Charter Currents: Budget “Clean-Up” Legislation Doubles-Down on Independent Study as Pandemic Back-Up

The Legislature approved a K-12 education budget “clean-up” bill before concluding its session for the year on September 10, including several helpful clarifications and several burdensome new impositions. The bill, AB 167, contains a long list of changes, some technical, but many substantive ones with high financial and compliance stakes. As with this year’s original education budget trailer bill, this clean-up bill was drafted largely by staff, behind closed doors, with only token public engagement, and it leaves as many questions unanswered even as it attempts to resolve prior ones.