as a means to collect additional tax revenue to benefit public schools. Most of the districts going this route have in one manner or another excluded public charter schools from benefitting from these tax-payer approved referendums.
Seeing this pattern of exclusion, the House proposed language in its annual tax package (HB 7123) that would compel school districts to share with charter schools tax revenues from special tax referendums approved by voters. This requirement would not only apply to future referendums but those that had already been approved by voters. The House voted this bill out and sent it over to the Senate on April 26.
The Senate took up the bill on the last scheduled day of session (May 3), but some Senate members were not in favor of the House referendum language, particularly applying to levies already in effect. They amended the bill that essentially said nothing prevents districts from sharing revenues but did not compel them to do so and “bounced” the bill back to the House to accept and approve.
The House didn’t approve and was adamant that school districts be mandated to share this revenue with charter schools. However, in the spirit of compromise, they did agree to throw the Senate a bone and make the provision prospective and not retroaction, which meant the mandate would apply only to future referendums and not those that had already been approved by voters.
The House then “bounced” the bill back to the Senate with this compromise language to accept and approve. This time the Senate relented, accepted the new language and approved the bill, just as time was running out.
The Florida Legislature passed a number of major education policy initiatives that expanded Schools of Hope, increased access to school choice scholarships, enhanced career, and workforce education and provided bonus’ for the best and brightest teachers.
But the most significant single policy change for charter schools is the special referendum language passed in HB 7123. This alone could provide significant financial stability to many Florida public charter schools so they can continue to offer quality choice in K-12 education.

Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We help schools access, leverage, and sustain the resources charter schools need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most – educating students. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

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Charter School Legislation: California Bills Dead for the Year

We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including charter school legislation, informational resources, and how to support school choice, charter school growth, and the advancement of the charter school movement as a whole. We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable.
Here’s a quick update on the latest in California charter school legislation:
On Thursday the legislature wrapped up its house of origin deadline. The house of origin deadline is the deadline for the State Assembly to pass all Assembly bills to the State Senate and the State Senate to pass all Senate bills to the State Assembly. Bills that do not pass become two-year bills since this is the first year of the 2019 – 2020 legislative session. These bills are essentially dead for the year but will have one month, next January, to be passed onto the other house.
AB 1506 (charter school cap) and SB 756 (charter school moratorium) both failed to pass their respective houses meaning they are dead for the year. This is a huge relief to the charter school movement as both bills represented a threat that had not been seen before. A number of lobbyists and advocacy groups worked in a coalition to kill both bills and their work prevented either of the authors from getting a majority vote in their houses. Actually, neither bill even came up for a vote. The authors did not attempt to move them because they knew that they were short on their vote count.
So Thursday was a good day for California charter schools!

Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We help schools access, leverage, and sustain the resources charter schools need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most – educating students. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

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California Legislative Update: Governor Presents May Revision

Here’s your latest California legislative update:
Last week, Governor Newsom presented the May Revision to his January budget proposal. The Revision reflects funding and policy changes to the Governor’s original proposal. Below are some of the more prominent changes in the document.

The May Revision includes $101.8 billion ($58.9 billion general fund and $42.9 billion from other funds) for all K-12 programs.
Proposes $696.2 million ongoing Proposition 98 funding for special education. This is $119.2 million more than the January budget proposal.
Includes $500,000 one-time non-Proposition 98 funds to increase local educational agencies’ ability to draw down federal funds for medially related special education services and improve the transition of three-year-olds with disabilities from regional centers to local educational agencies.
Includes $89.8 million one-time non-Proposition 98 funds to provide 4,500 loan repayments (of up to $20,000) for newly credentialed teachers to work in high-need schools for at least four years.
$44.8 million one-time non-Proposition 98 funds to provide training and resources for classroom educators to build capacity around inclusive practices, social emotional learning, computer science and restorative practices as well as subject matter competency.
Includes $15 million one-time non-Proposition 98 funds for broadband infrastructure.
$1 million one-time non-Proposition 98 funds, available over four years, to the State Board of Education to establish a state Computer Science Coordinator.
Includes an additional $150 million in one-time non-Proposition 98 funds to reduce the employer contribution rate in 2019-20 for CalSTRS. This is in addition to the $3 billion included in the January budget.

The Revision also includes a specific section on charter schools; see below.

