California charter school feud intensifies as education funding shrinks

California's public schools, which serve nearly 6 million students, are feeling the financial impact of a 5x hit.

Billions of dollars in federal funding meant to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 have dried up, school closures during the pandemic have widened enrollment declines, and chronic absenteeism has worsened. , operating costs have increased due to inflation, and the state budget is suffering from large deficits.

Because states fund schools primarily based on attendance, the gap between revenue and spending continues to widen in many local school districts, and a decade-old pattern of per-pupil spending growth has stalled. ing.

Local school directors have few options for balancing their budgets. They can close schools with low enrollment, lay off teachers and other staff, and ask voters to approve tax increases (usually called “parcel taxes” on residential and commercial properties). But all of them face resistance.

Another way school officials can reduce funding disparities is by making it harder for charter schools to operate.

Charter schools also receive funding from the state but operate independently. They have been in a fierce battle with school unions, especially teachers' unions, for years. Unions say they undermine regular public schools by siphoning students and money.

The battle over charter schools is intensifying as a combination of interconnected issues puts pressure on school finances across the board. Earlier this year, it cracked down on residential charter schools within traditional schools after union-backed candidates won a majority on the state's largest school district's board of directors.

LA Unified currently prohibits charters of shared spaces in schools deemed to serve vulnerable students, affecting more than one-third of LAUSD's 850 campuses. The immediate fallout was to force about 21 charter schools to find new buildings.

A more direct attack on the charter school movement came in Congress this month, when the Senate Education Committee, with support from the California School Boards Association and school unions, approved a bill that would make it more difficult to approve new charter schools. surfaced.

Current law, enacted 30 years ago, essentially prohibits the creation of charter schools unless the affected school district can prove it is financially catastrophic or is already under administration due to financial problems. I support it.

Senate Bill 1380 would expand the power of school districts to claim financial hardship as a reason to deny charter applications within their districts. It would also effectively eliminate current law that allows districts to seek approval from the county school board for charters they reject.

The bill is being sponsored by Sen. Bill Dodd, a Napa Democrat, and stems in part from local charter school disputes. But it would affect the entire state and would make it significantly harder to get new charter schools approved.

“When it comes to educating our children, locally elected school boards must decide how to spend their precious resources,” Dodd said in a statement. “They must have the tools to bounce back from the financial setbacks of declining enrollment and focus their funds where they will have the greatest benefit.”

Charter schools opposed the bill at a Board of Education hearing, complaining that it would place even stricter restrictions on the creation of new charters than those imposed in a 2019 bill that unions also supported. .

No matter how SB 1830 affects local school district finances, the fundamental problems of declining enrollment and attendance will continue.

The Public Policy Institute of California said in a recent report that enrollment declines are “expected to continue, with the state projected to lose more than 500,000 students by 2031-32.” However, the federal government predicts the number will be closer to 1 million.”