CWA Legislation
CASCWA Legislation Update
For more information on the mentioned bills, log onto www.leginfo.ca.gov. Type in author, keywords, and/or the bill number.
To locate and send an email to a State Legislator, go to Know Your Legislature.
Sandra Morales, Legislative Advocate SCHOOL INNOVATIONS & ADVOCACY
Jeni Mendel, Legislative Representative, CASCWA
Summary of the bills we are currently tracking for CASCWA (2010)
Legislative Update - September, 2011
Summaries of Pending California Legislation of the Education of Students in Foster Care .pdf
CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM Summary 1-25-11 pdf
Legislative Update - July, 2011 -
Gov. Jerry Brown signed Monday legislation that would provide parents and districts an additional 30 days to meet the pertussis vaccinations deadline.
SB 614 by state Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, gives school districts 30 days after the start of the school year to verify that all 7th-12th graders have received an immunization shot for pertussis or whooping cough.
The legislation extends a deadline created by a former bill passed in January that would have forced schools to dis-enroll all 7th-12th graders who hadn’t received the Tdap booster shot by the beginning of the 2011-12 school year.
Legislative Update -June 30, 2011
On January 28, the State Senate and Assembly approved a 2011-12 state budget using the majority vote authority approved by the voters. The Governor signed the budget into law last night.
It is now clear that the final budget for K-12 education will indeed be much better than what was proposed by the Governor in January. If a district built its 2011-12 budget on the assumptions of $2.1 billion in new deferrals and revenue limit reductions of $349/ADA, the final budget would be no worse than that projection and likely would be better. However, the final budget includes a "trigger" provision that will delay until December 15 the date by which districts will finally know their budget for 2011-12.
Budget Overview
The Governor was unable to secure the necessary Republican votes to continue the temporary taxes. As a result, revenue figures drop due to the expiration of those temporary increases. Fortunately, increased economic activity has resulted in state revenues coming in higher than was projected in the Governor's May Revision. Sources indicate that revenues are up about $1.2 billion for May and June of this year. This improved situation allowed the Governor and Democratic legislative leadership to agree to assume that revenues for 2011-12 will come in approximately $4 billion higher than had been projected in earlier versions of the budget.
In order to honor his commitment to enact a balanced budget, the Governor has agreed to a plan that includes a "trigger" to impose various cuts if state revenues are actually lower than the amounts projected with the $4 billion increase. That "trigger" calculation must be made by December 15, 2011, which is why school leaders will not actually know their funding level until December.
Regardless of the outcome on the $4 billion, the 2011-12 state budget does include:
ü The deferral of about $2.1 billion in funding for K-12 education that was approved through legislation in March
ü Funding for K-12 education mandates ($80.355 million)
ü A shift to K-12 education of the mandate to provide mental health services to students with disabilities (repeal the AB 3632 mandate)
ü Restoration of funding for CALPADs that the Governor proposed to eliminate in May (although rumors are that the Governor may veto this funding)
If state revenues are determined to be $2 billion or more above the May Revision projections, schools will not have to make the reductions that most of them had planned (it appears most districts planned budgets based on a $349/ADA reduction). It is important to note that while the entire state budget is based on anticipated revenues that are $4 billion higher than the May Revision, funding for K-12 education is dependent on an increase of only $2 billion. Administration officials indicate they are confident that revenues will be at least $2 billion higher than the May Revision. Unfortunately, given the uncertainty about the condition of the economic recovery, we recommend that district remain cautious for now. The language in the budget package says the Director of Finance must determine no later than December 15, 2011, whether the so-called "trigger" cuts will be implemented.
What happens if State Revenues aren't $2 billion higher?
If the Director of Finance determines that state revenues are not at least $2 billion higher than was projected in May, there are two major cuts to K-12 education.
- Funding for home-to-school transportation is reduced by $248 million, which we are told is a 50% reduction, reflecting the fact that the school year will be half over when the decision is made. This cut would have a very differential impact across the state. School districts had not planned on a reduction in home-to-school transportation. School districts that currently do not receive this funding (or receive little) are clearly not at risk. In contrast, districts with significant home-to-school transportation funding now face a risk that was not reflected in earlier versions of the budget.
