California School Boards Ass'n v. State Board of Education

Charter schools are public schools that operate independently from, but with oversight by, the school districts or county boards of education that approve their charters. Before 2002, charter schools operated without geographic restrictions; a school chartered in Los Angeles could operate “satellite” campuses as far away as Palo Alto or Mendocino. In 2002, after it came to light that a school chartered in Fresno but operating satellites in farflung locations had accumulated $1.3 million in debt and was involved in other irregularities, the Legislature amended the Charter Schools Act of 1992 (Ed. Code, § 47600 et seq.) (CSA) to require that charter schools be located within the districts or counties where they are chartered (see, e.g., §§ 47605, subd. (a)(1), 47605.1). The Legislature also added section 47605.8. Subdivision (a) of section 47605.8 authorized the State Board of Education (the State Board or Board) to approve statewide charters that would allow a school to operate without the geographic restrictions. Subdivision (b) of section 47605.8, however, provided that the State Board could not approve a statewide charter unless it first made a finding that “the…