California Charter Schools – Legislative Update
Last week both the California Assembly and Senate Appropriation Committees met to send the last batch of house of origin bills to the Assembly and Senate Floors. Friday, May 23rd was the deadline to hear all fiscal bills in a fiscal committee in their house of origin; for instance Assembly bills in the Assembly and Senate bills in the Senate. There were two bills that were opposed by most charter school groups and would have had negative impacts on charter schools in California. In an anticipated move both measures were opposed by the Appropriation Committees in both houses.
AB 1531 by Assemblyman Chau would have mandated that the charter school authorizer appoint the members of a charter school’s governing board. This bill was sponsored by the California Teachers Association and would have affected every charter school in the state. It essentially would have gutted the charter school law and made all charter schools dependent on their authorizer. The Assembly Appropriations Committee held this measure on its suspense file, killing it for the year.
SB 1317 by Senator Huff would have created new conflict of interest provisions for charter schools. 
The measure would have also placed limitations on governing board members loaning money or leasing property to their own charter school; violating these provisions would have mandated revocation of the charter school. This measure was sponsored by the California Charter Schools Association. The Senate Appropriations Committee held this measure on its suspense file and like AB 1531 it is dead for the year.
To view these measures go to www.leginfo.ca.gov and place in the bill number.
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