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.

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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This year’s California Charter Schools Conference was packed full of great keynotes, sessions and networking opportunities and we think it was one of the best conferences from CCSA! We enjoyed meeting other charter leaders in person at our booth and at our breakout and poster sessions on facilities funding, growth strategy, growth capital, student enrollment marketing, and social media marketing.
The learnings we gained from attending sessions and connecting with partners and clients at the many events were invaluable. It was a privilege to be a Diamond Sponsor and we’d like to thank the California Charter Schools Association for putting on a great conference. If you couldn’t attend this year, definitely put it on your calendar for next year…in San Diego!
Whether you attended the conference or not, we invite you to access our conference session presentations and Facebook Live recordings by visiting our website. Also, sign-up for our newsletter and ongoing outreach to continue building your charter school knowledge. Please reach out if you have questions. And, keep an eye out for our upcoming webinars.
Hope to see you at next year’s conference!

The California legislature ended for the year and California charter school supporters witnessed mixed reports. The legislature sent two anti-charter school bills to Governor Jerry Brown for his signature or veto. They also killed two anti-charter school bills. The Governor will now have until the end of September to sign or veto the measures.
Bills sent to the Governor:
AB 709 by Assemblyman Mike Gipson would impose the Brown Act, Public Records Act, the Political Reform Act, and Government Code 1090 on California charter schools. The bill is sponsored by the California Teacher’s Association and opposed by nearly everyone in the education reform community. It passed the legislature on a party line vote and is on the Governor’s desk awaiting his signature or veto. The Governor has vetoed similar legislation several times during the last six years.
SB 739 by Senator Fran Pavley would prohibit a school district in negative certification from authorizing a California charter school outside of its boundaries. This bill is the result of a disagreement over the authorization of charter schools between districts in and near the Santa Clarita Valley. Charter school supporters oppose SB 739 because of its precedent-setting language. Like AB 709, it is on the Governor’s desk. He has vetoed similar legislation in the past.
Bills that died in the legislature:
AB 1084 by Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla would have prevented a California charter school from being operated by or as a for-profit corporation. This bill split the charter school community, with many charter school entities joining the California School Employees Association in opposing the bill and the California Charter Schools Association supporting it. The bill’s opponents were able to kill the bill on the Senate floor, arguing that passage could have negative impacts on both students and schools, while pointing to Governor Brown’s veto of a similar bill just last year.
SB 322 by Senator Leno would have imposed suspension and expulsion requirements on charter schools and prevented them from using preferences for enrollment. Facing heavy opposition from charter proponents, the bill died on the Assembly Floor.
To view any of these measures go to www.leginfo.ca.gov and place in the bill number.

We’re having a party and you’re invited! Our team is heading to the California Charter Schools Conference in Long Beach next week and we’ve teamed up with Kevin Carroll for an evening of catalytic conversation and cocktails. You can RSVP here!
Tuesday, March 15 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. in The Empire Ballroom at The Sky Room. 40 S. Locust Street in Long Beach just a few steps away from the convention center.

Kevin is an author, speaker, mentor, and an agent for social change. He has inspired organizations and individuals — from CEOs and employees of Fortune 500 companies to school children — to embrace the spirit of play and creativity to maximize their human potential and sustain meaningful growth.Tonight Kevin will be helping us launch a program series for charter leaders to focus on four key themes – Storytelling, PLAY Matters!, Delivering/Enabling the Unexpected, and Got GRIT?!

Join us as we journey through these themes and learn more about how we will capture and embody these themes throughout 2016.

RSVP

When:
Tuesday, March 15
6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Where:
The Empire Ballroom at The Sky Room

40 S. Locust Ave
Long Beach, CA 90802
(One Block from the Convention Center)

Over the next few weeks, our team at Charter School Capital is following the California Charter School Association’s (CCSA) campaign to provide information that dispels the myths and misinformation about charter schools. And, let’s face it, there are a lot of myths out there about charter schools.
One of the biggest myths: charter schools aren’t public schools. Simply not true. Charter schools are:

Tuition-free and open to all students
Non-sectarian, and do not discriminate on any basis
Publicly funded by local, state, and federal tax dollars based on enrollment, like other public schools
Held accountable to state and federal academic standards

Along with being public schools, charter schools are free public schools of choice that:

