Here’s our pick of recent news about the ongoing effort to privatize public education in California. Not a subscriber? Sign up here.

Calls for charter moratorium grow.This week, the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board of Education joined district leaders in Los Angeles by passing a resolution calling upon the state to establish a moratorium on charter school expansion. “We want to stop the billionaire privatisers from profiting from public funds,” a board member said. “That’s what we want to do. So, this is going to be the district that starts that fight.” SF Gate

Is major charter reform on the horizon?With teachers striking in Oakland, West Virginia, and Kentucky in the past two weeks, the political heat to address the education funding crisis is rising nationwide. This week, California Assembly Democrats introduced multiple bills related to charter school reform, including one increasing transparency, which has the full-throated support of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Los Angeles Times

The real story in Oakland. Oakland is now the city in California with the highest percentage of students in charters schools, and the city’s school district is aiming to deepen its downsizing project by closing twenty-four of the city’s eighty-seven public schools. Journalist Eric Blanc offers a “crash course on the powerful enemies of Oakland’s public schools.” Jacobin

Even more billionaire $ for school board races is coming. Associate professor of political science at Michigan State University Sarah Reckhow talks about her new book, Outside Money in School Board Elections: The Nationalization of Education Politics, coauthored with Jeffrey Henig and Rebecca Jacobsen. “Mega donors are increasingly moving towards the formation of LLC’s, rather than traditional private foundations, which will allow more seamless coordination of philanthropic giving and political contributing to electoral campaigns.” HistPhil