Print Version (PDF)

Charter School Initiative Enters Circulation

Low-Performing Schools. Intern Teachers.
Charter School Administrators. Initiative Statute.

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced the proponent of a new initiative may begin collecting petition signatures for his measure.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent and to the Secretary of State, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures. The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponent and to county elections officials. The Attorney General’s official title and summary for the measure is as follows:

LOW-PERFORMING SCHOOLS. INTERN TEACHERS. CHARTER SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Bars use of intern teachers at a public school, including a charter school, if the school has had low academic performance rankings within the past two years. Bars charter school use of administrators who do not have a teaching or school services credential, if the school has had low academic performance rankings within the past two years. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Annual costs up to the low tens of millions of dollars statewide for schools to replace many (but likely not all) interns with fully credentialed teachers. (13-0059.)

The Secretary of State's tracking number for this measure is 1644 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 13-0059.

The proponent for the measure, Thomas A. Willis, must collect signatures of 504,760 registered voters (five percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2010 gubernatorial election) in order to qualify it for the ballot. The proponent has 150 days to circulate petitions for the measure, meaning the signatures must be submitted to county elections officials by July 14, 2014.

The proponent can be reached at (510) 346-6200.

To sign up for regular ballot measure updates via email, RSS feed, or Twitter, go to www.sos.ca.gov/multimedia.

###