- School district, county office of education and charter school revenue limits would be reduced by 4%, or some smaller percentage, depending on the amount of increase in state revenues. First, we are told that a 4% reduction represents $1.5 billion, or about $250/ADA. The $349/ADA represented a little more than $2 billion, so the potential reduction (on average) is less than most districts had planned. However, districts need to look carefully at the numbers. First, a percentage reduction has a different distribution than a per ADA reduction. Since high school districts tend to have higher revenue limits, and elementary districts have lower revenue limits, a percentage cut will tend to impose a larger per ADA reduction on high school districts than on elementary districts. Most districts will still be looking at a smaller reduction, because the statewide amount of the cut is $1.5 billion rather than $2 billion. Second, offsetting this good news, some districts will now need to evaluate the impact of a 50% cut to home-to-school transportation.
Finally, the bill (AB 114) says the percentage reduction will be proportional to the shortfall in state revenues. For example, if none of the anticipated state revenues materialize, schools will lose 4% based on the $2 billion state shortfall. Phrased differently, any increase in state revenues above the May Revision will reduce the 4% reduction to revenue limits. If the state revenues are $2 billion higher than the May Revision, the potential 4% reduction to revenue limits is avoided.
On balance, it appears there is a good chance that the cuts districts will actually have to implement will be smaller than those they had planned when they adopted local budgets this spring. There is a reasonable chance that the entire projected $349/ADA cut can be avoided. School district leaders will get additional information as each month of economic and revenue data becomes available, but they won't actually know the answer until December 15, 2011.
What about the reduction of seven days to the school year?
The budget package includes language that:
46201.3. (a) For the 2011–12 school year, the minimum number of instructional days and minutes school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools are required to offer as set forth in Sections 41420, 46200, 46200.5, 46201, 46201.5,46202, and 47612.5 shall be reduced by up to seven days.
(b) Implementation of the reduction in the number of instructional days offered by a school district, county office of education, and charter school that is subject to collective bargaining pursuant to Chapter 10.7 (commencing with Section 3540) of Division 4 of Title 1 of the Government Code shall be achieved through the bargaining process, provided that the agreement has been completed and reductions implemented no later than June 30, 2012.
It is important to note that the language is effective only for the 2011-12 fiscal year. This allowable reduction is in addition to the five day reduction that was allowed as part of the multi-year budget flexibility package that includes Tier 3 categorical flexibility.
Adopting and Planning a Budget
The budget package includes language that:
"For the 2011-12 fiscal year, notwithstanding any of the standards and criteria adopted by the state board pursuant to Section 33127, each school district budget shall project the same level of revenue per unit of average daily attendance as it received in the 2010-11 fiscal year and shall maintain staffing and program levels commensurate with that level.
"For the 2011-12 fiscal year, the school district shall not be required to demonstrate that it is able to meet its financial obligations for the two subsequent fiscal years."
Further, the budget package suspends the August 15 lay-off option.
Comment: This language will likely be the most problematic for many districts as it will result in pressure at the local level to restore staff positions that were reduced based on the projections of a $349/ADA cut. We urge caution in restoring those positions. First, a district must calculate the actual risk to the district of the proportional reduction to revenue limits of 4% and the 50% cut to home-to-school transportation. For most districts we expect this will be a smaller number than the $349/ADA. Since the 4% reduction and the home-to-school cut is the worst case scenario, districts can make decisions based on any cuts they had planned beyond that worst case figure. Second, school districts need to remain prepared to operate under this new "worst case" scenario. Given the interaction of state revenues, local budget reserves, use of one-time federal funds, and other factors, including legitimate financial risks in the 2011-12 fiscal year, school districts still have local discretion over staffing and program levels.
Child Development, Preschool and After School Education and Safety Program
A potentially significant development in the final budget agreement is that funding for child development programs, except preschool and the After School Education and Safety (ASES) program, is shifted to outside the Proposition 98 guarantee. Preschool and ASES would continue to be funded with Proposition 98 monies.
In the short term this is just a change in financial accounting at the state level. However, the long-term implications for child development could be significant as its connection to education becomes more tenuous. Certainly the decision to distinguish between preschool, ASES, and the rest of child development, is interesting.
