top of page

AB 1316- Death To Charter Schools Bill- Please OPPOSE NOW




From our last post, you all know that Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell (D—Long Beach) recently amended AB 1316, a bill that will devastate our charter schools. We all need to send letters of opposition ASAP.


First:

Submit an opposition letter to the California Assembly Education Committee.

Please use the Submit Position Letter portal on the Assembly Education Committee Website, found here. (You will need to register for access on the site to submit your opposition if you have not already.)


The portal is found mid-page on the right-hand side next to the images of O’Donnell and Kiley. It looks like this:





Second:

Let the Assembly Education Committee Members know that you oppose AB 1316.


Please email the Assembly Education Committee at this email to oppose the bill:

aedn.committee@assembly.ca.gov


Then email or call each Assembly Education Committee Member office to let them know you oppose AB 1316.


(Do not group email, please submit 7 different emails, one to each member.)


The below contact forms will not work for you unless you live in their district, so please use the phone number or direct email address if you are out of their district.


If you are on social media you can also tag them in posts you make sharing positive charter school stories and asking for them to oppose AB 1316. If you post to social media please also include the following hashtags for our community grassroots movement:

Facebook and Instagram Tag: @LegislationTakeAction


Assembly Education Committee Members


Patrick O’Donnell- Assembly District 70 (Anti-charter)

Phone: (916) 319-2070

Email: assemblymember.odonnell@assembly.ca.gov

Twitter: @AsmPatODonnell

Facebook: @AssemblymemberPatrickODonnell

Instagram: @asmpatodonnell


Kevin Kiley- Assembly District 06 (Charter school and homeschool supporter)

Phone: (916) 319-2006

Email: Assemblymember.Kiley@assembly.ca.gov

Twitter: @KevinKileyCA

Facebook: @assemblymankiley

Instagram: @kevinpkiley


Steve Bennett- Assembly District 37

Phone: (916) 319-2037

Email: assemblymember.bennett@assembly.ca.gov

Twitter: @asmstevebennett

Facebook: @asmstevebennett

Instagram: @asmstevebennett


Megan Dahle- Assembly District 01

Phone: (916) 319-2001

Email: assemblymember.dahle@assembly.ca.gov

Twitter: @AsmMeganDahle

Facebook: @voteMeganAD1

Instagram: @megandahleca


Alex Lee- Assembly District 25

Phone: (916) 319-2025

Email: assemblymember.lee@assembly.ca.gov

Twitter: @alex_lee

Facebook: @assembly.alex.lee

Instagram: @alex_lee

Kevin McCarty- Assembly District 07 (Anti-charter)

Phone:(916) 319-2007

Email: assemblymember.mccarty@assembly.ca.gov

Twitter: @KevinMcCartyCA

Facebook: @AsmKevinMcCarty

Instagram:@asmkevinmccarty


Sharon Quirk-Silva- Assembly District 65

Phone: (916) 319-2065

Email: assemblymember.quirk-silva@assembly.ca.gov

Contact form for district constituents: https://a65.asmdc.org/contact

Twitter: @QuirkSilva65th

Facebook: @QuirkSilva65th

Instagram: @quirksilva65th


Third:

If your Assemblymember is not the Assembly Education Committee it is still important that you contact them to let them know that you are in their district and that you oppose AB 1316. Then ask them to oppose AB 1316. If you do not know who your Assemblymember is you can check to see who they are by using this form.


Lastly:

Please submit your opposition to AB 1316 through the form on the bill’s page. You can find the bill’s page here.

Right under the bill’s name you will see a navigation menu and to the far right you will see Comments To Author, you can select that to submit your opposition again. It looks like this:



You will need to register for access on the site to submit your opposition if you have not already.


________________________________________________________________________________


Highlights of AB 1316 (Remember we need to pace ourselves and bring up issues with the bill slowly, so we have a reason to call our reps weekly, flooding the phone lines.)


• Enrollment options for our students were already limited this past year due to the funding freeze in SB 98 now AB 1316 Limits our choices of charter schools for our students even further.


• It restricts school enrollment areas. Currently, non-classroom-based charter schools can enroll students who live in the county in which their school is authorized and any adjacent county, that county borders. AB 1326 limits enrollment by only allowing students from the county where the charter school is authorized. For example, if your school is authorized by a school district in Los Angeles, it can currently serve students in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Bernardino, Kern, and Ventura. If this bill passes as written your school could only serve students in Los Angeles. Do you know where your school is authorized? If not, please leave a comment with your school name and I will tell you where they are authorized.


• It limits enrollment in a non-classroom-based charter school to a percent of the enrollment of the district that authorized the schools. Non-classroom-based charter schools have traditionally been authorized by small school districts. Most large districts do not support school choice and do not want to compete with a charter school.


The 88-page bill contains a huge number of problematic provisions that would negatively impact all charter schools. While some of the worst are targeted at non-classroom-based schools, 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 authorizer oversight fees • 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 non-classroom-based Charter Schools

(Like virtual schools, opportunity schools and personalized learning schools, what we often call “homeschool charters”.)

• Cuts funding for most non-classroom-based schools by 30 percent using an inflexible sliding scale, replacing most of the current “funding determination” laws • Requires all non-classroom-based schools 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 many additional 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 • 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.


Additional details on the bill and sample letters can be found here:


We need all hands on deck to help defeat AB 1316. Please share this info with everyone who loves your children and ask them to do the same. You may want to provide them with your letter so they have a template on what to say.


Thank you for your support of our children and charter schools.



For Updates Please Follow Us On:


Please sign up for our email list with periodic updates on AB 1316 and other bills that impact school choice, charter schools, private schools and homeschooling, Please fill out your contact info and then at the bottom of the form select Legislation Take Action.




 

Please consider donating to help us continue to support school choice for all students through charter schools, private schools and homeschooling!



Comments

bottom of page