This week: After an intense debate, legislation that could substantially reduce the number of new charter schools in California got just enough votes to pass the Assembly; and we interview Tom Epstein, president of the California Community Colleges Board of Governors, which extended Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley’s contract.
Advocates for more equitable state funding of school facilities see proposals for multi-billion dollar state construction bonds in 2020 and 2022 as a chance to make a case for changing the state formula for distributing money.
One bill would let school districts give the SAT or ACT to all students, at state expense; another calls on UC and CSU to consider phasing out the tests altogether.
Legislation by the chair of the Assembly Education Committee would ban appeals, cap charters at the current level and factor in charter schools’ fiscal impact on authorizing districts
Dozens of districts are offering the tests at their own expense already, because scores on SAT and ACT, not Smarter Balanced, are what matters to high school juniors.
