New Rules Threaten Some Charter Schools

At least 10 California charter schools have been shut and nearly 100 others are scrambling to avoid closure under a new state law that bans campuses from being operated by out-of-town sponsors, who are sometimes hundreds of miles away.

The restrictions were put in place earlier this year after several high-profile investigations of charter schools that were sponsored by far-flung public school districts. Over the last decade, several districts had authorized multiple charters for campuses outside their boundaries to gain some of the state revenue earmarked for charter schools.

The state’s largest charter organization, Victorville-based California Charter Academy, is the target of a California Department of Education probe into alleged misuse of funds and now faces added pressure from the law that bans long-distance sponsors. Under the auspices of mainly small public school districts in San Bernardino and Orange counties, it has operated more than 60 campuses that enroll between 7,000 to 10,000 students in California.

Last week, partly in response to the new law and other financial troubles, California Charter Academy ended a contract with the Snowline Joint Unified School District in San Bernardino County. The contract had authorized five small schools, including ones in Bakersfield and Century City. A letter this week notified the 700 students in those schools to enroll elsewhere, said Snowline district Supt. Art Golden. Additional California Charter Academy closings could occur later this week, Golden said.

Separate from the California Charter Academy chain, about 3,000 additional students who are enrolled in two dozen other campuses that are authorized by long-distance districts will be affected over the next three years. Two in South Los Angeles closed last semester, and many face imminent closure if their local school districts do not adopt them.

Charter schools are financed by state taxes and are exempted from numerous state education regulations. But they must be authorized by local school districts, counties or the state. State officials said the law was needed because many of the small districts with long-distance charters did not adequately monitor them.

Marta Reyes, a charter school official at the state Department of Education, said those districts “did not have the capacity to do oversight and work to make sure kids were performing well. After all, the money that comes to these public schools was supposed to benefit children.”

Caprice Young, president of the California Charter Schools Assn., an advocacy group for charter schools in California, said the law is needed for the few schools that have problems. But, she said, the state created a “sledgehammer” solution that will force many well-functioning schools through too many bureaucratic hurdles to survive.

Her organization is supporting a bill that would allow colleges and universities to authorize charter schools. “What’s needed,” she said, “are responsible authorizers, organizations that take the job seriously.”

Meanwhile, many students, parents and school staff members are worried.

“We’re on a week-to-week basis,” said Charlotte Austin-Jordan, principal of a 300-student campus in Los Angeles. “I’m so scared. These kids really, really need this program. None of these kids did well in regular schools.”

Austin-Jordan started the school for troubled students four years ago after she had lost a daughter, son and nephew to street violence. It is part of the California Charter Academy chain and was authorized by the Oro Grande Elementary School District in San Bernardino County. Now she is considering applying to the Los Angeles Unified School District for a charter. She is wary of enrolling more students amid such uncertainty.

The campus, Save Our Future, is in a warehouse near downtown Los Angeles with a rainbow painted on a front sign.

Most students enrolled there because they were kicked out of or were flunking at regular campuses. Some are on probation.

“I like this school, because I feel like I really can make it here,” said Ruben Mojica, 16, a former gangbanger who was kicked out of school. At Save Our Future, staff helped him seek jobs and avoid fights. If the school closes, Mojica said, “a lot of students will end up failing or dropping out.”

Assembly Bill 1994, which is sponsored by Assemblywoman Sarah Reyes (D-Fresno), requires charter schools to comply with fiscal and academic reforms, including the ban on long-distance authorization.

It was prompted in part by scandals such as the one in the Fresno Unified School District, which began opening schools across the state in 1999. Some of those campuses taught Islam, failed to do criminal background checks on employees, violated fire safety codes or exaggerated attendance. The district revoked its charter, and some of the campuses were closed.

In March, California Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell launched an investigation into California Charter Academy. A state charter school advisory panel had alleged that the organization was charging some of its campuses millions of dollars in administrative fees and was inadequately overseeing the schools.

California Charter Academy is facing pressure from several sides, and some educators believe that it may shut all of its state operations.

The state has withheld funding for some California Charter Academy schools that opened after Reyes’ bill had taken effect. Another law that bans reimbursement for charter students age 19 and older pushed the organization this week to cut ties with Orange Unified School District, which sponsored seven campuses in Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego counties that served 1,260 students. Those campuses are being closed.

Patricia Mark, president of the California Charter Academy, did not return calls for comment. Teachers and administrators at some of the affected campuses could not be located.

Kenneth Larson, superintendent of the Oro Grande Elementary School District, which also had partnered with California Charter Academy, sponsors 24 schools.

“I perceive that a number of the sites will close,” he said, “and I’m sorry for that because the great majority of these students are attending those schools because they want to. They, perhaps, have not been successful in other public school settings and are going to charter schools as an alternative.”

Most schools have up to three years to seek charter approval from the district in which they are located, said Keith Edwards of the California Department of Education. Already, he said, applications from some of the affected schools are arriving at districts.

The Westwood Unified School District, an hour north of Chico, has more than a dozen charter schools across the state -- with most in Southern California -- under the name “Westwood Charter School.”

Westwood Supt. Henry Bietz said most of his schools took students who had failed or been rejected elsewhere and taught them in small groups or one on one. This year, the district closed five sites, partly in response to the new state rules.

“We have about 1,000 kids who want to continue receiving the services we provide them,” Bietz said. “Where do they go?”

Westwood had criticized the 100-student Jah’s World school in South Los Angeles for not turning in student records on time and not requiring students to take the California High School Exit Exam. The ban on long-distance oversight pushed the school to close at the end of the spring semester.

Westwood charter officials recommended that the displaced students enroll in another district charter school nearby, Spark Community Outreach Program for Empowerment, or SCOPE.

But the closure caused a community uproar because many students didn’t want to attend SCOPE. They worried about crossing gang territory lines and endangering themselves. Then, a few months later, the 120-student SCOPE campus closed.

Most of the displaced students from Jah’s World have been directed to enroll in a continuation program run by the Inglewood Unified School District, Bietz said. SCOPE students are expected to transfer to public schools in Los Angeles, Inglewood and elsewhere.