A court decision handed down in California found that charters in Los Angeles are entitled to more space.
The California Supreme Court unanimously decided Thursday that the Los Angeles school district’s method for allocating space to charter schools may shortchange them classrooms.
In a decisionhttp://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S208611.PDF written by Justice Goodwin Liu, the state’s highest court said the L.A. Unified School District’s formula may “undercount” the number of classrooms that charter schools are entitled to and should be replaced with a different method.
But whether the new method would lead to expansions for L.A. charter schools was unclear. The guidelines laid down by the court contained plenty of room for interpretation. Charter advocates predicted that at least some schools would get additional space. An attorney for LAUSD said no new charter school classrooms would be required.
The case was based on Proposition 39, which voters passed in 2000. It requires school districts to give charters facilities that are reasonably equivalent to those provided to students in traditional public schools. Charter schools are publicly funded and independently run. Most are nonunion.
The court said L.A. Unified violated a state regulation by allocating space to charters based on the number of classrooms staffed by teachers across the district. The law requires other space — including rooms used for study halls or libraries — to be part of the equation, the court said.
“Counting only those classrooms staffed by an assigned teacher would effectively impute to charter schools the same staffing decisions made by the District,” Liu wrote. “But there is no reason to think a charter school would necessarily use classrooms in the same way that the District does.”
David M. Huff, who represented LAUSD, said the district already shares libraries and other non-teaching rooms with on-site charters. Although the district must use a different formula in allotting space, “the math works out the same,” he said.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sounds like Proposition 39, which voters passed in 2000 which requires another public vote! This is what is happening to school districts all over the US. It’s called “Princeton system” which effectively closes schools due to “projected decline in birth rates” but then the school is not closed, it’s leased to a, well, charter! “Charter schools are publicly funded and independently run. Most are nonunion.” May as well head back to 40 student/1 teacher Catholic school. Our timing couldn’t have been worse – moved to public school district just as RttT was rolled out – if I had a clue, our child would still be in that 40 student/1 teacher classroom because we’re still paying for those tutors with 25 students and teachers who are out learning CCSS! Bad day – some days I just want to throw in the towel but what does that teach my 12 year old daughter? As it is we teach her most of the subjects because she’s, well, a “different learner” (we no longer use Special Ed in this White Suburban school district), courtesy of our new Director of Curriculum! https://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/segregating-suburbia/ – I grew up in a poor but GREAT public school district; where is the dreams for the kids today?
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My District and the “Team” that determined the “projected decline in birth rates”. But, local residents left without a choice because all of these RttT unfunded mandates have put us within 3 years of full bankruptcy. No matter how hard I try, parents won’t listen! They will when their pride and joy “middle class” blue and white collar homes are worth 50% of what they paid in, well, about 3 years! https://www.e1b.org/Portals/0/Files%20by%20Division/Finance/EMG.pdf
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The LAUSD district may share libraries and other rooms with co-located charters, but in fact we cannot allow charter students to check out books for the most part. Our experience has been that the students don’t return the books. And they won’t pay for the service. So we can’t afford to serve them. They are also not in our automated system so we have no way to track them. And charters that aren’t co-located don’t have libraries. Just one of the nasty effects of charters (we have the most in Los Angeles) — many of us lose our jobs, and are losing more all the time. The largest group to lose jobs due to charters is our non-teaching staff — custodians, secretaries, teaching assistants, etc. This has further depressed the middle class adding to the effects of the greed of the 1%. We are really destroying our society.
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Joan Kramer: thank you for sharing your experiences with us.
After years of following the ed debates, I am not exaggerating or making up out of whole cloth the response many pro-charter people will throw at you:
1), Personal anecdotes, unsupported by hard data. Propaganda points.
2), #1 is explained by the fact that you are obviously a union thug. Put away those brass knuckles!
3), #2 explains why you put adult interests ahead of the interests of the students because, after all, they are only a justification for denying the under-served and under-funded and under-resourced charter students a chance to succeed—so no library books. How dare you!
4), the first three points are the direct result of your “soft bigotry of low expectations” and your belief that “poverty is an excuse for public school failure.” You are surely a lazy LIFO and should be terminated tout de suite.
Yes, I know it is bizarre, indecent and self-defeating to try to bully and shut people up like that, but unfortunately that is too often the reality when people like yourself try to point out actual situations and problems.
Keep writing. I’ll keep reading.
😎
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Gross.
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“Deasy Never Left”
Charters warrant public space
Like Apple, let me warn ya
Deasyan is public face
Of judge in California
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This is what is happening if you consider charcoals as part of public community. Hope they won’t go too far like Eva’s Slave Academy.
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