California legislative update for Charter Schools:

The Administration is committed to a system where traditional and charter schools work together to serve the best interests of all students in a community. The May Revision proposes statute to level the playing field for both traditional and charter schools. Specifically, the May Revision includes the following proposals to prevent families from being wrongfully turned away from the public school of their choice:

Prohibits charter schools from discouraging students from enrolling in a charter school or encouraging students to disenroll from a charter school on the basis of academic performance or student characteristic, such as special education status.
Prohibits charter schools from requesting a pupil’s academic records or requiring that a pupil’s records be submitted to the charter school prior to enrollment.
Creates a process for families of prospective and current charter school students to report concerns to the relevant authorizer.
Requires the Department of Education to examine the feasibility of using data from the California Longitudinal Pupil Assessment Data System to identify charter school enrollment disparities that may warrant inquiry and intervention by corresponding authorizers.

These proposals build on charter school transparency legislation signed by the Governor earlier this year and other legislation proposed in the Governor’s Budget that better aligns the governance, transparency, and accountability requirements of school districts and charter schools.
The Governor’s Budget identified growing charter school enrollment as a factor affecting the fiscal condition of some school districts. The Governor requested that the State Superintendent of Public Instruction convene a task force to examine the fiscal impact of charter schools on school districts. The Charter Task Force is expected to deliver recommendations to the Administration by July 1.

Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We help schools access, leverage, and sustain the resources charter schools need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most – educating students. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

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Charter School Moratorium Bill

In this California legislative update, learn what’s happening with SB 756 and other assembly bills which would severely impact charter schools in the state.

On Wednesday, April 24th the State Senate Education Committee met and heard SB 756 by Senator Durazo. The bill would establish a moratorium on charter schools in the state for 5 years.
Hundreds of charter school supporters turned out in opposition to the bill but it passed out of committee on a 4-3 vote. Senators Leyva, McGuire, Pan and Durazo voted yes while Senators Wilk, Chang and Glazer voted no. Senator Glazer was the only Democrat to vote against the bill. Though Senator Pan did raise questions and concerns about the bill and got the author to agree to amend the bill moving forward.
The amendments were talked about but not fully vetted, so it is not entirely clear how they would be drafted. The bill now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee for a vote on its fiscal impact.
Together with ABs 1505, 1506 and 1507—which are going through the Assembly—this bill would mean a severe crackdown on charter schools in California.
If these bills become law, it is unclear how charter schools will survive in the future. The charter school community must continue to fight and advocate to keep our schools open and retain school choice for students and parents.
To view any of these bills go to: https://www.legislature.ca.gov select the bill number tab on the left and then enter the bill number.

Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!

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California Legislative Update and Senate Bill 126

In this CHARTER EDtalk, we are honored to be joined by Branché Jones from Branché Jones Lobbying Firm, an expert in California charter school legislation and supporter of the charter school movement. Branché shares his insights into the most recent California legislative updates and how the new SB126 is going to affect charter schools across the state of California. To learn more, please watch the video or read the transcript below for the full story.

TRANSCRIPT

Ryan Eldridge: Hello, and welcome to this episode of CHARTER EDtalks. I’m Ryan Eldridge, Charter School Advisor for Charter School Capital, and I’m honored to be joined by Branché Jones from Branché Jones Lobbying Firm. And we’re here to discuss the California Legislature and Senate Bill 126. So Branché, I know that you’ve got your pulse on things, and we just wanted to find out a little bit more about how 126 is going to impact the charter schools in California.

