Two bills before the California legislature would, if enacted, dramatically improve the prospects of the charter school movement in that state. AB 1137, which passed the Assembly on June 5 and is now before a Senate committee, requires charter authorizers to ensure that the schools they oversee comply with specified reporting requirements and meet at least one of several objective academic performance criteria to receive a charter renewal. AB 1464, currently stalled in the Assembly, would extend charter-authorizing power to colleges and universities, mayors and, in some cases, nonprofit organizations. [To see Gadfly's earlier coverage of this bill, see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=22#117.] These two bills tackle what the Fordham Foundation's recent evaluation of state charter authorizers ["Charter School Authorizing: Are States Making the Grade?" at found to be two of the most troublesome obstacles to successful charter schools in California: relying on local school districts for authorizing, despite their aversion to charter schools; and accountability provisions for charters that are overly subjective and ambiguous.
"Crucial legislation: charter schools, AB 1137," editorial, San Jose Mercury News, June 15, 2003