NOTE – this would not affect our charter schools Buckingham, Fairmont, ACE and Ernest Kimme!

A coalition of education, civil rights, and community organizations are working to ensure all charter schools are held to the same standards of accountability and transparency as regular public schools and that they admit all children.

 Join this effort by asking Governor Brown to sign AB 709. 

AB 709 requires all charter schools to be transparent and accountable to parents and to disclose how they spend taxpayer money, including budgets and contracts. It prohibits charter school board members and their families from profiting from their schools, and requires charter schools to comply with California’s open meetings, open records and conflict of interest laws.    

Click here to send a letter to Governor asking him to sign  AB 709 into law!

The coalition also supported SB 322, which would end the discriminatory admission practices in place at many charter schools. The bill would end the common practice of charters cherry-picking the students they want and turning away students that need extra help, such as special education students, English learners or students with low academic performance. It also ensures uniform disciplinary actions for all students, by requiring charter schools to identify a list of acts for which students can be suspended or expelled, as well as setting a maximum length for suspensions. SB 322 died on the Assembly floor in the closing days of the legislative session.

You can also support Kids Not Profits by signing the petition to the right, calling for higher standards and accountability for charters.

Exec Board Agenda Sept. 6, 2016

In line with our policy and sponsored legislation, CTA is launching the Kids Not Profits campaign tomorrow (Wednesday). This advocacy and public awareness campaign is calling for more accountability and transparency of California charter schools and exposing the coordinated agenda by a group of billionaires to divert money from California’s neighborhood public schools to privately-managed charter schools. These same billionaires are spending record amounts of money to influence local legislative and school board elections across the state.

CTA proudly represents more than 5,000 charter school educators and is working with many others who want to join with us in standing up for students and accountability. When the charter law was passed in California in 1992, no one ever intended it to be a playground for billionaires who want to profit off students and push their agenda on the rest of us.

Together with parents, fellow educators, and civil rights and community groups, we have been talking about the need for accountability and transparency at privately-managed charter schools for some time now. We’ve sponsored many bills over the last few years. AB 709 was approved and sent to the governor last week. SB 322 was being debated today, but did not have the votes to pass.

The Kids Not Profits campaign includes:

• A series of radio ads in English and Spanish.
• An informative website – www.KidsNotProfits.com – where you, your members, parents and the public can get more information about privately-managed charter schools and the agenda of their anti-public education billionaire supporters. The website will go live at midnight.  
• Resources and materials for you to use to inform your members, including:
  • Talking points
  • Q & A
  • Fact sheets – Meet the Billionaires, Follow the Charter Campaign Money, Recent Concerns with Charter Schools, Charter Schools 101-California
  • Flyer about the campaign
• A social media campaign that includes graphics and sample posts using the hash tag #KidsNotProfits
• A media teleconference (Thursday, Sept. 1) with coalition partners and parents to call on Gov. Jerry Brown to sign AB 709.

Thank you for working every day to provide our students with the public education they need and deserve. Public education must always be about students, NOT profits for billionaires. 

President – Moira McSweeney

Vice-president – Alyson Brauning

Treasurer – Brenda Hensley

Recording Secretary – Corey Penrose

Corresponding Secretary – Samantha Dubs

VHS/CHS/ESC director – Sylvia Aquino

WCW/BCS/Ernest Kimme ISP director – Todd Blanset

Vaca Pena director – Jenny Brown

Jepson director – Tracey Begley

Alamo and Markham- Sofia Calderon

Orchard and Browns Valley- Megan Morris

Padan and Hemlock- Mike Ensley

Fairmont, Callison and Larsen – Tammy Parker

Cooper and Sierra Vista- Sharon Riehl