August 14, 2017
The Honorable Ricardo Lara
Chair, Senate Appropriations Committee
California State Senate
State Capitol, Room 5150
Sacramento, CA 95814

AB 1217 (Bocanegra/Portantino) OPPOSE
Senate Appropriations Committee
Hearing Date: August 21, 2017

Dear Senator Lara:
The education organizations representing both management and labor on this letter are writing in opposition
to AB 1217 (Bocanegra/Portantino) which would establish a new science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) school in the Los Angeles area.
As recently amended, AB 1217 would establish an independently run State STEM School in Los Angeles
County. This legislation raises very strong concerns for all of our organizations as it basically establishes a
charter school while circumventing the current process for charter school approval – either from a local school
district, a county office of education or from the State Board of Education. This bill establishes a troubling
precedent by having the state Legislature become a charter school authorizer void of the oversight
responsibilities required from existing authorizing entities.
According to the authors of this legislation, the reason for establishing this new school is to serve all students
in Los Angeles County. However, current law already allows for the establishment of such a school, thus
making this proposal completely unnecessary. First, the petitioner could establish a countywide benefit
charter through application to the Los Angeles County Office of Education. Second, a magnet school could be
established by any of the over 70 school districts located within the county. To date, there has been no effort
to establish this school using either of these processes. There are already a number of successful STEM
schools in the greater Los Angeles area. There’s no need to change the law to establish another school for this
purpose, the tools exist in current statute.

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AB 1217 (Bocanegra/Portantino)
August 14, 2017

We are very concerned that this legislation totally bypasses any local public input on the establishment of this
school or its governance. While the bill does provide that the State Superintendent review and approve the
educational and operational plan, it provides very limited opportunity for local public input into the school
plan, from parents and the impacted school districts. Further, as proposed there is very limited ability for
oversight of the school and its functions.
As proposed, AB 1217 also limits the transparency of an unspecified governing board by only requiring
compliance with the Bagley-Keene Act. The board should also comply with the Public Records Act, Political
Reform Act, and Gov’t Code 1090 conflict of interest requirements as has been supported by the legislature
several times in the past decade.
This bill sets a dangerous precedent for eliminating local control of schools. AB 1217 establishes a new path
for schools to be created and authorized at the state level, far from the communities being served and
impacted, and directly conflicts with local control. This will lead to each school having different sets of
safeguards and standards, resulting in the breakdown of California’s public education system.
Charter schools were established to allow local communities to innovate based on local educational needs and
was not intended to yield the control or side-step local leaders, parents and students. As statewide
organizations, we are deeply committed to the success of every student but this proposal can and will lead to
a misaligned educational system.
For all of these reasons we oppose AB 1217 and strongly urge your “NO” vote on this measure.
Sincerely,
Erika Hoffman
Legislative Advocate
California School Boards
Association

Seth Bramble
Legislative Advocate
California Teachers Association

Dolores Duran-Flores
Legislative Advocate
California School Employees
Association

Cathy McBride
Legislative Advocate
Association of California School
Administrators

Tristen Brown
Legislative Advocate
California Federation of Teachers

Sara Bachez
Assistant Executive Director
California School Business
Officials

Kimberley Rosenberger
Legislative Advocate
Service Employees International
Union – California

cc:

Members, Senate Appropriations Committee
Assembly Member Raul Bocanegra
Senator Anthony Portantino
Lenin Del Castillo, Consultant, Senate Appropriations Committee
Roger Mackensen, Consultant, Senate Republican Caucus