Charter schools.

(1) The Charter Schools Act of 1992 authorizes any one or more persons to submit a petition to the governing board of a school district to establish a charter school that operates independently from the existing school district structure as a method of accomplishing specified goals. Existing law requires the Legislative Analyst to contract for a neutral evaluator to conduct an evaluation of the effectiveness of the charter school approach, as specified, and for this neutral evaluator, on or before July 1, 2003, to report to the Legislature and the Governor with recommendations to modify, expand, or terminate the charter school approach. This bill would require that the neutral evaluator report this evaluation on or before July 1, 2016. (2) Existing law, the Open Enrollment Act, authorizes the parent of a pupil enrolled in a low-achieving school, as defined, to submit an application for the pupil to attend a school in a school district of enrollment, as defined. The act requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to annually create a list of 1,000 low-achieving schools, according to specified criteria. The act excludes charter schools from this list. This bill would eliminate the exclusion of charter schools from this list.