Guest editorial: Charter school permitting-reform measure passes

By Scott Sherman

Recently, the City Council approved my measure to reform the city of San Diego’s Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to ease permitting requirements on San Diego public charter schools.

Public charter schools serve over 21,000 students in 51 schools within the city of San Diego. Public charter schools have become an important educational option for thousands of San Diego parents. Unfortunately, the city’s burdensome CUP is enormously complex, time consuming and expensive.

My plan would achieve the following:

• Revise municipal code to reduce the permitting requirements to help charter schools obtain facilities

• K-12 schools with less than 300 students will be permitted in residential multi-family, commercial regional, commercial office, and commercial community permitting zones

• These revisions would allow more money to go directly to education instead of navigating through the permitting process

We began working with public charter schools and affiliate organizations after being contacted by four charter schools in my district having trouble navigating the burdensome permitting process.

Thousands of San Diego working families depend on charter schools throughout San Diego to educate their children. I applaud the City Council for approving this important measure. It will now be easier for charter schools to obtain quality facilities and allow for more funding to be directed to students instead of for consultants to navigate the complex bureaucratic process.

—Scott Sherman represents District 7 on the San Diego City Council.