Author withdraws controversial charter school bill
The chairman of the Assembly Education Committee has pulled back a highly contested bill to expand the regulation of charter schools that opponents characterized as a vast overreach.
Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell said that he agreed to withdraw Assembly Bill 1316 based on an understanding with Gov. Gavin Newsom to extend an expiring two-year moratorium on non-classroom-based charter schools. That would provide additional time to work on his bill, he said.
Newsom’s proposed trailer bill, which fills out details on the state budget, would extend the moratorium for three years. It would push action on what would be a contentious issue beyond the 2022 election cycle.
“I am pleased to support a working agreement with the Governor to extend the moratorium on the approval of new nonclassroom-based charter schools,” he said in a statement Monday. “It’s clear that we need to reform nonclassroom-based charter schools given the scope of fraud that’s been uncovered and the lack of oversight and safeguards that are needed to prevent future fraud.”
O’Donnell had said the bill responded to cases of financial fraud involving non-classroom-based charters, defined those in which less than 80% of instruction is in-person. The most egregious involved the now-defunct A3 charter school network, a solely online operation. Its two founders pleaded guilty in February to misappropriating more than $200 million in state funding through phony enrollment schemes and illegal contracts. Some small districts fattened their budgets by chartering A3 schools and then failing to monitor them.
AB 1316 would have tightened accounting requirements and banned small districts from chartering schools exceeding their own enrollments. But some of its restrictions would have affected all charter schools, significantly raising monitoring fees and cutting 30% of state funding for all non-classroom-based charter schools, including popular hybrid schools that combine in-person and distance learning.
Opposition from the California Charter Schools Association and the Charter School Development Center was fierce. Other than support from the the California Teachers Association, organizations representing school boards and administrators had not yet taken a position.
Meanwhile, a more targeted bill, Senate Bill 593, by Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Danville, would tighten monitoring and auditing of charter schools and training of auditors. It passed the Senate without opposition and heads to the Assembly.