Charter Schools Association Leads Fight to Hold Negligent Authorizers Accountable.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- After Tightening Standards for its Schools, Charter School Movement Tackles Next Challenge: Oversight for Authorizers

The California Charter Schools Association is taking yet another step to improve charter school accountability today by announcing support for a proposal that would hold negligent charter authorizers accountable. Specifically, the proposal would grant the State Board of Education authority to revoke the authorizing abilities of negligent school districts that approve charters to unqualified groups and then fail to provide sufficient oversight. This announcement is consistent with the Association's ongoing efforts to establish the highest standards of quality throughout California's charter schools.

The announcement comes following a more than three-year period when the charter school community embraced tough new standards for themselves to prevent the abusive business practices of the California Charter Academy (CCA), an organization with four charters approved by three school districts who collected oversight fees and performed virtually no oversight. The charter school community then called for an investigation of CCA by the State Superintendent. When CCA closed amidst the investigation, the charter school community worked with several government agencies, including the California Department of Education, to place the majority of the displaced students into nearby, higher-quality charter schools.

"The charter school movement has embraced tougher new standards and has been the first to hold our own accountable," said Caprice Young, CEO of the California Charter Schools Association. "We need this same level of accountability for the school districts that authorize charter schools."

The new proposal is needed for school districts like Oro Grande and Snowline Unified School Districts, who approved CCA for financial gain and then failed to follow through on their oversight responsibilities.

In 2002, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "Carl Ackermann, vice president of the Oro Grande school board, told The Chronicle in December that he and other district officials were largely unaware of their monitoring responsibilities and had granted the charter because `it helps us financially.'" (Source: "State Not Sure Who to Pay," The San Francisco Chronicle, February 4, 2002)

Oro Grande Superintendent Ken Larson, whose tiny school district of fewer than 100 students approved CCA to operate, told the Associated Press, "I think in terms of our oversight responsibility, we're at the maximum," Larson said. "We have other responsibilities." (Source: "Large Charter School Lacks Oversight, Faces Potential Problems," The Fresno Bee (AP), July 29, 2002)

Almost three years ago, after the authorizers continued to look the other way, and after the charter community had alerted state officials to CCA's troubling business practices, the state's charter school community supported legislation, Assembly Bill (AB) 1994 (2002), which restricted where school districts could locate the charters they authorized. This significantly affected how CCA could operate and contributed to its demise.

In March of 2004, after the authorizers continued to ignore the questions that were raised, the Advisory Commission on Charter Schools (ACCS), an oversight body consisting of a majority of charter school leaders, significantly cut CCA's funding and then requested State Superintendent Jack O'Connell to investigate them. Finally, when CCA announced its closure last August, the charter school community worked with the California Department of Education and several more accountable authorizers to place the majority of their students into higher-quality charter schools.

"School districts should authorize charters in order to give students the very best possible public school education. That means providing parents with high-quality options and teachers the flexibility to innovate in order to improve student achievement," said Johnathan Williams, a member of the State Board of Education and founder of The Accelerated Charter School in South Los Angeles. "School districts that authorize charter schools should be held to the same high standards of accountability or they should face revocation of their ability to authorize."

The concept of the Association's proposal received attention in last year's positive report by the California Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), which called charter schools "a viable reform strategy." According to the LAO, "The inability of school districts to opt out of charter authorizing and the inability of charter schools to pursue alternative authorizers are particularly troubling in California."

Under the California Charter Schools Association's proposal, the charter schools authorized by negligent school districts shall be transferred to the oversight of the State Board of Education. The Association is in active discussion with several members of the legislature, and is working to include the proposal to hold authorizers accountable into recently introduced legislation. The Association expects to eventually announce its support for Senate Bill (SB) 844, which would allow public colleges and universities to directly sponsor charter schools. SB 844 is authored by State Senator Chuck Poochigian (R - Fresno) and is sponsored by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

CCA was never a member of the California Charter Schools Association.

About the California Charter Schools Association

The California Charter Schools Association is the membership and professional organization for the state's more than 500 public charter schools serving approximately 180,000 students in the State of California. The Association's mission is to increase student achievement by strengthening and expanding public charter schools throughout California.