Local Voices: Charter Schools Under Attack

The rising popularity of charter schools is changing the status quo.  This doesn't mean all charter schools are created equal.  Capistrano Unified School District has some of the better ones.  But not everybody is supportive of the charter school movement.

Artesia Assemblman, Tony Mendoza, has authored AB 1172 to make it easier for a school district to turn down a charter school. A school district can justify the denial if the district received a negative financial certification, was given an emergency loan or received notice that its finances are in question.  The petition can also be denied if due to declining enrollment the district is in the process of closing a school that a charter school petition identified as its proposed site.

Did you just catch that?  A school district can deny a proposed charter school's petition if the charter wants to use a campus scheduled to be closed.  Better to keep it empty.  A school district can use the excuse that it has mismanaged its own funds to deny a charter school's petition.  Better to be poorly ran.

Not all charter schools deserve to be approved.  But there is clearly a demand for alternatives.

AB 1172 is supported by the California Teachers Association and United Teachers Los Angeles.  It recently passed off the Assembly floor and will next be heard in the Senate Education Committee.