What’s going on with Prop 98
The budget includes funding for Proposition 98 that is at about the same level as the current fiscal year. The lower spending on Proposition 98 is a result of not including the Governor’s proposed taxes requiring a two-thirds vote in the final budget package. Overall Proposition 98 expenditures will be approximately $48.3 billion in the budget year (excluding child care, but including preschool).
Redevelopment and November 2012 Election
The budget contains budget shifts that affect the Prop 98 guarantee – the politics and exact timing of which are still emerging. The budget shift $5.6 billion in GF revenues to local governments to pay for various services, including a redirect of inmates to county jails. By sending that money to counties, the budget no longer counts that $5.6 billion as GF revenue – driving down the Prop 98 guarantee in 2011-12.
We understand the governor and democratic leaders have pledged to pursue a November 2012 ballot measure that places this "realignment" plan in the constitution. That measure also will include tax increases to pay for realignment in future years. This is similar to what the Governor had proposed in January.
The budget says that if the voters reject this measure, or if the election never occurs, the state must determine in how much it would have owed schools under Prop 98 for the 2011-12 fiscal year had the $5.6 billion never gone to local governments. That amount is currently estimated to be around $2.1 billion. The money would be repaid over five years and would be dedicated to paying off deferrals, mandates and other onetime purposes – in that priority order.
Legislative Update -June, 2011
Among bills amended last week were:
SB 46 (Correa) which requires public agencies to post on their website the information contained in the compensation disclosure forms filed by persons in the district required to file a statement of economic interests. This will apply not just to board members but to your Superintendent, CBO and other district determined filers.
SB 161 (Huff) regarding the administration of epilepsy seizure drugs for students was further amended to require the guidelines to be developed by the Dept. of Public Health and ensure that volunteers are only solicited via e-mail.
SB 462 (Blakeslee) was amended to now authorize instead of require SELPAs to develop a voluntary special education advocate certification program for persons who participate, upon the invitation of a parent, as a member of a pupil’s IEP team or mediation conference.
We continue to watch with concern AB 165 (Lara) which deals with limits on pupil fees and intends to respond to the ACLU decision. While this bill continues to evolve issues remain expressly, the repayment of past fees and certification by the board that past and future fees are all compliant. Certain fees remain legal however all pupil fees and charges will be scrutinized more rigorously. The specified fees include, but may not be limited to, charges for optional attendance as a spectator at a school sponsored activity, food served to students under school nutrition programs, replacement costs for lost or damaged books or supplies loaned to a student, supplies needed for specific activities that the student uses and gets to keep, actual costs of duplicating records, transportation to and from school, or optional fingerprinting of students
FYI - 6-6-11
AB 47 (Huffman): Reforms the Open Enrollment Act - passed off the Assembly Floor to Senate
AB 124 (Fuentes): Establishes English Language Development Standards Commission to Align ELD to the new ELA Common Core - passed off Assembly Floor to Senate
SB 140 (Lowenthal): Creates a bridge to Common Core by requiring the SPI to seek and approve a list of supplemental instructional materials that LEAs can use in conjunction with their current basic texts to ensure alignment of instruction to Common Core. Also authorizes LEAs to locally adopt instructional materials aligned to Common Core. - passed off the Senate floor to the Assembly.
AB 1049(Brownley); Would have required the Legislative Analyst Office to convene a state policy workgroup to include stakeholders that would develop and recommend a single accountability formula to be used for both state and federal accountability purposes which defines "persistently low performing schools." Held in Assembly Appropriations
Legislative Update -May, 2011
Earlier today Governor Brown released his May Revision to the proposed 2011-12 budget. State revenues have come in significantly higher than was projected last January and are projected to be higher in 2011-12 than was estimated in January. This has the effect of increasing all the projected school funding amounts. However, the basic choice of whether to extend the temporary tax revenues makes it difficult to project the specific funding level. School districts have been struggling both with the magnitude of the potential cuts to education and with the extraordinary uncertainty surrounding this particular state budget. The Governor’s plan is encouraging in terms of the specific numbers, but does little to resolve the uncertainty.
The Governor’s May Revision contains an increase in the Proposition 98 guarantee to $52.4 billion next year, nearly $3 billion higher than what the Legislature approved in March. If approved, this would be the highest Proposition 98 funding since 2007-08.
His revision also proposes to eliminate the $2.1 billion deferral and begin repaying roughly $8.2 billion in debt to schools, using one-time funds.
All of this is contingent upon his proposal that the Legislature extend expiring tax measures before the end of the fiscal year and put the question before voters in the fall. The governor said that without the Legislature or the voters approving the tax extensions schools could still face a $5 billion reduction in an all-cuts budget.
Driving the increase in the Prop 98, Brown is projecting revenues will be $6.6 billion better than the January estimates, which means that with a $1.2 billion reserve – the remaining shortfall will be about $10.2 billion.
The May revision shifts the responsibility for providing mental health services, including out‑of‑home residential services, from county mental health agencies and county welfare agencies to school districts.
The plan also reflects the permanent repeal of the AB 3632 mandate and removes mental health services from the realignment proposal for counties.
The plan proposes a reduction of $38.2 million for K-14 mandates to reflect the adoption of specific recommendations of the K-14 working group on mandate reform created by Chapter 724, Statutes of 2010.
The plan would eliminate funding for CALPADS by reducing $2.9 million federal Title VI funds and 5.3 positions to Department of Education and the suspension of funding for all CALPADS development. There would also be an elimination of money for CALTIDES.
Brown also plans on eliminating 43 boards, commissions, task forces, offices and departments which he called “an inefficient use of taxpayer dollars,” including eliminating the Departments of Mental Health and Alcohol and Drug Programs.
He has also proposed merging the Healthy Families Program into the Medi-Cal program.
Legislative Update -April, 2011
| Governance Legislation 04-14-11.docx | School Finance Legislation 04-14-11.docx | School Safety Legislation 04-14-11.docx |
Legislative Update - March, 2011
State Budget Update
Late last week the Budget Conference Committee approved its compromise version of the 2011-12 State Budget. The Budget Conference Committee version largely adopted the January proposal from Governor Brown, including the elimination of redevelopment agencies and the continuation of about $8 billion per year in temporary tax revenues for another five years. So far Assembly and Senate Republicans have rejected this approach. It is expected that the next ten days will see dramatic behind-the-scene, and occasionally public, negotiations over this issue.
The action by the Conference Committee allows the budget to now move forward to a vote on the floors of the State Assembly and State Senate. A vote could come as early as Thursday, but will likely be delayed as negotiations continue. Linked to the issue of continuation of the taxes is what reforms will Republicans seek in exchange for their agreement to place the taxes on that ballot. Most observers think the most likely issues concern pension reform and/or business regulatory relief. Under the Governor’s plan, at least two Republican votes in the Assembly and two in the Senate are required to place on the ballot the issue of continuation of the temporary taxes.
Unexpected Impact on Preschool Programs and Basis Aid Districts
For K-12 education, the Conference Committee version of the budget is mostly consistent with the Governor’s January proposal. However, there are at least two major variances. The conference committee reduces the total dollar amount of the cuts to child development, but it includes preschool among those cuts—the Governor’s proposal excluded preschool. Further, the conference committee version would continue the basic aid ―"fair share" cuts, which were not included in the Governor’s budget proposal. Key points concerning the Conference Committee version of the budget are as follows:
Proposition 98. Provides $110 million above the Governor’s ongoing Proposition 98 funding for
2011-12, for a total of $49.9 billion. This is the revised minimum guarantee based on Conference Committee revenue adjustments.
New Deferral. Adopts the Governor’s proposal to defer $2.1 billion in K-12 funds from 2011-12 to 2012-13.
Basic Aid Districts. Includes an 8.9% ―fair share reduction to basic aid school districts for 2010-11 and 2011-12. This reduction is intended to be the ongoing revenue limit reductions applied to school districts.
Mental Health Services. Provides $80 million in one-time funds for 2010-11 to schools for mental health related services.
Mandates. Adopts the Governor’s proposal to provide $89.9 million to fund the K-14 state-mandated local program costs for 2011-12.
Economic Impact Aid. Restores $56 million to the Economic Impact Aid program based on updated workload estimates.
Special Disabilities Adjustment. Adopts the Governor’s proposal to eliminate funding for the special education Special Disabilities Adjustment.
CALPADS. Provides a total of $2.3 million ($1.5 million in federal Title VI and $781,000 in Title II) for 2010-11 for the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS). Adopts budget bill language that requires first priority for the funds to support the transfer of knowledge from the CALPADS contractor to staff of the department and any other relevant state agency. Adopts trailer bill language to require CDE, as a condition of receiving funds to administer CALPADS, to provide local education agencies with the standardized templates and data necessary for LEAs to meet the requirements established in the School Accountability Report Card.
Categorical Flexibility. Approves the Governor’s proposal to extend various flexibility options to school districts for an additional two years, including categorical flexibility, routine and deferred maintenance requirements, class size reduction, instructional minutes and local budget reserve requirements.
Child Development. The Conference Committee version restores the $256 million in 2010-11 funding vetoed from CalWORKs Stage 3 Child Development by former Governor Schwarzenegger. Although the Conference Committee version of the budget makes deep cuts to child development programs in 2011-12, those cuts are less than those proposed by Governor Brown. Following is the detail provided by budget committee staff. It is noteworthy that the cuts include an across-the-board cut of 15% to preschool and a 10% reduction in standard reimbursement rates.
§ Alternative to 34.6 percent Subsidy Reduction. Approves alternative to the Governor’s proposal for a 34.6% subsidy reduction to instead reduce all contracts, including preschool, by 15%, generating $267 million in Proposition 98 savings.
§ Eliminate Eligibility for 11-12 Year Olds. Approve the elimination of services for 11-12 year olds during traditional hours, while protecting services during non-traditional hours and exempting children who are disabled, at risk of abuse, or homeless. This proposal generates $38.5 million in Proposition 98 savings.
§ Reduce Family State Median Income to 60 percent. Approves reducing the family State Median Income to 60%, generating $30 million in Proposition 98 savings.
§ Eliminate Centralized Eligibility List. Approves the elimination of funds to the Centralized Eligibility List and the transfer of funds to direct child care services.
§ Restore CalWORKs Stage 3. Approves the restoration of CalWORKs Stage 3 without any policy changes enacted during the current year.
§ Reduce License-Exempt Provider Rates. Reduces License-exempt providers’ rates from 80% of the licensed rate to 60%, generating $44.1 million in Proposition 98 savings.
§ Standard Reimbursement Rate Reduction. Reduces the Standard Reimbursement Rate Reduction by up to 10%, generating $109 million in Proposition 98 savings.
§ Family Fee Increase. Approves a 10% across the board increase to the family fee schedule.
§ Quality Programs. Approves $16 million in federal funds reduction to account for the loss of one-time American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds, in a manner that is consistent with legislative intent and prioritization of programs.
§ Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit. Approves the elimination of ―refundable‖ portion of the Child and Dependent Care Expense Credit and allocates the savings to direct provision of child care eligible households. Retains the core tax credit program.
Legislative Update - January, 2011
On December 8, 2010, The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) passed the House 216-198. It awaits a vote in the Senate. The DREAM Act has the potential to provide 360,000 undocumented high school graduates with improved access to higher education and a legal means to join the U.S. workforce. Furthermore, the DREAM Act could provide over 700,000 children between the ages of 5-17 with the hope of a promising future through education.
Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was signed by President Obama on December 13, 2010. This legislation reauthorizes the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, provides an additional $4.5 billion over 10 years to federal child nutrition programs, including school lunch; and promises to improve the quality of school breakfasts, lunches and other foods sold in schools while also strengthening nutrition programs that serve young children. NAEHCY will provide a summary of this legislation specific to homeless liaisons, state coordinators, and others working to ensure that homeless children, youth, and families have access to adequate nutrition.
Jeni Mendel
Governor Brown Announces Appointments
SACRAMENTO – Governor Jerry Brown today announced the following appointments.
John Laird, of Santa Cruz, has been appointed Secretary of the California Resources Agency. Most recently, Laird taught in the Environmental Studies Department at UC Santa Cruz. He served six years in the State Assembly, from 2002 to 2008, and was the Assembly Budget Committee Chair from 2004 to 2008. Previously, Laird was a member of the Cabrillo College Board of Trustees from 1994 to 2002. He was the Executive Director for the Santa Cruz AIDS Project from 1991 to 1993. Laird was Mayor and a City Councilmember for the city of Santa Cruz from 1981 to 1990. This position requires Senate confirmation, and the compensation is $175,000. Laird is a Democrat.
Marty Morgenstern, of Oakland, has been appointed Secretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. Since 2003, Morgenstern has consulted for the University of California on labor relations matters. He was director of the Department of Personnel Administration from 1999 to 2003. From 1994 to 1999, he worked as a private consultant to various labor organizations. Morgenstern was the Chair of the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California, Berkeley from 1987 to 1994. From 1982 to 1987, he served as a member of the Public Employment Relations Board. Morgenstern served as the Director of the Department of Personnel Administration from 1981 to 1982. In 1975, he was appointed Director of the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations by Governor Jerry Brown. This position requires Senate confirmation, and the compensation is $175,000. Morgenstern is a Democrat.
Mary Nichols, of Los Angeles, has been reappointed Chair of the California Air Resources Board, where she has served since 2007. From 2004 to 2007, Nichols served as director of the Institute of the Environment (IoE) at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she also held faculty appointments as a professor in residence at the School of Law and the School of Public Affairs. Before joining UCLA, she served as secretary for California’s Resources Agency from 1999 to 2003. Nichols served as chair of the California Air Resources Board from 1979 to 1983 under Governor Brown and was a member of the CARB beginning in 1975. She served as assistant administrator for Air and Radiation at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Clinton Administration. Compensation for this position is $142,965. Nichols is a Democrat.
Ronald Yank, of Oakland, has been appointed Director of the Department of Personnel Administration. He is a retired labor and employment law attorney. Previously, Yank served as a neutral arbitrator and mediator in the field of labor and employment law from 2007 to 2009 and was a partner at Carroll Burdick & McDonough from 1988 to 2007. Yank was a partner at Neyhart Anderson & Freitas from 1981 to 1988. Previously, he worked at Carroll Burdick & McDonough from 1974 to1981 and became a partner in 1979. Yank was an associate at Neyhart Anderson Grodin & Beeson from 1973 to 1974. He was an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric at UC Berkeley from 1967 to 1971 and worked at the Law Offices of R.J. Engel as an Associate from 1971-1973. Yank has represented bargaining units of state employees including the California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association and the CDF
Firefighters. This position requires Senate confirmation, and the compensation is $142,965. Yank is a Democrat.
Brown today also announced the following State Board of Education appointments:
Dr. Carl Anthony Cohn, of Palm Springs, has been appointed to the California State Board of Education. He has been a Professor and the Co-Director of the Urban Leadership Program at Claremont Graduate University since 2009. Previously, Cohn served as the Superintendent of Schools for the San Diego Unified School District from 2005 to 2007. He was a Clinical Professor with the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California from 2002 to 2005 and the Superintendent of Schools for the Long Beach Unified School District from 1992 to 2002. Cohn is a member of the Association of California School Administrators. Cohn is a Democrat.
Louis “Bill” Honig, of Marin, has been appointed to the California State Board of Education. He has been President of the Consortium on Reading Excellence since 2005. Previously, Honig served as a Visiting Distinguished Professor at San Francisco State University’s School of Education from 1993 to 1998. He was the Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1983 to 1993. Honig previously served on the California State Board of Education under Governor Brown from 1975 to 1983. Honig is a Democrat.
Dr. Michael Kirst, of Stanford, has been appointed to the California State Board of Education. He currently serves as a Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, where he has taught since 1969. Previously, Kirst served on the California State Board of Education under Governor Brown from 1975 to 1982. Kirst also served as the Director of Program Planning for the U.S. Office of Education and was Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Manpower, Employment, and Poverty from 1967 to 1969. Kirst is a Democrat.
Aida Molina, of Bakersfield, has been appointed to the California State Board of Education. She has served as the Executive Director on Academic Improvement and Accountability for Bakersfield City School District since 2005. Previously, Molina was a Commissioner with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing from 2004 to 2007. Molina was a principal with Bakersfield City School District from 2001 to 2005, an elementary school principal with the Sacramento Unified School District from 1999 to 2001, an assistant principal with the Galt Joint Union Elementary School District from 1997 to 1999, and a bilingual teacher from 1992 to 1997. Molina is a member of the Association of School Administrators and the California Association of Bilingual Educators. Molina is a Democrat.
