Each Thursday a group of educators and representatives of labor unions meets — out of the public eye — for several hours at the California Department of Education building in Sacramento to take on arguably the most contentious current issue on California’s education reform landscape: charter school reform.
Known as the Charter Task Force, it was set up by newly elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond in March at the request of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The 11 members of the task force, with Thurmond facilitating their discussions, have what some might view as a nearly impossible task — coming up with recommendations by July 1 on tough issues that have been simmering in California for years, but have exploded on the state’s public policy agenda largely as a result of heightened teacher activism in Oakland, Los Angeles and other districts.
With over 1,300 charter schools serving over 10 percent of California’s public school children, the stakes are high. The Charter Task Force, so far, has focused on two of the most difficult issues: who can authorize charter schools and whether school districts can take the financial impact of charter schools into account in deciding whether to grant or renew a charter.
Under current law, county boards of education or even the State Board of Education can overrule decisions by local school districts to deny a charter school application. Teachers’ unions have argued that school districts should have the final say and that districts should be able to consider the financial impact of charter schools during the authorizing process. Some charter school advocates, in turn, worry that such reforms could not only halt charter expansion, but potentially kill the entire sector.
The focus during task force meetings has been hearing from a range of experts and school districts with the goal of “making sure all task force members have the same understanding of the trends and practices regarding charter schools in California,” Thurmond said.
One feature of the task force is that it is not open to the public.
“I care about transparency as much as anyone else,” Thurmond said. “I wish there were a way to have everyone in the state involved in the group, but at the end of the day, we also want to find a balance, to have a workable group.”
Just six weeks ago Gov. Newsom signed a bill requiring greater transparency in charter school operations. Asked why the task force shouldn’t be similarly “transparent,” Thurmond said that was not a fair comparison.
“That is equating two things that are really different,” he said. The charter bill signed by Newsom, he said, requires charter school boards to meet the requirements of the state’s open meetings laws, the same way traditional public schools do.
“The task force, in contrast, is not a board or a commission, it is not established by legislation. It is an advisory group that is ad hoc in nature, appointed by the governor,” Thurmond said. For that reason, he said, the panel is not subject to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act governing state boards and commissions.
“We are doing our best to walk a fine line between balancing providing information and transparency and creating an environment in which the group can work consistently and cohesively,” Thurmond said.
But even if it isn’t subject to open meetings laws, there are still compelling reasons for the task force to be open to the public, said David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition that advocates for government transparency in California.
“Public bodies that deal with issues of this magnitude ought always to err on the side of transparency and openness where at all possible,” he said.
Thurmond said that he is working on ways for the public to provide input. That includes setting up an email account that people can send information to (chartertaskforce@cde.ca.gov). He said he has also been in touch with parent groups and hopes to figure out a way for students to provide input.
Members of the panel represent organizations from all sides of the charter debate, including four from teachers and other labor organizations, and four directly connected to the charter sector.
Prominent charter school critic Diane Ravitch laid out a different calculation in a blog post this week. According to her, only four members of the group were “not connected politically or financially to the charter industry,” with the remaining seven tilting toward the charter camp.
But Thurmond rejected the suggestion that the group is too pro-charter. He said he thinks it is made up of a good mix of people who are from different sides of the issue, as well as “some folks who might be perceived as being in the middle.”
“At the end of the day, you could probably never come up with a group that would meet every person’s specifications,” he said. “But it is a balanced group.”
In addition to the pressure of coming up with its own recommendations, there is another timeline that the task force must keep an eye on: what is happening in the Legislature, where similar issues are being debated and acted on. The Assembly Education Committee has already approved several bills limiting charter growth.
As these bills proceed, it is uncertain whether the Legislature will wait to hear the task force’s recommendations or proceed on its own.
Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, a former school board member, voted against the bills in the Education Committee.
“I can’t in good conscience vote for bills knowing that many of us asked for a task force, and now we have one, and it just got started,” said, arguing against any “major restructuring” of charter schools before getting the recommendations.
But Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, the education committee’s chair and a longtime teacher, said the Legislature should proceed on its own. “We should act today,” he said. “We should not wait for a committee that is outside this building to come and tell us what to do.”
Key to what happens is Gov. Newsom, who presumably will be awaiting the recommendations of the task force he initiated before deciding what reforms and bills, if any, he will support.
For his part, Thurmond is confident that the task force will deliver on its primary mission. “This task force will produce a product,” he said. “It will produce recommendations for some reform of charter schools.”
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