New Rules Threaten Some Charter Schools

At least 10 California charter schools have been shut and nearly 100 others are scrambling to avoid closure under a new state law that bans campuses from being operated by out-of-town sponsors, who are sometimes hundreds of miles away.

The restrictions were put in place earlier this year after several high-profile investigations of charter schools that were sponsored by far-flung public school districts. Over the last decade, several districts had authorized multiple charters for campuses outside their boundaries to gain some of the state revenue earmarked for charter schools.

The state's largest charter organization, Victorville-based California Charter Academy, is the target of a California Department of Education probe into alleged misuse of funds and now faces added pressure from the law that bans long-distance sponsors. Under the auspices of mainly small public school districts in San Bernardino and Orange counties, it has operated more than 60 campuses that enroll between 7,000 to 10,000 students in California.

Last week, partly in response to the new law and other financial troubles, California Charter Academy ended a contract with the Snowline Joint Unified School District in San Bernardino County. The contract had authorized five small schools, including ones in Bakersfield and Century City. A letter this week notified the 700 students in those schools to enroll elsewhere, said Snowline district Supt. Art Golden. Additional California Charter Academy closings could occur later this week, Golden said.

Separate from the California Charter Academy chain, about 3,000 additional students who are enrolled in two dozen other campuses that are authorized by long-distance districts will be affected over the next three years. Two in South Los Angeles closed last semester, and many face imminent closure if their local school districts do not adopt them.

Charter schools are financed by state taxes and are exempted from numerous state education regulations. But they must be authorized by local school districts, counties or the state. State officials said the law was needed because many of the small districts with long-distance charters did not adequately monitor them.

Marta Reyes, a charter school official at the state Department of Education, said those districts "did not have the capacity to do oversight and work to make sure kids were performing well. After all, the money that comes to these public schools was supposed to benefit children."