Education Committee Approves Charter School Reform Bill
- April 10, 2014
Sacramento – The Assembly Committee on Education passed Assembly Bill (AB) 1531, authored by Assemblymember Ed Chau (D-Monterey Park), which requires that public charter schools be governed by boards that are either elected or appointed.
“Due to recent changes by CalPERS in their charter school questionnaire, nine charter schools have been denied participation into the public pension system,” said Assemblymember Chau. “There is a very real concern that charter school employees will not be entitled to the same public retirement plans as any other California public employee.”
In 2012, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking about who could participate in government pension plans, such as CalSTRS and CalPERS. Participants would have to be employed by a governmental entity, such as the state, an elected school board or the federal government, and no private interests can be involved. Though California law considers charters to be independently operated public schools, their governing boards are not publicly nominated or elected, which will likely exclude them from the IRS’ definition of a governmental entity and would make their employees ineligible to participate in the state’s public pension plans.
“This bill is an important first step in the effort to ensure employees at public charter schools can count on a public pension, by establishing charter schools as governmental entities whose boards are elected or appointed,” said Assemblymember Chau.
Assemblymember Ed Chau represents the 49th Assembly District, comprised of the communities of Alhambra, Arcadia, El Monte, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel, San Marino, Temple City and portions of Montebello, and South El Monte.
