URGENT: Help PTA Defeat AB 1381

CALIFORNIA STATE PTA LEGISLATION ACTION ALERT

URGENT!!!!

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DATE: AUGUST 28, 2006

Help to defeat AB 1381 (Nunez): Los Angeles Unified School District Mayoral Takeover

AB 1381 will be heard in the Assembly Education Committee on Tuesday, August 29^th.

Today, August 28th, AB 1381 cleared the Senate and your help is now needed to defeat 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.

The California State PTA has several areas of Concerns:

• 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 indirectly” outside the system. Based on a recent analysis by the Legislative Council she concluded that AB 1381 in its present form is unconstitutional.

Please take a moment today to phone or e-mail the legislators below urging a NO vote on AB1381.

Members of the Assembly Education Committee:

Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg (Chair) fax (916) 319-2145

assemblymember.goldberg@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblymember Mark Wyland (Vice-Chair) fax (916) 319-2174

assemblymember.Wyland@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblymember Juan Arambula fax (916) 319-2131

assemblymember.Arambula@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblymember Joe Coto fax (916) 319-2123

assemblymember.Coto@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblymember Loni Hancock fax (916) 319-2114

assemblymember.Hancock@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblymember Robert Huff fax (916) 319-2160

assemblymember.Huff@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblymember Carol Liu fax (916) 319-2144

assemblymember.Liu@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblymember Gene Mullin fax (916) 319-2119

assemblymember.Mullin@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblymember Fran Pavley fax (916) 319-2141

assemblymember.Mullin@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblymember Keith Richman fax (916) 319-2138

assemblymember.Richman@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblymember Tom Umberg fax (916) 319-2169

assemblymembr.Umberg@assembly.ca.gov

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