Do not engage in selective admissions policies
Must accept all students, including students with disabilities and English Learners (ELs), regardless of previous academic performance
Use a process to randomly select students, oftentimes a lottery system, if there are more interested students than available seats

We hope you’ll join the team at Charter School Capital in supporting CCSA, California charter school advocates, and school choice advocates across the country and online via #chartertruth, to shed light on the truth about charters.
Spread the Truth!
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Last Friday was the deadline for California charter school bills to be introduced in the legislature. With thousands of bills introduced, several bills were ‘put across the desk’ that will affect charter schools if they become law. Some of these measures are punitive and some of them will help charter schools. It remains to be seen how many of them will make it through the process and actually be signed into law by the Governor. Here is a brief recap of some the charter school bills:
Once again measures were introduced to impose conflict of interest standards on charter schools in California. This year two identical bills have surfaced to accomplish this; AB 709 by Assemblyman Gipson and AB 1057 by Assemblyman Median. Both bills impose the Brown Act, Political Reform Act, Public Records Act and portions of Government Code 1090 on charter schools. AB 787 by Assemblyman Hernandez is a ‘spot bill’ that deals with charter schools and their non-profit status. You will have to monitor this measure closely to see what amendments will be added to it. SB 211 by Senator Hancock adds more notification requirements for charter schools, SB 322 by Senator Leno requires charter schools to comply with suspension and expulsion requirements that currently apply to school districts, while SB 739 by Senator Pavley requires the Department of Education to produce a study on how many charter schools are located outside the boundaries of their authorizer’s districts.
There are also some positive pieces of legislation that have been introduced for charter schools. AB 207 by Assemblywoman Grove allows independent charter schools to claim ADA for students that are up to 125 miles away. Assemblyman Allen has introduced two measures on behalf of charter schools, AB 839 adds a charter school and parent representative to the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence and AB 943 would require that a contractor hired to work with charter schools by the Collaborative have prior experience working with charter schools. Other bills to watch are AB 734 by Assemblywoman Kim, AB 748 by Assemblyman Lackey, AB 803 by Assemblyman Hadley and AB 1379 by Assemblyman Nazarian. These bills have provisions that currently affect charter schools but they may be amended later so you should keep your eyes on them.
To view any of these bills go to www.leginfo.ca.gov and put in the bill number.

This week the legislature reconvenes for the 2015-16 legislative session and below we have outlined how committee changes may impact California charter schools.
The first day of session was actually the first Monday in December when both houses of the legislature met for an organizational session, electing their leadership and swearing in new members.
In addition, on Monday Governor Jerry Brown was sworn in to office for an unprecedented fourth term. If he finishes out his final term in office he will be the longest serving Governor in California’s history. In his inaugural address the Governor did not lay out many specifics for the state but did discuss the state’s overall fiscal situation and some of his long term objectives which include continuing to build the state’s high speed rail line. The Governor also made it clear that he was proud of the work that the state had accomplished with the Local Control Funding Formula and looked forward to continuing to provide more resources for education.
Additionally legislative committee assignments have been made in both houses of the legislature.
For education interests and advocates the chairmanship of education policy and budget subcommittees are very important. The Assembly Education Committee will be chaired by Patrick O’Donnell, a freshman Democratic member and former teacher from Long Beach. Rounding out this committee will be Democrats: McCarty, Santiago, Thurmond and Weber. The Republican Vice-Chair of this committee is Rocky Chavez from San Diego and Young Kim is the other Republican on the committee.
The Assembly Budget Subcommittee with jurisdiction over education issues will be chaired by freshman Kevin McCarty of Sacramento who previously worked for Early Edge California. In the Senate, Carol Liu of Los Angeles County will continue her chairmanship of the Senate Education Committee and Marty Block from San Diego will continue to chair Budget Subcommittee with jurisdiction over education issues. Additional members of the Senate Education Committee include Democrats Block, Hancock, Leyva, Mendoza and Pan with Republican leader Bob Huff serving as the committee’s Vice Chair and Senator Vidak being the other Republican on the committee. This means continuity in the Senate on education and early learning issues while there will be a learning curve for the new chairs in the Assembly.
Also, in the Assembly Shirley Weber will assume the chair of the powerful Budget Committee which could be an excellent sign for educational advocates. Ms. Weber is one of the most knowledgeable and capable members of the Assembly and was formerly a San Diego School Board and charter school board member.
The Governor’s budget is due to come out later this week and you can expect a detailed analysis next week. Once the Governor’s budget is produced legislative budget subcommittees will begin hearing on its policy and fiscal provisions until the beginning of May. After that the Governor will propose a May revision of his January Budget proposal and the full Budget Committees will begin hearing those changes and forwarding items of disagreement to the Joint Budget Conference Committee.
Check back in the coming weeks for more in-depth legislative information focused on California.

