An estimated 50 parents, their kids and others showed up Friday morning in front of the Valencia office of Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, to protest the proposed Assembly Bill 84, which several people there said would severely hurt and even shut down charter schools in the area and the state.
According to one parent, Libby Fortman of Canyon Country, AB 84 would take an axe to funding that she and other charter school families rely on to give their kids an education that public schools are not offering.
The bill, authored by Assembly members Robert Garcia, D-Rancho Cucamonga, and Al Muratsuchi, D-Los Angeles, passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee May 23 and awaits an Assembly floor vote. Schiavo does not serve on any of the committees that have voted on the bill so far.
“It stops us from having the control that we rightfully have as parents for our children, to school them the way we deem fit,” Fortman said during the protest. “It’s just discriminatory against children that have disabilities, learning disabilities, physical disabilities.”
A summary of the bill on CalMatters.org states that, beginning July 1, 2026, a new law (AB 84), if passed, would update the rules for how charter schools in California are run. It would change how these schools report student attendance and how they receive funding. The updated rules would aim to make a clearer difference between money for students learning in classrooms and those learning outside of classrooms (for example, online or at home).
Several protesters Friday morning on Tourney Road just off Magic Mountain Parkway said about 50 people had shown up earlier in the day to get the word out about the bill. Some parents spoke about their kids having special needs and relying on that funding.
Francesca Collier of Saugus came to the protest with her four children who she home schools. She, too, had concerns about AB 84.
“One of my children actually has autism,” she said. “This allows me to home school her and give her the tools that she needs to succeed in the ways that the defunded public schools don’t. So, we’re able to give her all the therapies that she needs, and slow down and give her the attention to succeed.”
Collier added that her kids use the Gorman Learning Center charter school in Canyon Country, and she fears AB 84, if passed, would cut monies that go to vendors that her kids and others use, like tutors and those who teach art, music, dance, horseback riding and Jiu Jitsu.
She worries that the Gorman Learning Center might even be in danger of being shut down.
“It’ll limit vendors from being part of the network of charter schools that basically use funds that the charters give them, that is given by the state, to allow our children, again, to do all those things that they do through the vendors,” Collier said. “The money should follow the child and the family to choose how you homeschool your child. You know, we live in Saugus — in a one-story home — and my property tax pays for the public school that they (her kids) don’t even attend.”
Another parent, Shelli Ryan of Valencia, said her son has special needs and started out in public school.
“He was not succeeding in the kindergarten class,” she said. “It’s not something I wanted to do. It was something that I felt like I had to do to be able to serve him. And then I was able to — with the charter funds — really create an education program that fit to him.”
She added that many students she knows in charter schools end up there because they don’t fit in at public schools.
Fifteen-year-old Morgan Jaggers of Canyon Country learned the hard way.
“They taught me absolutely nothing,” she said. “They would send us home crying. The teachers would just scream at us if we even talked to them. They weren’t great at all. I come to Gorman (Learning Center), and the teachers are actually communicating with us and helping us learn. I’m learning a lot more than I ever did in public school.”
Her mother, Deborah Jaggers, said that learning is not “one size fits all,” adding that public schools seem to see it that way.
The group of people protesting chose the location outside Schiavo’s Santa Clarita office because they hope the assemblywoman will be able to vote against the bill. Several protesters said they didn’t know how Schiavo would be voting on the bill, but they’d requested to meet with her to go over their concerns.
Schiavo, who, at the time, was at the Del Valle Training Center for a media event in support of residents impacted by the Chiquita Canyon Landfill, did not know in advance about the protest in front of her office. She said she talked to some of the protesters earlier in the morning. She said she had not voted on the bill yet but would likely do so next week.
“They’re making amendments to address some of the major concerns around fees and cutting funding,” Schiavo said. “I spoke with the author (of AB 84), Assemblymember (Al) Muratsuchi, yesterday about some of the concerns that we had heard from local charters and parents who had reached out. And so, I was encouraged to understand that these amendments are going to be made to address two of the major concerns that have been raised to our office and I think statewide, and so, we’re waiting for those amendments to be made, for a vote to happen on the floor, and then my understanding is that there’s going to be additional work happening on the Senate side — when it gets over to the Senate — to address other concerns, as well.”
Protesters showed up in front of Schiavo’s office around 10 a.m. Friday. The crowd was dwindling away by noon.
