CHARTER SCHOOLS FACING A FIGHT; PROPOSED CHANGES THREATEN AUTONOMY.

Byline: Terri Hardy Sacramento Bureau

Lauded as a promising way to reform public education, charter schools have come under siege from legislative Democrats responding to pressure from teacher unions and school boards.

With the urging of the powerful California Teachers Association and California School Boards Association, Democratic lawmakers have proposed changes that would require unionization, would cut funding and limit the scope of some independent study and home-school charters - changes that would weaken the vaunted autonomy that has made charter schools an educational alternative lauded by President Clinton, Gov. Gray Davis and other leaders.

``This is an all-out campaign to attack and harass us,'' said Joe Lucente, principal of the Fenton Avenue Charter School in Lake View Terrace and president-elect of the statewide group California Network of Educational Charters. ``We're fighting on so many fronts, it's ridiculous.''

Lawmakers, and the education groups, say they are only seeking to protect teachers and students and to make charters more accountable.

``There is no conspiracy; there is no plotting - nothing sinister whatsoever,'' said Vince Stewart, legislative analyst for the California School Boards Association. ``We're just trying to make sure kids get a quality education.''

Some charter school advocates, however, say the changes are all about politics.

``This is about money for unions. This is about political payback,'' said Yvonne Chan, principal at Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima.

Sides are gathering, and the charter association is holding a rally Monday on the Capitol's front steps.

Some San Fernando Valley Democrats, including Assemblyman Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, support legislation limiting charter schools as proposed by Assembly members Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, and Carl Washington, D-Compton.

Others aren't taking a public stance. Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, D-Panorama City, will meet with the bills' authors to clarify their intent, a spokesman said.

But political observers believe that no one will be made more uncomfortable by the fight than Davis, who has fashioned himself as an education governor, hailed charter schools as an important reform and urged their expansion. His education secretary, Gary Hart, authored the legislation in 1992 as a state senator that created charter schools and won a battle then to protect charter teachers from forced unionization.

Yet Davis is decidedly pro-labor and received substantial contributions from the CTA and school boards association.

``This is a very, very sensitive situation for Davis - it's going to be hard for a Democratic governor to veto a pro-labor bill,'' said Pamela Riley, director of the Center for School Reform at the Pacific Research Institute, a conservative think tank. ``I'm sure the Davis administration is hoping this will just go away before it gets to his desk.''

Observers say education bureaucrats and their unions saw their opportunity to gain control of charters under Davis, the first Democrat in the governor's office in 16 years.

``School boards seem to be under the assumption that charters are stealing money from them,'' said James Catterall, professor in UCLA's Graduate School of Education who has researched charter schools. ``There's always the risk that if these charters succeed, the districts will be criticized. There will be questions why they couldn't manage the same results.''

There are 156 charter schools in the state - including three in the San Fernando Valley. The schools were seen as a way to provide more choice to parents and were allowed to operate unfettered by most state and district regulations. In return, they pledge to improve student achievement - a pledge charter advocates say is being carried out but some academics say has yet to be proved.

Union contracts

Assembly Bill 842, authored by Migden, would require all charters to be subject to collective bargaining, making the charters the only public campuses required to have union contracts.

Critics say the law would threaten charter schools' independence and jeopardize their reform efforts.

``We might as well turn the schools over to the district,'' Lucente said.

Lucente met with CTA officials last week in an unsuccessful attempt at compromise.

During the meeting, Lucente said, CTA officials envisioned that in the next decade charters would grow to as many as 1,200 schools.

``They are concerned about losing their member base,'' Lucente said. ``They want to get their arms around charter schools now while we're still manageable.''

Lucente said the CTA even offered to allow schools now in existence to forgo union contract provisions and allow each charter to draft its own. The caveat: teachers had to join the union and pay dues.

Was it blackmail? ``That's basically what it is,'' Lucente said. ``They're big, and they've got the ability to crush us if we don't comply.''

`Employee rights'

Mike Myslinski, a spokesman for the California Teachers Association, said Lucente was spreading ``inflammatory rhetoric'' to hide problems at the charters.

``They want absolute authority to dismiss teachers at will,'' Myslinski said. ``This is not an anti-charter school bill; it's an employee rights bill.''

Under state law, teachers in charters are allowed to join unions if a majority decides to do so. Myslinski said that's not good enough - he believes teachers are pressured not to join.

But teachers at Fenton and other schools across the state have testified before a state education committee that they would lose valuable freedom by joining a union. Instead of deciding on their own the schools' teaching assignments, training and the length of the school year, those issues would be dictated by the union contract for the entire Los Angeles Unified School District.

Midgen was incensed at the charge that her legislation is a political payback to unions.

``I'm trying to make honorable policy. These accusations maligning my character - I find that very objectionable,'' Migden said.

Another bill, AB 696, proposed by Washington, would require charters to operate only in the boundaries of their sponsoring district - which could mean that independent study or home-school charters outside the district boundaries could be forced to close.

Also, the state Department of Finance and the Senate Budget Committee are looking into whether changes are needed in policies and laws that cover funding for these nonsite charters - or those that operate as independent study, home study or through the Internet.

School threatened

Options For Youth, based in Pasadena, runs independent charter schools for 3,000 former drop-outs and home-schooled students in satellites throughout the state, including serving 500 students in Burbank and Sylmar.

John Hall, president for Options for Youth, said the bill threatens his school and means less choice for parents.

``We feel our kids are learning; we're offering something of real value,'' Hall said. ``They're trying to make it more difficult for us. They want to slow down progress and change.''

Stewart, of the California School Boards Association, said the statewide practice of allowing far-flung independent study or home schooling is dangerous.

``It provides for no oversight, no accountability,'' he said.

Stewart said he knows of no problems in Los Angeles County - including Options for Youth.

Charter school officials say if the legislation passes, they will fight it in court, in the ballot booth, and they will threaten to renew the fight for vouchers.

Because charters have been seen as a way to stave off vouchers - typically opposed by Democrats - the legislative onslaught on charters is seen as particularly ironic.

``It's very shortsighted,'' Lucente said. ``They might win the battle but lose the war.''

Added Chan: ``We're not going to roll over.''