Students in California public schools can be suspended or expelled for 24 different reasons, including "willful defiance." A measure passed by the Assembly would limit when students can be suspended for that infraction.
Democratic Assemblyman Roger Dickinson said students who are constantly suspended lose important instructional time, "and are five times more likely to drop out of school and 11 times more likely to enter the juvenile or criminal justice system."
But Republican Assemblyman Don Wagner said this takes power away from school boards.
"This bill takes us the wrong way. We ought to be giving more deference and more discretion back to the locals," Wagner said.
Wagner pointed out the governor vetoed a previous version of this bill for that reason.
