Governor Schwarzenegger Signs Legislation to Strengthen Charter School Movement

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed Senate Bill (SB) 658, which contains around $100 million for the SB 740 Charter School Facility Grant Program over the next five years and also grants additional bonding eligibility to the Los Angeles Unified School District.

SB 658, authored by Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), which was supported by the California Charter Schools Association and many other educational groups, represents a compromise brokered between the Los Angeles Unified School District and the charter school community. The measure showed a unique sign of cooperation between the charter community and several traditional education organizations. The California Charter Schools Association, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the United Teachers of Los Angeles and the Advancement Project all supported the measure.

“The Governor once again showed his long-term commitment to charter schools in California by addressing the greatest single impediment to the sustainability of charter school movement – inequitable facilities assistance,” said Branche Jones, Vice President of Governmental Affairs for the California Charter Schools Association. “The Governor, his staff and Senator Romero should be commended for standing up for the equal treatment of charter schools.”

“Funding and having access to affordable and adequate school facilities are some of the greatest challenges facing charter schools and their operators,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “The measures I signed today will help reduce these burdens and expand opportunities for charter schools to open in California.”

SB 740 facilities program provides facilities assistance for charter schools that target high-poverty students. Because of this program, first created in 2001, the number of inner-city charter schools targeting high-poverty students has increased dramatically.

“We’re pleased that Governor Schwarzenegger has consistently stood with programs like ours that are providing under-served kids with a high-quality education,” said Mike Piscal, CEO of ICEF Public Schools, which operates 13 charter public schools in South Los Angeles. “Governor Schwarzenegger and the legislature’s actions will ensure that we are able to reach our goal, which is to get more historically under-served students into college.”

Governor Schwarzenegger yesterday also vetoed Assembly Bill (AB) 2115, authored by Assembly Member Gene Mullin (D-South San Francisco), which would have placed severe restrictions on the governing boards of California’s charter schools. Though the Association has supported accountability measures for charter school governing boards, the Mullin measure went too far in placing costly and unworkable regulations and geographical restrictions on the boards of all charter schools in California. AB 2115 would have forced every charter school to reconstitute their governing boards and putting them in jeopardy of revocation by their authorizing districts.

“Not only would this bill create state mandated costs for charter schools to comply with its provisions,” said the Governor in his veto letter, “the measure runs counter to the intent of charter schools, which were created to be free from many of the laws governing school districts.”

Source: Business Wire

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