About Senate Bill 126

Branché Jones: Sure. SB-126 is a culmination of about 15 years of efforts to apply conflict of interest provisions to charter schools in the state. It has the Brown Act in it, the Political Forum Act, the Public Records Act, and you’ll have to comply with government code 1090, which is the governing body of law for elected officials and board members. What it’s going to do is you’re actually going to have to change your provisions, how you operate your Board. Your governing structure may have to change, who you can hire, what terms they’ll be working for you under, things of that nature.
Additionally, for non-classroom-based schools, they have some teleconferencing provisions. So when you’re having a board meeting, there’ll have to be some type of device at every location where people can testify and hear what’s going on in the board meeting.
As I said in the beginning, it was about 15 years in the making. Charter schools have been able to fight it off and different descriptions of it, different bills, Assembly bills, Senate bills. The previous governor, Mr. Brown, was very supportive of charter schools, everybody knows, and he would not sign this piece of legislation.
This governor, Mr. Newsom, said in his campaign that he was going to enact some charter school transparency laws around conflict of interest and things of that nature. So, this bill actually passed in warp speed. It took one week to get through the State Assembly. State Senate first, one week to get through the State Assembly, then it was on the governor’s desk, and he signed it. It’ll go into effect on January 1st, 2020.
In my personal opinion, this was coming in some form or another. We had lived free of those laws since the inception of the Charter School Act, so this was kind of like government creep. It was coming.
Eldridge: Inevitable. Right?
Jones: One way or the other—it was. Correct. It was inevitable. Many schools already live under these provisions and adhere to these provisions. The one thing to add is the bill also applies those same provisions to charter school management corporations (CMOs), so anybody managing or running a charter school has to comply with all those laws as well. That’ll be something that I think people really have to make sure they have a tight grip on because you don’t want to be out of compliance with the statute. That would be reasons for revocation, and that could be the case in some places.
We know there are some interesting governance models out there, but that’s the one twist they put on the bill. So it applies to the entire charter school structure. There was little to no opposition because it was inevitable. The governor wanted this on his desk. He wanted it to be the first thing he signed, and he made sure everybody knew that. We all had our meeting in the Horseshoe with the staff. That’s the governor’s office. They explained the realities of the situation to us all. So this was going to happen, and it basically … It almost went through unanimously, with a couple Republicans in the State Senate and State Assembly voting against it.

What does this mean for the rest of 2019?

Jones: What this means moving forward for 2019, this is the first bill of many that will apply to charter schools. There’s 1505 that would take away your rights to appeal and do a number of wacky things. I know there are some amendments out there to it, but everyone will be in opposition to that. 1506 has not been amended yet at this date, but it will have a cap of some kind in it for charter schools. 1507 closes a loophole that says you can put your site … if you can’t find a location for your school in the district you’re authorized in, you can put it in the district next door. And 1508 will deal with districts … It hasn’t fully been amended, kind of like 1506. They’re working on the language, but it will deal with the financial impact charters have on districts and probably allow a district to deny a charter for fiscal reasons.
Now, the last point I’ll add is the governor has not … the administration hasn’t taken a position. We know people will be fighting these measures as they go through the State Assembly. I don’t know where the State Senate will be. I don’t know that they all reached the governor’s desk, but he did not want to put a cap or a moratorium in his piece of legislation. So that might hint as to where he is on it, but we’re not clear at this point. The only other thing to add is there’s a charter school commission that’s been created to look at the fiscal impact charters have on districts and should have a report out the end of June.
Eldridge: Okay
Jones: That’s the legislative makeup.
Eldridge: So some more information may be coming in the June timeframe, so you can maybe do another one of these with us?
Jones: Yes, we’ll do another one.
Eldridge: And get some updates?
Jones: Yes. And then after June, we’ll know. The governor’s May revision will be out, so we’ll know where the budget numbers are as well.
Eldridge: We appreciate it. This wraps up this version of Charter Ed Talks. We appreciate your time, and thanks for joining us.

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How to Host a Successful Legislative Visit to Your Charter School

Editor’s Note:
Elections may be over – for now, but it’s never too late to reach out and make connections with your local elected officials.
We wanted to share this incredibly helpful and information-packed toolkit that was put together by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. In it, you’ll learn the elements of a visit and each section will provide step-by-step detail to making a legislative visit to your charter school a success.
Members of congress, your state legislators, and other local elected officials can all be powerful allies that influence how charter schools are both funded and perceived.
And who better to share all of the amazing things that charter schools are doing, than you, a charter leader and someone deeply invested in the success of the charter school movement? This is a great opportunity to tout the accomplishments of your school, your students, and your community.
Here is your school visit checklist as outlined in the toolkit (download the complete toolkit for all the details):

Invite your representative or senator through National Alliance for Public Schools platform.
Schedule a date for the tour when the legislator is in his or her congressional district.
Coordinate a media plan with congressional staff.
Reach out to local press.
Share the agenda and other support materials with congressional staff.
Communicate with the school community.
Review materials and talking points for the visit.
Host the visit.
Follow up on media plan (press release and/or social media).
Thank your legislator.

Once you have your visit confirmed and scheduled, be sure to loop in the National Alliance to keep them posted!

Email the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools at info@publiccharters.org.
Be sure to include the email subject as “School Visit Confirmed: {Insert School Name} in {City, State}”.
Please list all relevant details about your school visit in the body of the email (who, what, when, where).

You can download the complete Hosting a Successful Legislative School Visit toolkit here.

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