Ballot Initiative to REPEAL the CA Charter School Act of 1992

As many of you know the charter school industry is at the heart of the corporate takeover of our public schools.

Charter schools cherry pick students, falsify records, commit enrollment fraud, close down community schools, destroy jobs, bust up unions and segregate students where we now see essentially a three tiered system--- charter schools in affluent neighborhoods lacking students with behavior issues, lacking students with special needs and lacking students who are English language learners- these charter schools tend to have highly qualified credential teachers; then there are the charter schools in low income areas where many teachers are unlicensed and the third tier is everyone else in traditional public schools. Charter schools are draining funds from our traditional public school system.

No student should be rejected from our public schools, yet charter schools reject or counsel students out all the time. This is immoral and shameful. These types of severe discriminatory practices need to be abolished now.

Read about the ugly racist history of the charter school movement at this link:

http://www.alternet.org/education/racist-history-c...

Charter schools receive public funds but have private, often secret school boards unaccountable to the taxpayers.

The charter school profiteers have essentially stolen our money and destroyed lives. We will never see the huge amounts of money that has been squandered away- it is gone.

Please share the recent report entitled Charter Schools Cheating Communities Out of Millions. See below link:
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/04/29/fraud-...

Enough is enough.

It is time for the people of California to come together and take back our public schools from the profiteers.

A REPEAL is long overdue. The billionaire game is over and we the people are not going to put up with it anymore.

To place a repeal of the charter school act of 1992 on the ballot will require approximately 370,000 signatures. I know more than this number wishes to vote for repeal, but we need to know who you are so we can make this happen.

There are volunteers working hard throughout the state to make this happen. But we will still need to raise funds to gather all the necessary signatures. Please make a donation to this campaign- every little bit will help.

Make your check out to:

Repeal Charter School Laws

Send your check to:

Repeal Charter School Laws Committee (FPPC# 1378057)

Diana Mansker-Treasurer

7753 Laurie Way

Sacramento, CA 95832

OR donate online at our fundraiser site with rally.org at this link:

https://rally.org/RepealCharterSchoolLaws

This campaign recipient Committee is registered with the CA Secretary of State's Office: http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/De...

So, for those of you who are saying YES, it is about time, we need your help and we need to know who you are.
We need to assess that the numbers are there to support this. So, reach out to your friends, your family, your social and/or political groups..and provide us with names, county of voter registration and contact information.

The way this works is that for now we build support, get contact information because once we file the proposed initiative, a clock starts ticking, and we only have 180 days to gather actual signatures. All the signatures must qualify 131 days prior to a statewide election.

So, for November 2016...we must start gathering names now and obtain organizational support...file by December 2015 just to obtain a Title and Summary that allows us to gather signatures and begin gathering actual signatures to qualify for ballot prior to end of May 2016 .

Keep in mind to qualify for ballot is not enough, we need time to promote the initiative before the actual election as well.

Time is of the essence.

So, even if you might not have the time to help spread the word about this, please let us know who we might contact, who might be able to help in this effort. And please at least give us your name and contact information.

Let's take back our public schools from the profiteers!

A recent comment from a signor says it all:

Charter schools come from and encourage racism and other unhealthy separations within American society. We must learn to get along together in better ways. Public schooling helps to achieve this goal. -Madeline Mueller, Music Department Chair- City College of San Francisco

Remember these are OUR schools built up with our tax dollars, not sitting there to have corporate interests bilk them for millions of dollars. Please sign today that you would vote for a Repeal.

The following organizations and individuals have endorsed this petition and this effort to repeal charter school laws in California:

AFT Local 6161 (Palomar Faculty Federation)

North County Labor Alliance

Escondido Public School Advocates

Wellstone Progressive Democrats of Sacramento

Chicano Latino Caucus of the California Democratic Party

Labor Council for Latin American Advancement-Sacramento chapter

Actor and Activist- Danny Glover

Bill Freeman- NEA Board member California

Alita Blanc- United Educators of San Francisco President

Julian Nava- Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico

Wayne Johnson- Past President of California Teachers Association (CTA)

Sharon Higgins- parent activist, public education blogger & researcher, Gulen charter school researcher and public speaker

Francisco Martinez- KPFK Radio Producer (Los Angeles)

Susan Rowe- Chair California Democratic Party Madera County

Green Party of San Diego County

International Socialist Organization- San Francisco chapter

Eduardo Martinez- Member of Richmond City Council

Green Party of Monterey County

Peace and Freedom Party- San Francisco Chapter

Democracy for America- San Diego chapter