Dive Brief:
- After a massive charter school expansion plan was leaked to the press, the Los Angeles school board will now consider a proposal that opposes what is seen as outside influences working to “reduce public education in Los Angeles to an educational marketplace and our children to market shares,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
- The proposed charter plan calls for 50% of district students to become enrolled in charters over the next eight years, and is backed and “spearheaded” by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.
- A board vote could happen as early as Tuesday, and the board member proposing the new position believes that charters’ selectivity and their expansion would harm the district’s ability to fully support its traditional public schools.
Dive Insight:
The leaked charter expansion plan, which would call for an enrollment increase involving thousands of students, would require an estimated $490 million dollars. Advocates have already been preparing, forming a new nonprofit, “Great Public Schools Now,” to support progress. With a current district-wide enrollment of around 16% of students, Los Angeles boasts the most charter students “of any district in the nation,” the LA Times reports. Because of the size of the Los Angeles Unified School District, as well as the novel approach of having a nonprofit steer current expansion efforts, what happens in California will likely set a precedent for how charters attempt to grow in other large American cities.
Meanwhile, LA Unified is still immersed in various scandals and facing a budget crisis of grand proportions.
