California Assembly Bill 84, currently being considered in the State Senate, seeks to provide more accountability and financial oversight for schools, specifically charter schools.
“The heart of the legislation, I’m sure, is to protect public dollars," said Courtney McCorkle, Heartland Charter School Executive Director.
Emilia Sheehan and her two kids are part of Heartland Charter School, a non-classroom-based (NCB) charter school that oversees 6,500 kids across Central California while partnering with over 270 educational vendors that help kids learn outside the classroom. Sheehan says those resources are at risk as a result of the bill.
“Don't take away student choice," Sheehan said as she and a handful of other demonstrators opposing AB 84 held up signs outside of Senator John Laird's office in San Luis Obispo on Monday. "Don't take away the flexibility of a non-classroom-based charter. We need that flexibility for our students to really thrive and to become the best version of themselves as they are as they grow up.”
The bill partly stems from concerns over the behavior of a select few charter schools that engaged in misappropriation of funds or scams, most notably one in San Diego County that saw the theft of $400 million of taxpayer money from 2016 to 2019.
“We all want to crack down on the fraud and abuse of tax dollars but we also don't want the unintended consequences of hurting good charter schools," said Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, a co-author of the bill, at a floor hearing on June 5.
In that hearing, Muratsuchi made sure to recognize that most charter schools are beneficial, with California having the most charter schools out of any other state.
“There are good charter schools that provide choice for students and parents and many communities throughout our state," he said.
McCorkle explained they already have a rigorous accountability system through their authorizing school district in Maricopa and that much of what they do already involves a great amount of oversight. She also said that the bill reinforces another practice Heartland follows in regards to spending between 70-80% of expenditures on instruction and related services and at least 40% on employee salaries and benefits.
“There is a lot of accountability written into this bill," McCorkle said. "Some of it's already being required and already being already done through Heartland but some of it is new and cumbersome.”
Currently, there is a moratorium on the establishment of new non-classroom-based charter schools through January 1, 2026, which began in 2020.
For Heartland, between oversight fees, more audits and potential changes in an authorizing district, AB 84 could be costly.
“Overhead costs are what would be increasing and that unfortunately would affect how we serve our students," McCorkle stated.
On Wednesday, the bill goes before the Senate Committee on Education for a second time. After that, it will go to the Senate Appropriations Committee and then must pass the Legislature before September 12.