After the polls closed in California and a long night of counting ended most of the state’s legislative and state-wide contests are complete. Overall the Democratic Party was victorious in every state-wide contest. Though several races were very close, Democrats swept each race.
The toughest, most expensive race was for the Superintendent of Public Instruction where the current Superintendent, Tom Torlakson, was seeking a second term in office. He was opposed by Marshall Tuck, a former charter school operator and education reform supporter back by numerous individuals who play heavily in education reform. Torlakson was supported by the California Teachers Association and some of the state’s other unions.
The race became the most expensive race in the state as total spending exceeded $30 million; this was more than triple the total amount spent on the race for Governor where Governor Brown cruised to an unprecedented fourth term. Both sides were well funded and were able to present their case to the voters; in the end the Superintendent will serve four more years.
In the State Senate the Democrats lost a race in Orange County where moderate Democrat Lou Correa was termed out of office. He will be replaced by Republican Janet Nguyen who defeated former Assemblyman Jose Solorio by 20 percentage points. The Republicans were able to hang on to their only ‘targeted’ seat as Senator Andy Vidak beat back his Democratic opponent Luis Chavez.
In a move of musical chairs three State Senators were elected to Congressional seats which will create three vacancies and require three special elections set by the Governor. This will be added to the current vacancy that exists in the 35th Senate district where an election has been scheduled for December 8th.
The 35th will elect a Democratic State Senator, one of the other vacancies will also add to the Democratic side of the aisle and the other two will go Republican. This leaves the State Senate breakdown as 25 Democrats and 11 Republicans; the Democrats currently sit two votes short of a 2/3 majority.
In the State Assembly the Democrats lost four seats but did pick up one vacancy. The Republicans picked up more seats in one election cycle than they have in the last few cycles combined.
The Democrats lost the 16th district where the California Teachers Association fielded one of their former employees Tim Sbranti. After defeating a moderate Democratic candidate in the June primary he lost to Republican Catharine Baker who ran a tremendous race.
In the 36th Assembly district Republican Tom Lackey defeated Assemblyman Steve Fox. Fox’s earlier election had been a surprise to legislative Democratic leaders and he was always considered a ‘target.’
In the 65th Assembly district Republican Young Kim defeated Democratic Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva and in the 66th Republican David Hadley defeated Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi for the Republicans fourth pick up of the night.
The Democrats did pick up Republican Assemblyman Jeff Gorrell’s seat as he vacated it to run for Congress. That leaves the Assembly breakdown 52-28 in favor of the Democrats again leaving them two votes short of a 2/3 majority.
To view complete election results go to www.sos.ca.gov and hit the election results tab.

Welcome to Charter School Capital’s weekly round-up where we feature charter school news about operations, policy, funding for charter schools, charter school facilities financing, and other trends.
This week marks the end of summer and the beginning of another school year. If recent news is any indicator, it’s going to be a year of exciting success and incredible growth for charter schools.

Charter Schools Top Rankings

Conor Williams, a senior researcher in the Education Policy Program at New America writes on The Daily Beast that “charter schools are some of the biggest winners in this year’s high school rankings list.”
As a former teacher in a Brooklyn charter school, Williams argues charter schools don’t automatically equal success. Instead, it’s the flexibility that charter schools embody that so often creates positive learning environments.
“In other words, charters aren’t uniquely effective just because they’re charters. The structures surrounding them are important. So are each charter’s teachers and administrators. But there’s growing evidence—shown in this year’s rankings—that the charter approach can make an extraordinary difference for students.”

CCSA Releases Fourth Annual Report on California Charter Schools

On the EducationNext blog, California Charter School Association (CCSA) president Jed Wallace highlights some of the most important facts gleaned from the CCSA’s yearly report on charter schools in California.
“Students at charter schools serving low-income populations are far more likely than their traditional public school counterparts to be educated in a school that is among the top five or ten percent of all public schools statewide.

