LAUSD board members look to slow charter school expansion
Los Angeles Unified school board members plan on taking a harder look at approving new charter schools, because they fear their expansion will cripple the district’s ability to educate children by diverting precious state funding.
In less than five years, the nation’s second-largest school district has approved 126 charter schools, and there are now a total of 250 charter campuses that educate 119,000 students in its jurisdiction.
For each pupil who attends a charter school, the district loses $9,269.78 in state funding. And with aggressive plans for further expansion by large charter organizations, school board members Steven Zimmer and Monica Ratliff are questioning the need for more in certain areas, while board members Bennett Kayser and George McKenna have also expressed concerns.
“I am not looking to specifically limit new charter expansion, but I am absolutely intent on having a real and important conversation about what continued expansion in LAUSD means for all children, not just some children,” Zimmer said.
Last year, LAUSD’s board approved 18 charters, down from the three previous years. Approval was given to 24 charters in 2010-2011, 39 charters in 2011-2012 and 37 charters in 2012-13. This year so far eight have been approved.
Three were approved earlier this month, including an Alliance College-Ready Public Schools campus to be located in Sun Valley for 1,050 students in grades 6 through 12. Alliance is the largest charter operation in Los Angeles with 26 schools and 11,000 students.
Board members also approved plans by the nation’s largest charter organization, Kipp, to open two elementary schools, in Boyle Heights and South Los Angeles. The schools are slated to start educating 1,100 pupils in August, as part of plans to more than double Kipp’s Los Angeles operations by opening 11 campuses and enrolling 5,000 additional students by 2020.
Those plans alone by Kipp will cost Los Angeles Unified $35 million per year in funding, according to a report from bond and credit rating agency Moody’s.
“That’s a whole lot of schools to close down” if students move to the new charter schools, board member George McKenna said at the Dec. 9 board meeting. “To lose 300 teachers, that doesn’t bode well for us, as an organization as large as we are. Like they say, ‘how do you eat an elephant,’ one bite at a time; I think we’re being eaten alive.”
Even if LAUSD were to try to slow the growth of charters, school board members would face an uphill battle. State law provides few acceptable reasons for rejecting applications to open charter schools. Those causes mostly center on the application process and proposed academic program.
Charters can also appeal school board denials to county and state education officials. Additionally, a loophole in state law allows charters to obtain permission from neighboring districts and open inside LAUSD should they fail to find a suitable facility within the jurisdiction that approved their charter.
Ratliff said she wants state law changed to give board members more authority to deny charters, especially those that want to open in the vicinity of traditional campuses that are high-performing.
“Ultimately, I believe Sacramento and Gov. Brown should allow authorizers to take into account the landscape of existing schools in an area when authorizing charter schools,” Ratliff said.
Zimmer, who pointed out his previous support for high-performing charters, said he suspects reformers aiming to break apart LAUSD and its 35,000-member teachers union are behind plans for aggressive expansion in LAUSD. If they truly cared about parents and students, he said, organizations such as Kipp LAUSD board members look to slow charter school expansion:
