How California’s AB 84 Will Impact Charter School Families — And What We’re Doing About It
⚠️ Major Changes Ahead for Charter Families — What You Need to Know About AB 84
Dear Bēhere Family,
We’re reaching out with important news that directly affects many of our families.
On the horizon is California Assembly Bill 84 (AB 84) — a sweeping education bill that, if passed, will radically change the way charter schools operate in California. Most importantly for our community, it threatens to eliminate the public funds many of you use to pay for Bēhere outdoor enrichment programs.
Here’s what you need to know:
🧾 What is AB 84?
AB 84 is a bill currently moving through the California legislature. Its stated goal is to increase oversight and accountability for non-classroom-based charter schools — including homeschool and independent study programs that many of our families rely on.
In doing so, it proposes strict new limits on how public charter funds can be used, including:
❌ No more discretionary “instructional funds” for parents to choose outside enrichment programs
❌ No public funds for classes or services unless taught by a credentialed teacher employed by the charter school
❌ No prepaid debit cards or reimbursement programs for parent-selected vendors like Bēhere
📉 Funding cuts of up to 30% for homeschool-based students based on how much time they spend in classroom settings (directly targetting outdoor programs like ours, where children are not in a traditional classroom)
🧠 What This Means for You
If AB 84 becomes law, beginning in the 2026–2027 school year:
You may no longer be able to use your charter school funds to pay for Bēhere enrichment programs (or similar offerings from other vendors).
Your charter school may reduce or eliminate educational funds per student, especially if your child is mostly learning at home.
Charter schools may lose flexibility, becoming more like traditional public schools in how they allocate resources and who they can contract with.
For many of you, this is more than a budget change — it's a disruption of the freedom and customization that brought you to alternative education in the first place.
💛 What We Believe
At Bēhere, we believe families deserve the freedom to design their child’s learning journey — not by top-down mandates.
Let’s be clear: AB 84 is not about protecting children or preventing fraud. It’s about control. It’s a calculated move by a government that has repeatedly shown itself to be untrustworthy, coercive, and out of alignment with the values of freedom-loving families.
This is not reform. It’s retaliation.
It’s an attack on the right of families to step outside broken systems, to seek alternatives, and to raise children in alignment with natural rhythms, community values, and true sovereignty.
We see it for what it is — and we won’t comply with a future that asks us to betray our deepest values.
🌱 What We’re Doing About It
We’re not backing down. We’re preparing.
We’ve always known that true sovereignty in education would mean building models that don’t rely on government strings — and this moment confirms our intuition.
Here’s what’s coming:
🛠 We’re actively developing a permissionless payment system that will allow families to participate in Bēhere programs without needing charter school funds, or payment providers that can be squeezed by government agencies to target us and terminate our services.
🌍 We’re building toward a “new earth economy” that includes shared resources, future-of-finance technology that is ready today, and intentional community with built-in governance in mind.
💬 We’ll be hosting local and online forums to keep you informed and offer support as this transition unfolds.
✊ If you're interested in advocacy to tell your state representatives that you are disappointed in their clown-world policies, we fully encourage you to do so. However, we’re not betting the farm on corrupt systems changing. We’re moving on without them.
We are now looking to build our own Private School Satellite Programs (PSPs), to help families legally homeschool their children in the State of California.
🤝 Stay Connected
We are here for you — and with you — through this transition. As parents ourselves, we know this shift brings uncertainty. But it also brings opportunity. Maybe it’s the opportunity we needed to push us into our most liberated state of being.
The truth is, we were never meant to outsource our children’s education to broken systems. Bēhere exists to reclaim that responsibility — joyfully, bravely, and together.
With love,
Brooke and Matthew
www.behere.re