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Huff Education Measures Get Unanimous Floor Support
Arcadia Weekly May 15, 2015
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Two education measures authored by Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) received unanimous support during a Senate Floor vote and will now move to the State Assembly. The measures extend the School District of Choice program and removed antiquated laws from the California Education Code.
“Our children deserve the highest quality education we can give them,” said Senator Huff. “These modest measures help deliver on this promise. These bills provide better choices for parents and students — no matter where they live.”
SB 597 extends the 22-year running School District of Choice program, which fosters public school choice by allowing parents to transfer their children to participating school districts without a transfer agreement.
California’s District of Choice program gives both parents and students the right to decide which school is best for them and their academic needs (especially helping those who want to get out of underperforming school districts). It also compels many schools and districts to regroup and make positive changes to ensure that both students and their parents desire to remain within the district they reside.
Without the enactment of SB 597, the School District of Choice program will end in July of next year. Senator Huff’s legislation will keep the program running until July, 2017.
“There are many school districts in California that enroll a great number of students from outside of their district boundaries under this program,” said Senator Huff. “Ending the District of Choice program right now could, and mostly likely would, send several small districts into a chaotic, death spiral of declining enrollment.”
The Senate also voted unanimously to approve another Huff bill, SB 416, which amends the CA Education Code to remove code sections that were dropped during adoption of the Local Control Funding Formula through the state budget process last year.
SB 416 is sponsored by the California School Boards Association.
Senator Huff serves as the Senate Minority Leader and represents the 29th Senate District covering portions of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino Counties. Follow Senator Huff on Twitter at @bobhuff99.
