(The Center Square) – California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order suspending residency requirements for students who were attending traditional and charter public schools that have been impacted by the wildfire. While this measure creates so-called “school choice” for wildfire victims, choice advocates wonder why the governor isn’t supporting this option for more students.
“We are using the full force of the state government to respond to the Los Angeles firestorms and ensure recovery for the thousands of residents who have been impacted by this unimaginable loss, including school-aged children,” said Newsom in a statement. “The executive order I signed today will help bring back some sense of normalcy for our youth by eliminating barriers to getting them back learning in school.”
Under existing California law, a student would have only been able to attend a school outside of the district if the pupil had been approved for “interdistrict attendance.” With the new executive order, impacted students will be able to attend other schools for the remainder of the 2024-2025 school year.
Advocates for so-called “school choice” policies, which range from allowing students to attend traditional and charter public schools of parents’ choice, to providing education vouchers or savings accounts that parents can spend on home-schooling or private school alternatives, argue there are many reasons parents should have choices.
“It shouldn’t take a natural disaster for Gavin Newsom to understand the promise of school choice. There are many reasons an assigned public school might not work for a child at any given time,” Corey DeAngelis, executive director of the Educational Freedom Institute, told The Center Square. “Displaced families should be able to take their children’s taxpayer-funded education dollars to whichever school best meets their needs, public or private.”
At Los Angeles Unified School District, which spent $18.8 billion on its 540,000 students in the 2023-2024 school year – or nearly $35,000 per student, the portion of students who met or exceeded basic state standards was only 43.1% for reading, 32.8% for math, and 23.9% for science.
In neighboring neighboring La Cañada Flintridge, the school district spent nearly $65 million for about 4,000 students, or just over $16,000 per student, and the portion of students reaching or exceeding basic state standards was 86.8% for reading, 84.0% for math, and 77.5% for science.
This article was originally published at www.thecentersquare.com
