1992: Chartering Spreads Throughout the Nation

A Santa Barbara High School teacher-turned-state legislator, state Senate Education Committee Chair Gary K. Hart, was first introduced to the idea of charter schools by AFT President Al Shanker’s 1988 New York Times column. Hart, a Democrat, was attracted to the idea’s boldness. “I felt that not just simple innovations, but some bold experiments, particularly as it relates to some of our most disadvantaged students, was something we ought to be pursuing,” he later said in an interview for the Founders Library.

A legislative analyst with Minnesota roots put Hart’s staff in touch with the Citizens League’s Ted Kolderie. The result was Hart’s January 1992 introduction of the bill that would become California’s first charter schools law.

Hart’s bill was one proposal to provide for more choices for California parents, but not the only one. A group of voucher proponents, led by one of the state’s top business leaders, were circulating a ballot initiative to allow parents to send their children to any school—private or public—at taxpayer expense.

Also in 1992 Assembly Education Committee Chair and fellow Democrat Delaine Eastin introduced a competing charter schools bill. Hart’s and Eastin’s bills approached chartering differently: Hart’s vested chartering authority with local school districts and schools operating under the terms of a charter petition, whereas Eastin’s provided a more prescriptive process that included a role for state government.  

Hart’s legislation prevailed, and was enacted into law on September 20, 1992. Though cautious in scope, one key outcome was legitimacy. The law inspired an emerging network of policymakers, advocates, and educators throughout the nation. In December 1992, Hart joined Kolderie in Denver to speak at a bipartisan conference to advance a charter schools bill in Colorado. Less than a year later, the Colorado legislature enacted a charter schools law in 1993—along with Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, and Wisconsin that year.

Within five years of the enactment of California’s law, 27 states and the District of Columbia allowed for some form of charter schools.