BILL NUMBER: AB 2008	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Swanson

                        FEBRUARY 15, 2008

   An act to add Section 47605.4 to the Education Code, relating to
the Oakland Unified School District.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2008, as introduced, Swanson. Oakland Unified School District:
approval of charter school petitions.
   Existing law provides for emergency apportionments to school
districts subject to specified conditions, including, in certain
circumstances, the appointment by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction of an administrator to exercise the powers and
responsibilities of the governing board of the school district. Due
to receipt by the Oakland Unified School District of an emergency
apportionment from the state, the Superintendent was required by
statute to assume all the rights, duties, and powers of the governing
board of the district and to appoint an administrator to act on
behalf of the Superintendent in exercising the Superintendent's
authority over the district.
   The Charter Schools Act of 1992 authorizes a petition for the
establishment of a charter school within any school district to be
circulated by one or more persons seeking to establish the school and
submitted to the governing board of the school district for review
after specified conditions are met. The act authorizes the governing
board of a school district, after reviewing the petition and holding
a public hearing on the subject, to grant or deny the petition on the
basis of certain specified criteria. The act provides an appeal
procedure in the event of the denial of a petition in which a
petitioner may submit the petition to the county board of education
or the State Board of Education.
   This bill would prohibit any chartering authority from approving a
petition to establish a charter school within the geographic
boundaries of, or under the jurisdiction of, the Oakland Unified
School District while the administrator appointed by the
Superintendent continues to exercise any of the powers and
responsibilities of the governing board or the district has an
outstanding balance on the emergency appointment it received.
   This bill would declare that, due to the unique circumstances
regarding governance of the Oakland Unified School District, a
general statute cannot be made applicable.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 47605.4 is added to the Education Code, to
read:
   47605.4.  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a petition
to establish a charter school within the geographic boundaries of, or
under the jurisdiction of, the Oakland Unified School District shall
not be approved by any chartering authority while either of the
following is applicable:
   (a) The administrator appointed by the Superintendent pursuant to
Chapter 14 of the Statutes of 2003 continues to exercise any of the
powers and responsibilities of the governing board of the school
district.
   (b) The school district has an outstanding balance on the
emergency apportionment it received pursuant to Chapter 14 of the
Statutes of 2003.
  SEC. 2.  The Legislature finds and declares that, due to the unique
circumstances regarding governance of the Oakland Unified School
District, a general statute cannot be made applicable within the
meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution.