New school transfer law inspired by LA Air Force Base
Children of military personnel will have an easier time transferring school districts under a new law. Photo
Children of active duty military personnel throughout the state will have an easier time transferring to public school districts outside of where they live as a result of a new law signed by Governor Jerry Brown on Oct. 11.
The impetus for the law was rooted in the South Bay.
When he was elected to the state assembly last year, David Hadley, a Republican whose district includes the South Bay, was aware of the importance of the Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo to the local economy.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say a lot of the civil aerospace activity that takes place here is because of the Air Force Base,” he said. “No matter what party you’re from, one of my jobs the day I was elected was to ensure the Air Force Base has everything it needs to succeed.”
Compared to other regions with bases in the country, however, Los Angeles is expensive, and the Pentagon has considered shuttering it, Hadley said.
Given the high cost of real estate in the South Bay, many personnel live at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, whose school district is Los Angeles Unified.
“LAUSD has some well performing schools,” said Hadley. “I’m not here to bash LAUSD. But statistically, the school districts in the South Bay do much better and show higher parent-student achievement than LAUSD.”
How broad the impact of the new law will be on local school populations remains unclear.
While military kids, like all kids, are free to apply to other school districts, they had to get permission from their assigned district until now.
Getting that permission wasn’t always easy, said Hadley and El Segundo Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Melissa Moore.
“What we’ve seen over the years is that families associated with the base, because they’re trying to come to us from a big system, there’s more red tape and they have difficulty getting released,” said Moore.
Because families may only be stationed at the base for a couple of years, they don’t always have time to wait for a waiver.
With the input of local school districts, Hadley crafted the bill, which releases the children of military personnel from needing permission from their home district to transfer.
“It doesn’t give you a legal right to send your kids to any district you want,” clarified Hadley.
Families must still find spots for their children in the districts they want to send them to.
Given that he’s from the minority party in the assembly, Hadley worried about getting enough support for his bill.
But State Senator Ben Allen and Assemblymember Autumn Burke, both Democrats, sponsored the bill, along with Assemblymember Catharine Baker, a Republican from Northern California, and it was passed unanimously in the assembly and the senate.
A spokeswoman for LAUSD said the district supported the bill, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2016.
“We believe in facilitating the immediate enrollment of all students, including those who are military-connected,” said Dr. Debra Duardo, executive director of the division of student health and human services at LAUSD, in an email. “In Los Angeles Unified, we have a system to identify military-connected students, with the purpose of providing resources and support.” ER
Clarification: Although a spokesperson originally told Easy Reader that LAUSD supported the bill, its director of communications and media relations, Shannon Haber, said on Nov. 16 that the district did not take a position on the bill. The statement from Duardo was correct, however.