LAUSD Abruptly Cracks Down On Charter Schools That Took District Classrooms, Then Didn't Use Them All
In Los Angeles' tough real estate market, the operators of charter schools have to make do with whatever classroom spaces they can find: hospital daycare centers, downtown office suites, even churches and former Hebrew schools.
Or they can simply claim space on an L.A. Unified School District campus.
A state law known as Prop. 39 requires California school districts to offer classrooms at a relatively modest cost to any charter school that asks for them — and in L.A., many charters do ask. Roughly one out of every five charter schools in the city is "co-located" on an LAUSD campus.
But recently — and abruptly — LAUSD officials have decided to crack down on co-located charter schools that over-estimated the amount of space they'd need.
On Tuesday, LAUSD leaders said they're demanding payment of hefty "over-allocation fees" from 41 co-located charter schools that, in the end, didn't enroll enough students to justify the number of classrooms the district gave them. The charters' Prop. 39 demands likely forced their "host" schools to give up classrooms dedicated for art, music, science or computer classes.
"Those classrooms were left empty, not used by anybody," said L.A. Unified School Board member Jackie Goldberg. "If I rent ... a two-bedroom apartment and only sleep in one bedroom, do I get to tell the owner of the apartment, 'I'm not paying for the other bedroom?' No."
The demand appears to be a sudden shift in LAUSD policy. At the school board's direction, LAUSD officials have been "defer[ring] enforcement" of the over-allocation policy. Until this month, the district hadn't penalized a charter school under the policy since 2012.
Now, LAUSD is demanding these 41 charters pay a collective total of $6.7 million in penalties, some of which date back to the 2016-17 school year.
'WE RECEIVED THE INVOICE YESTERDAY ... FOR AN OVER-ALLOCATION THREE YEARS AGO'
The demand caught many of the charter schools off-guard — including four schools that went CONTINUE READING: LAUSD Abruptly Cracks Down On Charter Schools That Took District Classrooms, Then Didn't Use Them All: LAist
