California legislature considers new restrictions for charter schools

Students paint signs with the names and logos of colleges that former classmates now attend. Environmental Charter High School requires that each of its students get accepted into a traditional four-year college or university in order to graduate.

A group of bills being considered this week address the question; should charters be held to the same accountability standards as traditional district schools?

Charter schools have grown a lot over the last decade. Today over half a million students are enrolled in California charters.

This week, the California legislature will considering changes to how charter schools are allowed to open and operate.

These bills get to the heart of the debate; should charters be held to the same accountability standards as traditional district schools?

Take Two's A Martinez sat down with KPCC's education reporter, Kyle Stokes to sort out what these bills could mean for the future of California's charter schools.

Interview Highlight

I think the way to think about this really complicated mess of bills is; what set rules do you want a charter school to operate under? It's a really complicated entity when you think about it. A charter school is not run by a school district. It's run by non-profit organization in most cases. There are some other kinds of outside groups like for-profit corporation but it's mostly non-profit groups.

So, should they be held accountable to the same standards that state law hold a non-profit corporation, or for a public school or any other government agency that receives public funding like a charter school does?

A group of bills being considered this week address the question; should charters be held to the same accountability standards as traditional district schools?

Interview Highlight

To listen to the interview with Kyle Stokes, click on the blue Media Player above.