Schools for Afghan refugees should survive Twin Rivers board politics | Opinion
Sacramento’s Afghan refugee community relies heavily on a charter school system that was badly mismanaged amid poor oversight Now, however, every major problem has been demonstrably corrected under new leadership.
Is this turnaround too late to matter? If so, that would be a shame.
The fate of the Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools rests in the hands of the Sacramento County Office of Education. Its seven-member elected board meets Tuesday to consider whether the Twin Rivers Unified School District had reason to revoke the schools’ charter earlier this year.
Any decision short of overturning the Twin Rivers revocation likely dooms these schools to closing within months. The county board overturning a local decision on any matter is a big deal, and it’s even bigger in this case because of the amount of school board politics that have gotten in the way of doing the right thing.
There’s no question that the Highlands schools were one hot mess under its own board, while the Twin Rivers board was completely asleep at the switch.
A state audit in June 2025 found some shoddy teaching and questionable spending, as this school system expanded from Sacramento into Southern California and the Bay Area, serving more than 13,000 students at its peak. Instructors lacked credentials and were paid for more classes than they actually taught, as attendance records were in disarray.
The audit called into question every last penny Highlands spent over a two-year period, some $180 million. The state has demanded its money back. How much money Twin Rivers would owe the state, if any, remains unresolved, and revoking the charter didn’t make this problem go away.
To their credit, Twin Rivers woke up after this audit and began to press Highlands for a correction plan and answers. Highlands transitioned to new management and new board members in the summer of 2025.
But Highlands did not fully develop this turnaround plan by the September 2025 deadline set by Twin Rivers; it was simply too big a task for the new leadership to complete in a matter of a few months. But by January, the Twin Rivers staff was notifying its board that Highlands had satisfactory plans to remedy all its deficiencies and urged the board to allow it to continue to operate at 13 Sacramento-area sites, serving roughly 1,600 students.
But the Twin Rivers board, without comment, rejected that recommendation, giving no reason for the decision. Then later that month, ignoring their own staff’s recommendation, the board voted 6-1 to revoke the Highlands charter.
The Sacramento County board can overturn Twin Rivers’ vote if it finds that the district board lacked “substantial evidence” in making its decision. This is where things get a little murky, and the county staff is ducking this matter and not giving its own recommendation on what to do.
The county board can find that Highlands didn’t get its act together by September 2025 as Twin Rivers directed them to do. Or, it can find that Highlands did achieve a correction plan after this deadline to the satisfaction of Twin Rivers management this January.
Ignoring reality — that a smaller Highlands has a credible path forward according to Twin Rivers management — would make no sense.
This county board should be squarely on the side of our community’s Afghan refugees, looking for help to assimilate into our society and to keep Highlands alive under the oversight of Twin Rivers.
We need some local education leaders with a little spine, to focus on what really matters.