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LaLa Land

When last renewed in 2016, the Los Angeles Leadership Academy was given benchmarks to meet. It didn’t, but remained open. Will that change?

“California’s charter public schools are held to high performance standards.”

– California Charter School Association (CCSA)

With Jerry Brown’s exit from the California Governor’s mansion in 2019, the long-term impediment to reforming charter schools was finally removed. The result was AB 1505, a flawed bill that still managed to provide some important fixes to the state’s charter school law. The law included more specific guidance about what criteria school boards should use when determining if a school’s charter should be renewed.

Assuming there are no operational deficiencies, the charter of a school is easily renewed if it is high-performing under AB 1505. Alternatively, authorizers can reject the renewal easily if the school is not meeting standards. For a “middle performing” charter school like Los Angeles Leadership Academy (LALA), a School Board must dig a little deeper to make its evaluation.