California Charter Law
California Charter Law Relative to the Rest of the Country
There are a number of shortcomings in the California state law which confuse oversight organizations and lead to unintended consequences. Two examples, offered by a national pro-charter organization include:
California does not require “a strategic vision” for the role/value-add that a specific charter school provides in a specific community.
California does not provide “assurance that the authorizer will fulfill ‘the expectations, spirit and intent’ of the law.”
In an annual ranking of each state’s charter laws, done by a prominent pro-charter organization, The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, California charter law and regulations are rated 18th out of the 44 ranked states. Although the State Legislature and Governor recently passed several changes to charter law, the California laws have clear intentions but potentially vague points of enforcement. The national ranking of the California laws noted several areas for improvement:
Accountability provisions
Strengthening authorizer accountability
Beefing up requirements for performance-based charter contracts
Ensuring transparency regarding educational service providers
The highest ranked state law, Indiana law, requires authorizers to request approval from the state board of education to gain chartering authority. The request must contain explanations of the following:
A strategic vision for chartering
Budget and personnel capacity
Commitment to meeting the criteria for quality authorizing
How charter school applications will be solicited
The performance framework that will be used to guide establishment of charter contracts and for oversight and evaluation of its schools
A draft of the renewal, revocation and non-renewal processes, and an assurance that the authorizer will fulfill “the expectations, spirit and intent” of the law and will fully adopt standards of quality charter school authorizing
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
A Model Law for “High Quality Charter Schools”
