Bills that make the Rotten Apple list undermine one or more of CSBA’s core policy pillars: strengthening local governance, securing fair funding, improving conditions of children and ensuring achievement for all.
Rotten Apples are bills that:
- Create unfunded mandates schools cannot absorb
- Increase legal exposure and administrative burdens
- Restrict the ability of locally elected boards to lead responsibly
- Shift resources away from classrooms and student support
- Substitute Sacramento micromanagement for local decision-making
At a time when California schools are navigating fiscal uncertainty, staffing shortages, student mental health challenges, cybersecurity threats and academic recovery efforts, public education needs practical solutions, not costly new barriers to effective leadership.
The 2026 Rotten Apples list highlights proposals that risk making the job of serving students harder, more expensive and less effective.
Assembly Bill 1564
Weakens accountability and ties the hands of school leaders
AB 1564 is a classic Rotten Apple bill because it would put bureaucratic process and union secrecy ahead of student safety, workplace accountability, responsible school governance and basic transparency. School districts have a legal and moral obligation to investigate harassment, bullying, employee misconduct, discrimination complaints, safety violations, workplace retaliation and other threats to school culture and security.
The bill would prohibit school districts and other public employers from questioning employees or union representatives about confidential communications related to representation matters and bar disclosure of those communications to third parties, thus restricting the ability of public agencies to uphold this responsibility by preventing access to the facts needed to conduct thorough investigations and resolve disputes appropriately. Unions are important, but a union rep is not equivalent to a doctor, a lawyer or a priest where confidentiality is concerned, and this bill attempts to put them on equal footing.
While supporters claim the measure merely codifies existing Public Employee Relations Board precedent, committee analyses warn the bill could obstruct administrative investigations, create legal ambiguity and interfere with workplace safety inquiries. AB 1564 exemplifies exactly the kind of Sacramento overreach that weakens local governance and makes it harder for school districts to protect students, investigate misconduct and manage schools effectively.
Elected school boards are accountable to their communities for ensuring schools are safe, transparent and well managed. This bill shifts the balance away from accountability and toward secrecy by creating overly broad protections around communications connected to labor representation. When districts cannot access information needed to address problems, students and staff ultimately pay the price.
Supporters frame the bill as a clarification of labor law. In practice, it creates a broad new statutory barrier that could interfere with workplace investigations and district oversight responsibilities. AB 1654 obstructs fact-finding and creates a new layer of legal obstruction that could chill investigations, complicate discipline, and divert public education resources into costly labor disputes instead of classrooms and student support.
Why it’s a Rotten Apple
- Threatens student and staff safety
- Promotes secrecy over transparency
- Makes workplace investigations harder and potentially inconclusive
- Restricts the ability of agencies to obtain facts needed to resolve disputes appropriately
- Undemocratically removes access and responsibility from elected school boards who are accountable to their communities and places it in the hands of unelected special interests
Senate Bill 947
A costly, litigation-heavy mandate that punishes schools for using modern technology
SB 947 is a Rotten Apple bill because it would impose an overreaching litigation-spawning regulatory regime onto California schools as districts and county offices of education work to modernize operations and stretch limited education dollars. Misleadingly framed as the “No Robo Bosses Act,” the bill would impose sweeping restrictions, notice requirements, data disclosures, documentation mandates and enforcement liabilities on employers using automated decision systems — a definition so broad it could sweep in routine workforce management, analytics and human resources (HR) support tools.
The bill authorizes lawsuits, civil penalties, punitive damages and public enforcement actions, creating massive legal exposure for public schools even when technology is used responsibly and with human oversight. Its requirements cover technologies used in hiring, scheduling, employee evaluations, assignments, discipline, workplace safety and HR operations.
SB 947 is exactly the kind of Sacramento overregulation that buries schools in compliance costs, discourages responsible innovation and diverts scarce resources away from classrooms and student achievement.
Instead of helping schools use technology thoughtfully and efficiently, SB 947 creates an ill-defined, expensive and bureaucracy-laden framework that treats local educational agencies like Fortune 500 corporations with armies of compliance lawyers. California schools need practical guardrails and operational flexibility to manage complex HR issues. not another unfunded mandate that uses fearmongering to justify impractical legislation.
Why it’s a Rotten Apple
- Complicates hiring in a time of staffing shortages
- Reduces efficiency and effectiveness in finding the best staff for local schools
- Creates significant legal exposure for school districts and COES
- Diverts resources and funding away from the classroom
- Imposes extensive compliance requirements and new documentation and data retention obligations
- Establishes a new, unfunded mandate
- Discourages responsible innovation
- Diminishes data analysis and operational effectiveness
AB 1564 and SB 947 are Rotten Apples because they undermine the ability of locally elected school boards and educational leaders to govern effectively, manage responsibly, and focus resources where they belong: on California students.