James Ramos, of San Bernardino, has been appointed to the California State Board of Education. Ramos has served as the Chairman for the San Manuel Band of Indians since 2008, having previously served as Treasurer, as a member of the Business Committee, and as Chairman of the Tribe’s Gaming Commission. Ramos was re-elected in 2010 as a member of the San Bernardino Community College Board of Trustees, where he has served since 2005. He has served as a member and chairperson of the Native American Heritage Commission since 2007. Ramos is a Democrat.
Patricia Ann Rucker, of Elk Grove, has been appointed to the California State Board of Education. Since 2008, she has worked as the Legislative Advocate for the California Teachers Association and was a consultant for the California Teachers Association on instruction and professional development from 1997 to 2008. She also served as a teacher in the Del Paso Heights School District from 1983 to 1997. Rucker is a Democrat.
Trish Boyd Williams, of San Jose, has been appointed to the California State Board of Education. She has served as the Executive Director for EdSource since 1992. Previously, Williams served as a program consultant to the Director for the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth from 1983 to 1990, and as a Presidential Management Intern and then a Management Analyst for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1979 to 1982. Williams is a Democrat.
State Board of Education appointments require Senate confirmation, and the compensation is $100 per diem.
Legislative Update - November, 2010 - By Sandra Morales and Peter Birdsall
Truancy Mandates
As part of the 2010-11 State Budget, the California Legislature approved provisions to pay for state mandates. The budget includes $80 million to pay for current year mandates and $188 million to begin paying for prior year mandates that have not yet been reimbursed. Both of these actions mean that school districts will begin receiving reimbursement for the truancy notice mandates, among others.
At the same time, the Legislature approved language to modify, suspend or eliminate a few of K-12 education mandates. Of particular interest to CASCWA members, language was added to modify truancy notice requirements in an effort to reduce the state costs while preserving the underlying mandates.
First Notification Mandate (Truancy Notice) – Education Code 48260.5
The state continues the mandate for districts to notify parents of truancy and directs districts to meet with parents in the event of continuing attendance issues. However, the budget bill language amends the mandate to call for the use of “the most cost-effective” method possible to notify parents, which may include email or a phone call.
It is important to note that the requirement to notify parents when a student is truant remains. It will likely take some time for state administrative agencies to offer guidance on whether alternative methods of notification such a phone call or email meet key standards of effectiveness in contacting parents and how those alternatives impact the mandate claiming guidelines. At present it is clear that notification by letter meets those legal notification standards and may continue to be claimed for mandate reimbursement.
During the budget deliberations, representatives from the CASCWA legislative committee and our office met with members of the Legislature to discuss the importance of maintaining the truancy notification requirement. CASCWA has also begun working with other public associations such as Children Now, Public Advocates, California Association of School Counselors, California Together, and the California State PTA to protect the requirements to notify parents in a meaningful way and to promote efforts to reduce truancy.
Habitual Truant Mandate - Education Code 48262
The language regarding the habitual truant mandate fuels the same potential confusion, since it also provides for districts to use the most cost-effective method when required to make a “conscientious effort” to meet with parents regarding their student’s attendance issues. The new language references the use of email or phone calls to satisfy the conscientious effort requirement.
CASCWA is committed to working with the California Department of Education and the State Controller’s Office to implement the new law in a manner that protects the validity and integrity of the truancy notification process. CASCWA and the other public associations mentioned above will be meeting with the State Controller’s Office and key legislators to discuss criteria for truancy notifications that save state costs, but meaningfully preserve the intention of the underlying mandate.
State Budget
The 2010-11 State Budget suspends the voter-approved minimum funding guarantee for schools, Proposition 98, and provides funding for K-12 education of $49.7 billion, which is slightly higher than the $49.5 billion schools received in 2009-10. The effect of suspension is to reduce funding in the current year, but create a “maintenance factor” that must be appropriated for public schools when the economy and state budget improve.
