Spun as a noble cause to “crack down on charter school fraud” by author Assemblyman Muratsuchi, families fear AB 84 may strip their right to school their children how they see fit.
The California State Assembly last month passed along AB 84, a powder keg of an assembly bill, on a collision course to axe funding for charter schools and corner teachers and parents into a corner with exorbitant fees and unforgiving expectations.
“Charter schools, they are privately run but receive public taxpayer dollars,” an apparent blindspot that the bill’s author Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi alleges has enabled “bad actors that have recognized this as a money making opportunity to abuse the system.”
Coauthored with Assemblyman Roberta Garcia, Muratsuchi’s corrosive “School Accountability” proposal aims to “crack down on charter school fraud” that its proponents insist is rampant today. AB 84 would place pressure onto “non-classroom-based” institutions to make drastic cuts to staff and extracurricular programs to avoid steep audit fees for failing to qualify as “certified as conforming to reporting provisions,” as outlined in the bill.
The strings attached to this measure would strong-arm charter schools into diverting funds away from “activities that are not provided by a credentialed employee.” School districts would also be free to redirect those resources at will if their governing board “determines that there are insufficient textbooks or instructional materials,” clearly sidelining non-credentialed vendors.
Pushback has since erupted online. Leading the charge, pro-family independent journalist Britt Mayer has been keeping tabs on AB 84, as it slithers past one committee to the next.
“[AB 84] imposes massive costly reporting, certification, and audit requirements that are going to cost upwards of $100M, annually,” Mayer recently reported on Instagram.
The Reporter news team suggests that the tripling oversight fees would deprive California charter schools of “more than $210 million” that the state normally provides every year.
“Ninety percent of what I make comes from partnering with independent and charter schools,” revealed San Diego educator Melissa Allen to FOX 5, as her livelihood faces jeopardy.
Effectively engineered to gut up to 30% of the funding that the educational programs at these “non-traditional” schools have to work with, once greenlit on May 23 by the Appropriations Committee, livid parents and students took to the streets in opposition to AB 84.
Last week, May 30, a demonstration broke out in Valencia on Tourney Road, facing Democrat Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo’s office. 50 people strong, neighbors rallied around the beloved Gorman Learning Center, a local charter school, stressing AB 84 would severely hurt the center’s ability to allow “children to do all those things that they do through the vendors.”
“[Gorman] allows me to homeschool her and give her the tools that she needs to succeed,” Francesca Collier of Saugus emphasized to The Signal. A mom of four, one of which is autistic, she feels indebted to the center for providing a relief “that the defunded public schools don’t.”
Defending Muratsuchi, an “encouraged” Schiavo worked damage control for the bill. “They’re making amendments to address some of the major concerns and fees and cutting funding.”
Even so, the coalition against AB 84 continues vigorously, urging citizens: “If you want to keep your choice for charter schools you should be calling everyday.” The bill is expected to be heard on the Assembly Floor on June 6, either to move onto the state Senate or die on the floor.
