With Choice Initiative as a Backdrop, 'Charter Schools' Proposed in Calif.

By Lynn Olson

Two influential California lawmakers have moved to head off support for a proposed school-choice ballot initiative by introducing proposals under which groups of teachers would be able to break away from the existing public school bureaucracy and create their own schools under a contract or "charter" with a district or the state.

The charter-schools bills were unveiled this month by Senator Gary K. Hart and Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin, the chairmen of the education committees in the two legislative chambers.

Both lawmakers acknowledged that their legislation was designed, in part, to derail the choice proposal, which would enable parents to send their children to public or private schools at state expense. (See Education...