Two Communities Fight Against “Carpetbagger” Charter School
For many California charter schools, co-location is everything.
Editor’s Note: Few issues have proven more contentious in the already heated debate over California’s charter schools than that of school “co-location,” the process by which charter schools are allowed to occupy the classrooms, libraries and playgrounds of traditional public schools when those spaces are not in scheduled use. This policy, according to the state’s education code, compels school districts to provide “reasonably equivalent” facilities to charters whenever possible.
The arguments against co-location include the charge that charters are draining funds from public schools to begin with, and through co-location are creating schools within schools — and two-tiered student bodies. Charter school advocates counter that co-location ensures the optimum use of resources at a time when many California public schools, particularly in Los Angeles, are experiencing declining enrollments. Today Larry Buhl reports on the latest storm swirling around a charter academy’s attempt to co-locate at a local public school.
This story is part of our series examining the impact of privatized education in California.
On a sunny afternoon in early April, in the working-class Los Angeles suburb of Carson, well over a hundred students, parents, teachers and community members gathered with a mission: to extol the virtues of Catskill Avenue Elementary School. But it wasn’t entirely a feel-good gathering. They were sounding an alarm that the Catskill campus was slated to share its space with GANAS Academy Charter School in the fall of 2019.
Days after the rally, teachers and parents, backed by the United Teachers Los Angeles union, petitioned the Carson City Council to keep GANAS out of Catskill. Last Friday the council CONTINUE READING: Two Communities Fight Against “Carpetbagger” Charter School | Capital & Main
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