Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown went to the California General Assembly last week to lobby for a bill that would allow nonprofit groups, colleges and universities, and mayors to authorize charter schools in that state. (Presently California charters are almost all sponsored and overseen by local school boards.) Many other charter experts and reformers favored passage of this bill, considering the hostile attitude toward charters of many school boards. It perished in committee, however, though not before Hizzoner directed some very un-Moonbeamesque comments at opponents. "This is a matter where people want a particular kind of public education and others want to deny them their legal and constitutional rights," he remarked about the bill's opponents, which included the California Teachers Association and the school boards association. Brown also blasted Democrats who opposed the bill on grounds that it would remove money from regular district schools for "following another agenda that often doesn't surface in a very honest or explicit way&. I think the people who fight this have a lot of explaining to do." (In a few weeks, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute will release the first-ever evaluation of charter authorizers and the charter-school policy environment in dozens of states - including California. Keep watching.)
"Jerry Brown battles the unions he once nurtured," by Daniel Weintraub, Sacramento Bee, May 13, 2003
"Brown leads charter school charge," by Timm Herdt, Ventura County Star, May 8, 2003