Educational accountability is attracting a lot of political attention — or perhaps lip service — these days in California.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed two bills touted as bringing more accountability to education.
One, Assembly Bill 1505, applies new controls on charter schools that receive public funds but are independently managed and largely exempt from the regulatory labyrinth Sacramento has imposed on traditional public schools. AB 1505 gives districts more authority to deny petitions for charters and imposes stricter standards for meeting educational goals.
Newsom also signed Assembly Bill 1340, a crackdown on private, for-profit colleges and trade schools that, critics say, often offer poor educations but saddle students with large amounts of debt.
AB 1340 will require the targeted institutions to disclose the employment outcomes of graduates, thereby allowing prospective students to make more informed decisions about their programs.
Charter schools should be held to strong performance standards, and for-profit schools offering post-high school, employment-oriented instruction should give students more insight into their job prospects.