Coalition to Save Public Education

There is a movement in U. S. education to fund private schools with tax funds. The most common method to do this has been vouchers. Public school advocates have successfully fought off vouchers and sometimes the courts object under the Establishment Clause of the US constitution. Charter schools have emerged in California as the most common way to try to fund private schools with tax dollars. Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) board of education jumped on the charter school wagon. Several charter schools have been created in the district. The most controversial one now uses the Sacramento High School campus.

Charter schools are supposed start as a result of a movement by parents and teachers of a certain school. The district then issues a charter. For years, the SCUSD underfunded schools in poor neighborhoods like Sacramento High School in Oak Park. Because the Sacramento High teachers were against forming a charter school, most parents were against it, and many community members were not in favor, the SCUSD used a new method to create a charter at Sacramento High School. SCUSD closed Sacramento High School. They, then, issued a charter to St. Hope, Kevin Johnson's Christian based school, and gave him exclusive use of the camps. Because this was not the standard way of creating a charter, many parents sued the district. The court found that SCUSD violated the charter school law in the way that they created this charter high school. A consent degree was entered into by the parents and SCUSD. This requires that SCUSD create a public high school to take the place of Sacramento High School. By law, a child can not be forced into a charter school. SCUSD has stalled the creation of this new school.

Some Sacramentans were opposed to charter schools because they view them as an attack on public education. Kevin Johnson's public statements against public unions appeared in the Sacramento Bee. He runs the high school nonunion.

Parents and community members were also angered by the refusal of Kevin Johnson to share the campus with the Visual And Performing Arts Center (VAPAC). This was a jewel of our education system where students could learn skills like theater arts. VAPAC was forced to become a dependent charter school (meaning it was staff by district, unionized personnel) and had to relocate to the old Army Depot which is two bus rides away from any neighborhood. This charter school closed in 2007. Oak Park also lost MESL Honors Academy because Kevin Johnson would not share the campus with this program that gets Oak Park kids into college.

Disgruntled parents, educators, and community members formed the Coalition to Save Public Education to counteract what was perceived as an attack on unionized public schools, and the abrogation of the responsibility of the district to fund education for every child.