State’s Charter School Battles Intensify
California’s public schools, with nearly 6 million students, are feeling the impacts of a quintuple whammy. Billions of federal dollars to cushion the impacts of COVID-19 have been exhausted, closures during the pandemic magnified declines in enrollment, absenteeism has worsened, inflation is increasing costs, and the state budget is plagued by a huge deficit.
Since the state largely finances schools based on attendance, many districts are seeing widening gaps between income and outgo, stalling a decade-long pattern of increasing per pupil spending.
School trustees have few options to balance budgets. They can close schools with low enrollments, lay off teachers and staff or ask voters to approve tax increases, usually “parcel taxes” on nd homes and commercial property – all of which encounter resistance.
There is one other way for school officials to reduce their financial gaps: make it more difficult for charter schools to operate.
Charter schools also get their money from the state, but operate independently. They have been engaged in a running battle with unions, particularly those of teachers, which contend they undermine regular schools by siphoning away students and money.
As school finances are squeezed by the interrelated issues, the battle over charter schools is becoming more intense. Earlier this year, after union-backed candidates achieved a majority on the board of the state’s largest school district, L.A. Unified, it cracked down on housing charter schools within traditional schools.
L.A. Unified now bars charters from sharing space in schools considered to be serving vulnerable students, affecting more than a third of LAUSD’S 850 campuses. Its immediate effect was to force about 21 charter schools to find new quarters.
This month, an even more direct assault on the charter school movement surfaced in the Legislature when the Senate Education Committee approved legislation, backed by the California School Boards Association and school unions, that would make it more difficult for new charter schools to gain approval.
Current law, enacted three decades ago, basically favors the creation of charter schools unless an affected district can prove it would be economically devastating or is already in receivership due to financial problems.
Senate Bill 1380 would expand the ability of school districts to claim financial hardship as a reason for rejecting charter applications within their districts. It would also effectively repeal a current law allowing charters rejected by a district to seek approval by a county board of education.
The measure is being carried by Sen. Bill Dodd, a Napa Democrat, and stems in part from a local charter school conflict. But it would have statewide impacts, making it more difficult for new charter schools to gain approval.
“When it comes to educating our children, locally elected school boards must decide how our precious resources are spent,” Dodd said in a statement. “They must have the tools to recover from financial setbacks due to declining enrollment and focus their funds where they will have the greatest benefit.”
Charter schools opposed the bill during the Education Committee hearing, complaining it would add even more restrictions on formation of new charters than those imposed in a 2019 bill also supported by unions. Whatever the effect SB 1830 might have on the finances of school districts, their problems of declining enrollment and attendance will continue.
The Public Policy Institute of California, in a recent report, says enrollment declines “are expected to continue, with the state projecting a decline of over a half million students by 2031-32 (while) federal projections suggest nearly a million.”
Dan Walters’ commentary is distributed by Calmatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters.