CCSA- March 2018

2018 Key Policy Priorities

California has over 1,250 charter public schools serving over ten percent of the public school population. They are non-sectarian, tuition-free and open to any student who wishes to attend. Charter schools must meet rigorous academic, financial, and managerial standards. California’s charter schools are closing the achievement gap for under-represented students. For example, Latino and African-American charter school students are twice as likely to be attending a school in the top 10% statewide and are almost twice as likely to apply to UCs as their as traditional public school peers.To maintain a robust public charter school sector, the California Charter Schools Association has identified these key policy priorities for 2018:

  1. Facilities: Support Resources and Flexibility to Address Inequities
  2. Funding: Increase LCFF Funding for the Lowest Performing Subgroup of Students Not Currently Receiving Funds
  3. Authorizing: Oppose using District Finance as a Criteria for Charter Denial, and Restricting Choices for Students with Disabilities.

Facilities

Facility access and costs continue to be one of biggest challenges charter schools face. The condition and quality of facilities for charter pupils is also one of the most significant inequities between pupils in charter schools and those in traditional district schools.

  • SUPPORT Increase Funding toCSFA (SB 740):The Governor’s Budget contains a program augmentation of $28.3 million in 2018-19 for the SB 740/Charter School Facility Grant Program. This program provides lease reimbursement to charter schools that cannot access facilities of their school district. This augmentation is intended to avoid a projected funding shortfall and keep pace with program growth and increased facility costs for schools.This is a top priority for CCSA.
  • OPPOSE New Restrictions to CSFA (SB 740): Department of Finance Trailer Bill Removes automatic backfill of prior year shortfall, creating annual deficits and proration starting in current year. It also includes CSFA’s regulation language to cap increases.
  • OPPOSE AB 3222 (O’Donnell): This bill would impose prevailing wage on schools using conduit bonds to finance facilities, increasing the cost to a point where the program is no longer a viable solution for schools. One charter organization that previously accessed the program has stated that prevailing wage would increase project costs by 20%.

Funding

Under the current Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), several subgroups of students are targeted with supplemental grants in an effort to elevate their academic performance. However, performance data show that the academic performance of another subgroup of students, African American Students, falls below the state average for both ELA and Math. This performance gap persists, even when the data removes black students who are already receiving supplemental funds as one of the other targeted groups, such as low-income.

CCSA supports modifying the LCFF by adding a new supplemental grant category to include the lowest performing subgroup of students. By specifically identifying these students as high needs, school districts and charter schools receiving supplemental funds would have to describe in their Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAP) how additional funds will be used to implement supplemental educational support for these students.

Ask: SUPPORT AB 2635 (Weber, Burke, Gipson) to Target LCFF Funding to the Lowest Performing Subgroup of Students Not Currently Receiving Supplemental Funding

Authorizing

If enacted, SB 1362 (Beall) would threaten closure of 40% of charter public schools currently operating throughout the state, and disrupt the education of 233,000 public schools students. This legislation would also impose a chilling effect on all future charter school approvals.

Under SB 1362, a community or neighborhood with chronically failing schools could be denied a high quality public charter without any regard to the need in the community or the demand for higher quality schools. Declining enrollment alone is not an indicator of poor fiscal condition of a district and should not be the basis to reject a high quality public school option to students and parents.

While SB 1362 is premised on removing barriers to a high quality public education for all students, with an emphasis on students with disabilities, quality special education should not be a numbers game. The issues surrounding special education are complex, and cannot be solved by simply demanding that a charter school serve a certain "share" of special education students without first ensuring that the school has the resources, funding, and flexibility it needs to serve those students well.

Ask: OPPOSE AB 1362 (Beall)to Stop District Finance as a Criteria for Charter Denial, and Restricting Choices for Students with Disabilities.

CCSA- March 2018