School choice could be the next parents’ rights ballot measure in California
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DEMS SHOOT DOWN SCHOOL CHOICE. BALLOT INITIATIVE TO FOLLOW
Assemblymember Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, arrived at the State Capitol to fight for her bill, SB 64, with a small #MomArmy in tow.
The bill would have created “flex accounts” for California school children, making $8,000 available for their parents to spend on charter, private or magnet schools if they decided to not go to a public school. Some special-needs children would be allocated $16,000. Grove said the money would come out of the $25,000 the state allocates to public schools for each child that attends.
“It’s time to empower families and parents, not bureaucracies, and it’s time to let the money follow the child,” said Grove during a press conference before the bill was heard Wednesday in the Senate Education Committee.
Democratic lawmakers in that committee voted to kill the bill, citing a host of issues including a lack of oversight of alternative schools, unknown fiscal impact and existing options for parents.
“While this bill provides funding for private school tuition, it does not cover the full cost, leaving low-income families with few real choices, while wealthier families benefit most,” said State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena.
Grove warned legislators the school choice debate could become the next Proposition 36. That tough-on-crime measure was the most controversial measure on the November 2024 ballot, and was passed resoundingly by voters despite opposition from Democratic leaders like Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“Parents are moving this way,” she said. “It’s going to be worse than Proposition 36 on the people who opposed it, because parents want this, and poor parents need this.”
A few hours after the hearing, the group California Educational Opportunity Act held a press conference announcing plans to gather signatures for a ballot initiative for November 2026.
That initiative would give all children $17,000 in an “education savings account” to be used at the school of their choosing.
Spokesperson Kevin McNamee, former mayor of Thousand Oaks, said they’re hoping to begin collecting signatures at the end of the summer. They will need 874,000 to get on the ballot.
California voters opposed similar school voucher plans in 1993 and 2000, with both initiatives receiving about 30% support.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
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This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 4:55 AM.