Are charter changes coming to CA?
Two bills before the California legislature would, if enacted, dramatically improve the prospects of the charter school movement in that state. AB 1137, which passed the Assembly on June 5 and is now before a Senate committee, requires charter authorizers to ensure that the schools they oversee comply with specified reporting requirements and meet at least one of several objective academic performance criteria to receive a charter renewal. AB 1464, currently stalled in the Assembly, would extend charter-authorizing power to colleges and universities, mayors and, in some cases, nonprofit organizations. [To see Gadfly's earlier coverage of this bill, see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=22#117.] These two bills tackle what the Fordham Foundation's recent evaluation of state charter authorizers ["Charter School Authorizing: Are States Making the Grade?" at found to be two of the most troublesome obstacles to successful charter schools in California: relying on local school districts for authorizing, despite their aversion to charter schools; and accountability provisions for charters that are overly subjective and ambiguous.
"Crucial legislation: charter schools, AB 1137," editorial, San Jose Mercury News, June 15, 2003
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