The Clock is Ticking on Charter School Bills

SACRAMENTO — As charter school advocates wait for the California legislature to complete their work before session ends this weekend, the following is a summary of the most important developments regarding charter school bills in the California legislature. Since the Senate Pro Tem waived Joint Rule 61, any bill that was amended within 72-hours will be eligible for a vote through tomorrow when the session ends unless they waive the timelines again.

Last week, Asm. Al Muratsuchi made his proposal, Assembly Bill 84, a two year bill meaning that it would be held for now and reconsidered in January. However, recent dynamics put the bill back in play. The bill was amended on Tuesday evening with a host of changes and it is eligible for a floor vote this Friday after 7:30pm.

Some background on AB 84: Asm. Muratsuchi shelved his charter regulation proposal late last week after being caught between the California Teachers Association (the bill’s sponsor and charter school foes), and a so-far successful effort by charter school interests and defenders on the other side, including the California Charter School Association (CCSA) and Charter Schools Development Center (CSDC) to keep Senate Democrats from supporting AB 84 while consistently offering Senate Bill 414 as a viable (though imperfect) alternative.

SB 414 had its own series of significant amendments on September 2nd and was likely a pretext for Asm. Muratsuchi bringing AB 84 back into the picture. As such, Asm. Muratsuchi was granted a rule waiver allowing AB 84 to be amended before the end of session.

Among the amendments made to AB 84 on Tuesday night are changes to some initiatives of the proposed new Office of the Education Inspector General, including authorization “to coordinate and communicate with law enforcement and auditors conducting audits” and to receive reports from concerned citizens. The amendments also included some changes to the section that lists the items charter schools will be required to report, including supplementary information for nonclassroom-based charters.

The amendments for SB 414 between the September 2 and September 9 amendments (the latter of which brought the bill from 126 pages to 153 pages), include many concerning features of AB 84, including the Office of the Education Inspector General. It also includes an extension on the moratorium on new nonclassroom-based charter schools.

Additionally, SB 494, a bill by Sen. Dave Cortese, is also a bill of concern now. Previously, the bill outlined procedures for employee disciplinary proceedings, but was gut-and-amended Tuesday night to extend the moratorium on new non-classroom-based public charter schools until 2027. This seems to be a “Plan C” by the legislature and unions should AB 84 and SB 414 both fail.

Now that we are past the 72-hour mark for bills to be amended, all bills are locked out of all further amendments provided there isn’t some extraordinary effort to waive the rules again. With the CTA at the helm of the legislature, anything is possible.

California Policy Center will continue to monitor the situation closely. We encourage everyone to continue calling the Democratic legislators and tell them to hold this bill until next year when the public can be involved in the debate.