Published
3 years agoon
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a deal on Wednesday that would overhaul how the state authorizes and judges its charter schools. The Legislature must still approve it, which appears to be a formality after its top two leaders endorsed it.
California has seen growing charter school enrollment in communities serving mostly low-income families.
Charter schools are publicly funded, but they operate by different rules than traditional public schools. Anyone can apply for a charter school, and state law requires school districts to OK them if they meet certain basic requirements.
The result is charter school enrollment has more than doubled over the last 10 years, according to a legislative analysis of the proposal. Today, California has more than 1,300 charter schools that account for about 10% of the state’s more than 6.2 million public school students, according to the California Department of Education.
The bill, which would have to pass the Legislature by Sept. 12, would no longer let the state authorize charter schools. Instead, only school districts and county governments could do that. And it would narrow the appeals process, forcing applicants to focus on the same set of facts as laid out in their original proposal.
More than 60% of the state’s charter schools are either in Los Angeles County, San Diego County or the nine counties included in the Bay Area near San Francisco. A legislative analysis says most of the growth in charter schools has been in areas where students come from low-income families.
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