In light of the recent attempt to form a new charter school in Emeryville, the Tattler includes information (below) about California AB1172, now winding its way through the State Legislature. The myriad negative effects charter schools have on existing public schools are well documented but this bill addresses the deleterious fiscal effects charter schools might place on school districts and how school districts are now hamstrung to do anything about it.
As the law states right now, Emery Unified School District's School Board is not allowed to consider any negative fiscal effects on the district by the proposed new charter school known as Integrity Education Center, or for that matter, any future charter schools that might want to locate in Emeryville. As it studies the placement of this new school in Emeryville, the school district might recognize calamitous financial problems for the district that the charter school would cause but the School Board is not allowed to reject the charter school on that basis.
We want to empower our local school board to make prudent financial decisions for our district, to be able to protect the district from any would be interlopers that would tend to diminish public education for ALL students in Emeryville. We recommend passage of this bill both on educational grounds and on taxpayer protection grounds.
Emeryville's representatives are:
Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner
State Senator Loni Hancock
. . .
From AroundTheCapital.com:
Assembly Bill 1172
Petition for the establishment of charter schools: decision to grant or deny
Existing law requires the governing board of a school district, within 60 days of the receipt of a petition for the establishment of a charter school, to either grant or deny the charter, as specified. Existing law prohibits the governing board of a school district from denying a petition unless the governing board makes written factual findings in support of one or more specified findings.
This bill would include the finding that the charter school would have a negative fiscal impact on the school district, as specified, among those findings upon which a school district may base denial of a petition for the establishment of a charter school.
Existing law requires the Legislative Analyst, by July 1, 2003, to report to the Legislature on the effectiveness of the charter school approach and recommend whether to expand or reduce the annual rate of growth of charter schools. Existing law requires the Legislative Analyst’s Office to convene triennially a work group to review, commencing with appropriations proposed for the 2008–09 fiscal year, the appropriateness of the funding level provided by the categorical block grant for charter schools.
This bill would require the Legislative Analyst, on or before July 1, 2016, to submit a report to the Legislature on the best practices and lessons learned from charter school innovation and distribute it to all local educational agencies, to the appropriate education policy committees of the Legislature, and to the Governor.
