Proposal to cap charter school growth all but dies in California Assembly
SACRAMENTO — A proposal to cap the number of California charter schools went into a deep freeze in the state Assembly on Thursday, a sign of the difficult fight teachers unions face as they push to stop the growth of the alternatives to traditional public schools.
AB1506 would have created a statewide ceiling on charter schools at the number in operation as of Jan. 1, 2020.
The bill was part of an effort by the California Teachers Association and some Democrats to overhaul the state’s 1992 charter schools law. Critics say the law has drained funding from traditional public schools.
The measure all but died Thursday when the bill’s author, Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, held it on the final day his chamber could have voted.
McCarty, however, suggested the fight isn’t over. In a statement released Thursday evening, he said the bill “will be addressed later in the 2019-20 legislative session,” without clarifying when it could come up.
Opponents of AB1506 said it would harm families that rely on charters as an alternative to failing school districts, particularly in communities with large numbers of students of color.
They say the teachers union has made charters a scapegoat for the failures of districts.
“Charter public school families’ voices were heard loud and clear by Sacramento politicians: We cannot and will not accept legislation that limits access to great public schools,” Myrna Castrejón, president of the California Charter Schools Association, said in a statement.
The California Teachers Association did not respond to a request for comment.
Another bill backed by the teachers union, to create a two-year moratorium on the approval of new charter schools statewide, died in the Legislature this week. SB756 was shelved in the Senate.
The union did score a victory on a third bill, to give school districts more leverage to deny applications to open new charter schools if it would harm them financially.
That bill, AB1505, narrowly passed the Assembly as thousands of teachers and their supporters marched through the streets CONTINUE READING:
