AUGUST 30, 2006

AB 1381 (Nunez): One More Time, It’s now in the Governor’s Hands!!

Help to convince Governor Schwarzenegger to veto AB 1381 (Nunez): Los Angeles Unified School District Mayoral Takeover

AB 1381 is now on the Governor’s desk!!!

Last night, August 30th, AB 1381 cleared the Assembly floor and your help is now needed to convince the governor to veto this bill that could have far reaching implications for the entire state. Enactment of this legislation would set a precedent for similar efforts to shift decision-making away from locally elected school boards with no guarantee our children will benefit.

As PTA members we need to inform the Governor we have serious concerns with the provisions of this bill which include the following:

• Equity Issues for All Students--The partnership schools created by this legislation and directly controlled by the mayor would affect only about 5% of the district’s schools, leaving behind more than 700,000 students who would not receive the additional support and supplemental programs.
• Meaningful Parent Involvement--The bill as amended does include a role for parents in several areas;
however, the method of involvement and the process for selection of parent representatives is not clear.
• School District Governance--AB 1381 creates a governance structure that would provide for a school district to be governed by four separate entities: the school board, the mayor, the superintendent (whose appointment must be ratified by the mayor) and the council of mayors (committee made up of representatives from the 26 other cities that are within Los Angeles Unified School District). This type of governance structure would create unclear jumbled lines of authority and accountability. Parents and voters would be further removed from a point of contact with the school district, the elected school board and the communities served.
• Constitutionality--This legislation seeks to bypass the California Constitutional directive in Article IX, Section 6 that mandates that no part of a school system may be transferred “directly or indirectlyâ€� outside the system. Based on a recent analysis by the Legislative Council she concluded that AB 1381 in its present form is unconstitutional.

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