A California superintendent speaks out on charter schools
The following was shared with us by our newest chapter, PAA-Marin (CA):
18 months into a highly contentious local battle over the conversion of a “district-wide program of choice” into a charter school, which included two unanimous denials by the local school board, and a unanimous denial by our county office of education, the Ross Valley Charter was approved by the CA State Board of Education.During its twenty year history, the district program had received many critiques, perhaps the most stinging came after a discrimination complaint was investigated by a third party investigator, who found proof that the program had “unintentionally discriminated” against English Language Learners, low-income, and special needs students.The charter petitioners currently have no location, and are making thinly veiled threats to file a “Prop 39 Request,” which will entitle them to a district school facility which is “reasonably equivalent” to other school sites. Our district may have to close one of its schools to house the charter.Proposition 39 was a Trojan Horse, which ostensibly made the process for approval of school bonds easier, but which contained the aforementioned provision for charter schools. Proposition 39 was funded by 4 billionaires in the year 2000, including Reed Hastings (Netflix), John Walton (WalMart heir), and two other tech execs.
Read more in the local paper here: http://www.marinij.com/
And here: www.saverossvalleyschools.com
They shared the remarks their Superintendent made at the State Board of Ed when the Ross Valley Charter