05/30/2025
AB 84 is currently on the Assembly Floor where it will soon be determined whether this bill will move to the Senate. Two sections of this bill would dramatically impact the financial stability of both Community Montessori and Dimensions Collaborative, while providing no additional support or level of accountability.
Funding Determination resulting in up to 30% less funding per student.
Increase of authorizer fee from 1% to 3%.
As nonclassroom-based charter schools, we already receive significantly less funding than district schools. With no funding for facilities, we are challenged with pulling from our general fund to operate our eight learning centers for our two county-wide benefit charter schools. Whether a student attends a learning center four days a week, or just one, the cost of the building remains the same.
The average enrollment of students with IEPs is 12%. Dimensions Collaborative has 19%; Community Montessori is 16%. Given Special Education is funded by average daily attendance (rather than the number of students with IEPs), simple math will show that we are already receiving less funding per student with IEPs than district schools. Last year, we paid $1.2 million from our general fund to cover the cost of mental health, medically fragile, LGBTQ+, and academic recovery programs. Adding a 2% increase in oversight fees and a 30% cut in funding would drastically impact our ability to serve special need students.
It is clear this is a targeted attack to cripple and close charter schools, even those who have been responsible stewards of public funds. The bill’s author, Assemblymember Maratsuchi, states that independent study programs are over-funded, yet he does not include district independent study programs in the bill. (Side note: district independent study programs are far less expensive to operate than charter programs due to the limited curricular options and low level of personalized support they provide). Another clue the intent behind this bill is less about accountability and more about shifting public charter school funds to districts is the exemption of district charter schools from the increased fee requirement.
There is no correlation between fees and oversight. In fact, higher fees pose a risk of negatively impacting the level of accountability as districts become dependent on the revenue for programs unrelated to charter school oversight. For example, when we were authorized by Dehesa District, they provided no oversight and used our 1% fee to build a playground structure. At the same time, A3 and Inspire were paying 3%, (2% more than the legal amount) and despite the efforts of local whistleblowers, the District turned a blind eye to their practices out of fear of losing the coveted 3%. More revenue only provides more incentive to ignore malfeasance. The A3 and Inspire debacle was a people problem, not a fee problem. Given there is nothing in the bill that requires authorizers to report how they use the funds shows this is not about accountability; it is just to punish charter schools while pushing more funds to districts.
Call to Action: Take Two Minutes to Email Your Local Rep: https://chartercenter.quorum.us/campaign/115259/
