Guts the Charter School Approval Process
Summary
- As proposed to be amended, allows a school district to deny a charter school petition based on negative fiscal impact to the district
Impact on Charter Schools
- Completely changes the petition approval process by inserting fiscal reasons for the first time, in spite of the fact that California's charter law already has clear reasons for why a petition can be denied
- Gives school districts an "easy out" for denying a charter school that is otherwise likely to succeed - equating a new charter school to a negative fiscal impact on a district is a precedent that the charter school community cannot allow
- Even with amendments that narrowed the scope of the bill, if law, this bill would be used to stop the growth of charter schools in California
CCSA Action & What You Can (and did!) Do
- CCSA strongly opposed this bill, and advocated against it in 2011
- Thousands of charter school supporters participated in our Action Alert on this bill, called members of the Assembly Education Committee, and hundreds came to the State Capitol on CCSA's Advocacy Day to be opposed to the bill in committee when it was heard
- Thanks to your participation, AB 1172 failed to pass committee!
- Now, because of California's two year legislative session, AB 1172 was amended and heard in committee again; CCSA continues to advocate against this bill as it moves forward
- Watch for CCSA's Action Alerts and other calls to action on AB 1172
- Call your Legislators and let them know you're opposed to this attack on charter school growth
- We must continue to stand firm against attempts to link charter schools to negative fiscal impacts on school districts.
In the News
- The Fresno Bee writes about how AB 1172 would hamper the growth of charter schools
- John Fensterwald at the Educated Guess describes the fate of AB 1172 in Assembly Education
- Margaret Fortune, a charter school operator, writes about AB 1172 in the Sacramento Bee