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Secretary Spellings responds to Alliance action against LA/Compton

We just got wind of a letter Ed Sec Spellings sent to California regarding our recent legal filing in L.A.  Our response is here.

UPDATE: Download the letter here. Main stuff:

Public school choice and SES are critical to students’ academic success, and yet there are indications that participation in public school choice and SES may be unacceptably low in a number of districts in your State. As an example, on March 23, 2006, attorneys for the Coalition on Urban Renewal (CURE) and Alliance for School Choice (Alliance) filed complaints against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the Compton Unified School District (CUSD) alleging significant shortcomings in their implementation of the public school choice requirements. The complaints include such allegations as the following: transfer notices sent to parents in both districts are neither "uniform nor understandable," and, in the case of one district, the letter makes no reference to public school choice; based on the very low number of students transferring, parents may not be properly informed of their child’s "school transfer rights"; and transfer notices in the two districts create "obstacles, artibrary deadlines, and in other ways discourage school choice."

We understand that California’s complaint procedures assign initial responsibility to the local educational agencies to investigate and resolve such complaints within 60 days. We understand that these complaints are currently being resolved by the local educational agencies (LEAs) in accordance with the State procedures, and the two districts will prepare their decisions on or about May 22, 2006.

While we are trying not to disturb the State and local processes at work, and it is usually best to allow matters such as these to be resolved at the local and State level, we are mindful of our own compliance responsibilities and remedies, with regard to these specific matters, as well as the overall status of public school choice and SES implementation in California. Thus, we request that your State educational agency submit to me an update by the end of May on how LAUSD and CUSD resolved the complaints, and by mid-June, an update as to whether the complainants have appealed the districts’ decisions to the State educational agency.

According to the letter, the DOE is also examining other districts in California for similar issues.

UPDATE: That old file wasn’t displaying properly.  Fixed now.