This week the Assembly Education Committee will be discussing and voting on AB1316. It is expected to come out of committee, and then it will go to the appropriations committee for further review. What is in this legislation that will impact your charter public school? According to the California Charter Schools Association, Charter School Development Center, and APLUS+, the 88-page bill contains many problematic provisions that would negatively impact all charter schools in California. While some of the worst are targeted at non-classroom-based schools, like The Classical Academies, all charter schools would be seriously negatively impacted. Some of the most offensive ones include but are not limited to the following:

For All Charter Schools

Triples the current cap on school district oversight fees of charter schools Imposes prescriptive minimum daily instructional minutes laws and related auditing and high-stakes financial penalties,

• Dramatically expands annual finance and compliance audit, procedures, requirements, report contents, schedules, and disclosures, Expands audit requirements for related entities and mandates consolidation of auditing for related entity organizations with material financial relationships to a charter school (presumably targeting CMO “central offices,” facilities support, “friends of” fundraising organizations, etc.), Eliminates authority to operate year-round, multitrack instructional calendars, Requires charter schools to report “full SACS-compliant” financial data in the same format as school districts, thereby mandating implementation of complex and costly accounting software, systems, and practices, Mandates all teaching staff be employed by the school, thereby presumably prohibiting procuring teaching and special education services from other agencies, school districts, and/or county offices, and Imposes complex public sector competitive bidding and contracting requirements on all charter schools.

For Nonclassroom-based Charter Schools – Like the Classical Academies
· Cuts funding for most non-classroom-based schools by 30 percent using an inflexible sliding scale, replacing most of the current “funding determination” laws with a brute force cut,
· Requires all non-classroom-based schools also to offer a full, classroom-based program,
· Prohibits funding for students who reside out of a charter school’s home county,
· Requires supervising teachers to have in-person or live visual/audio contact with students at least once every third day and imposes myriad additional duties and paperwork requirements on supervising teachers,
· Requires proctoring (presumably in-person) of all annual summative tests,
· Disallows average daily attendance during days dedicated to undefined “enrichment activities,”
· Caps the size of charter schools a given district may authorize based on a sliding scale, thereby capping growth permanently in many districts, and
· Expands scope of mandated, board-adopted independent study policies and related written independent study agreements to include a long list of new items and restrictions.

Educational advocacy organizations (EAO) statewide are encouraging your help to defeat this draconian legislation by adding your voice to the opposition.

The members of the Assembly Education Committee are listed below, and EAO desires that EVERY parent contact these members to detail why you attend a charter public school, how your son or daughter is experiencing success, and how you value The Classical Academies when it comes to providing your family a high-quality educational option. Since the committee is not likely to read every word of your communication, the EAO's are suggesting to start with, “I oppose AB1316.”

Due to the fact that none of these representatives are local, their websites will not accept email communication from out of their constituent’s area. That leaves the rest of us to use social media to contact them directly.

Patrick O’Donnell- Assembly District 70
Twitter: @AsmPatODonnell
Facebook: @AssemblymemberPatrickODonnell
Instagram: @asmpatodonnell

Kevin Kiley- Assembly District 06 (Charter school and homeschool supporter)
Twitter: @KevinKileyCA
Facebook: @assemblymankiley
Instagram: @kevinpkiley

Steve Bennett- Assembly District 37
Twitter: @asmstevebennett
Facebook: @asmstevebennett
Instagram: @asmstevebennett

Megan Dahle- Assembly District 01
Twitter: @AsmMeganDahle
Facebook: @voteMeganAD1
Instagram: @megandahleca

Alex Lee- Assembly District 25
Twitter: @alex_lee
Facebook: @assembly.alex.lee
Instagram: @alex_lee

Kevin McCarty- Assembly District 07 (Anti-charter)
Twitter: @KevinMcCartyCA
Facebook: @AsmKevinMcCarty
Instagram: @asmkevinmccarty

Sharon Quirk-Silva- Assembly District 65
Twitter: @QuirkSilva65th
Facebook: @QuirkSilva65th
Instagram: @quirksilva65th

Please make sure that you make these posts public, so our legislators can see them. On Facebook, you can select to make your post public even if your profile is private.

When you are posting to social media, please include the following hashtags for the community grassroots movement:

#StopAB1316
#CharterSchoolsWork
#SchoolChoiceMatters
#LegislationTakeAction
Facebook and Instagram Tag: @LegislationTakeAction

Thank you for your collective efforts that make a difference. This is not a do something once and be done. This is the start of doing something several times so that state leaders are getting an accurate picture that parents care, want great public schools, and are willing to speak up for schools and organizations making a difference for their children.

Contact information for those educational advocacy organizations mentioned above.

California Charter Schools Association - https://www.ccsa.org
Charter School Development Center - https://www.chartercenter.org
APLUS+ - https://theaplus.org

The Classical Academies is an organization of award-winning, tuition-free, public charter schools serving 5200+ students in grades TK-12 in North San Diego County.

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