More than half of the students (52 percent) attending charters serving a majority high poverty population attend charter schools that are in the top quartile of all public schools statewide, compared to only 26 percent of similar students attending traditional public schools. To put this into perspective, these 78,000 charter students – enrolled in top quartile charters – would make up the fourth largest school district in California and the 42nd largest district in the nation. And more than a quarter of all English learners, African American, and Latino charter students attend charter schools that are among the most outperforming schools in California. Students at charters serving a majority of historically disadvantaged students are likely to be among the most outperforming schools in the state – three times more likely to be in the top tenth percentile and 5-6 times more likely to be in the 5th percentile.”

The Beginning of Charter Schools

A fascinating op-ed in the New York Times this weekend tells the story of one man who first conceived of the charter school concept and pitched the idea to American legislators.

“…the original vision for charter schools came from Albert Shanker, the president of the American Federation of Teachers. In a 1988 address, Mr. Shanker outlined an idea for a new kind of public school where teachers could experiment with fresh and innovative ways of reaching students. Mr. Shanker estimated that only one-fifth of American students were well served by traditional classrooms. In charter schools, teachers would be given the opportunity to draw upon their expertise to create high-performing educational laboratories from which the traditional public schools could learn.”

Richard D. Kahlenberg and Halley Potter, who authored the editorial, are fellows at the Century Foundation and co-authors of “A Smarter Charter: Finding What Works for Charter Schools and Public Education”.

Last week, at the National Charter School Conference in Las Vegas, we announced an innovative $500 million charter school facilities program to help charter schools nationwide address one of the charter school movement’s biggest challenges – securing facilities that meet the growing needs of charter schools. The formation of American Education Properties, LLC (AEP) brings together Charter School Capital and investment firm, American Infrastructure MLP Funds (AIM) to help solve the growing facilities needs of America’s charter schools.
The offering is unlike any other facilities financing options available on the market today. Charter schools will now be able to determine their own long-term facility needs and maintain full control of their buildings. This represents a major improvement from the year-to-year lease renewals that many charter schools currently experience. By providing long-term facilities security and an investment partner interested in charter school expansion, charter schools now have the ability to expand their enrollment and educational offerings with confidence.
What does this mean to charter schools?

Charter schools now have the opportunity to provide the best facilities to match the needs of their educational programs as well as determine long-term facility needs while maintaining full control of their buildings.
Schools will be empowered with the flexibility to make choices about what to do with their space so it best suits their faculty, staff and student community.
Charter School Capital will work with all charter schools to facilitate the origination and sourcing, underwriting, asset administration, and property management.

Charter School Capital President and CEO, Stuart Ellis, noted, “The dramatic growth of charter schools – 13 percent in 2013 alone – makes it clear that facilities financing, which is already one of the industry’s largest challenges, will become an even more pressing issue during the coming years. In 2012, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) found that more than half of charter schools would outgrow their current facilities within five years. Collaborating with AIM in the formation of American Education Properties allows us to serve a broad array of charter schools nationwide by freeing-up resources that schools are then able to allocate to classroom instruction or other operational needs.”
The news has charter school advocates celebrating. “Nearly one million students nationwide are on charter school waiting lists. Charter school educators are eager to meet that demand. Fortunately, Charter School Capital has stepped up and created a solution to help parents,” states Caprice Young, President, Education Growth Group and founder and former CEO of the California Charter Schools Association. “These resources will open doors like never before! Public charter schools are now able to expand, offer new programs and customize their space to create the learning environment that best matches student needs.”
Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools added, ” By providing charter schools security in their facilities, this effort helps lift a burden many schools face and will enable schools to focus, as they should, on their students and their academic results. School administrators will be better able to direct their scarce resources and time toward educating students rather than worrying about real estate needs.”
“We are pleased to be partnering with Charter School Capital on this important initiative,” said Bob Hellman, CEO of the American Infrastructure MLP Funds. “Our goal is to help solve America’s infrastructure needs with innovative capital solutions, and we believe that charter schools represent a critical and growing piece of this infrastructure puzzle. We look forward to working with schools and communities in need of secure, long-term facilities to provide the resources to help them continue to grow and thrive.”
Since we made this charter school facilities announcement, the availability of funds has been mentioned in several news media including the Portland Business Journal and Reuters.
What are your facility challenges? Has the inability to secure the right type of facilities impacted your charter school’s ability to enroll and educate more students in your community? Share your experiences with us below or email our team at GrowCharters@charterschoolcapital.com.