Mandate Funding
The final budget provides $188 million in “settle-up” monies that will be distributed on an equal per-student basis and applied to school districts’ unpaid prior-year mandate claims. An additional $80 million is set aside for 2010-11 K-12 mandate costs claims. This is the only “new” state money for schools in the current year budget.
Categorical Programs
The 2010-11 State Budget makes no changes to funding for categorical programs. That means that districts will receive the same amount they received in 2009-10 and districts will continue to have the same flexibility to use those funds for “any educational purpose” as previously awarded.
Vetoes
The Governor used his line-item veto authority and took four significant actions with regard to K-12 education.
He vetoed $256 million for CalWORKs Stage 3 Child Care. Services are currently extended through December per court order.
He vetoed $133 million in funding for mental health services for disabled children. This cut has caused major uproar in the special education community and districts and others have filed lawsuits challenging this veto.
He vetoed approximately $10.4 million for the CALPADS, CSIS, and CALTIDES data systems. The Governor has set that money aside for legislation to identify an “appropriate agency” to complete the data project.
He vetoed $775,000 to eliminate the Alternative Schools Accountability Model.
Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) “Fiscal Outlook”
One month after passage of the budget, the LAO released an estimate that the budget shortfall is$25.4 billion, which consists of a $6 billion deficit in the current year budget and a $19 billion gap in 2011-12.
The LAO projects a reduction in the Proposition 98 guarantee of about $2 billion from 2010-11 to 2011-12. The projected decline is particularly difficult because the LAO projects that more than $5 billion will be required to maintain “baseline costs” for education in 2011-12. Thus, it appears that 2011-12 will be another very difficult year in terms of funding for California’s public schools. The Legislature is expected to begin addressing the shortfall when they return in January.
Legislative Update - September 28, 2010 - Rick Tebbano, CASCWA Leg. Rep.
STATE BUDGET
Only a few details have been released, but there appears to be less of an agreement that some had suggested and a lot more work remains ahead to get a deal. Sources close to Assembly Democrats said Friday that there was no agreement, especially on education funding which had been rumored to have been largely agreed upon at about $52 billion in Proposition 98 funding. Insiders said that a suspension of Proposition 98 is on the table. One issue that appears to be still in play is whether the suspension would also trigger a maintenance factor - something that the governor has tried to avoid. Facing a shortfall of about $19 billion, the negotiation team reportedly had agreed to limit spending cuts to $7.5 billion - far less than the $12 billion that the governor proposed. A Democratic plan for an elaborate tax swap appears to have died, but there would seem to be support for delaying again implementation of corporate tax credits. Insiders are saying that the governor and legislative leadership of both parties have largely agreed to use expectations of more federal money and a rosy economic outlook to boost revenue projections and to reduce the need to cut programs more.
Legislation
AB 2444 has been signed by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State, Chapter number 264, Statutes 2010.
AB 2444 (Furutani) School districts: Interdistrict Attendance This bill precludes a pupil, who is enrolled in a school pursuant to interdistrict transfer provisions under current law, from having to reapply for an interdistrict transfer and requires that a district allow a pupil to continue to attend the school in which he or she is enrolled, except as specified in terms and conditions for reapplication or revocation agreed to by the district of residence and district of enrollment; also prohibits a district from rescinding transfer permits for pupils entering grades 11 or 12.
AB 1854 has been vetoed by the Governor.
AB 1854 (Ammiano) School Attendance: residency requirements.
Veto message: This bill would undermine and potentially limit a local district's current residency verification process. Determining what proofs of residency should be accepted should continue to remain a local decision. Nothing in current law prohibits a school district from using any type of documentation that fits its local circumstances.
Legislative Update - September 17, 2010 - Rick Tebbano, CASCWA Leg. Rep.
CAPITOL MEETINGS:
Sheila Lawrence, Director of Student Services for San Leandro USD and CASCWA legislative committee member, came to Sacramento on Thursday, September 9th and met with Susanna Cooper, principal consultant for Senator Steinberg and with legislative aides for Senator Leno and Senator Liu and. The purpose of these meetings was to discuss the importance of truancy notification notices.
As you know, the Legislature has approved SB 1317 (Leno) which would define a misdemeanor for parents of students in grades K-8 who are chronically truant and establish a deferred entry of judgment program for such parents and guardians.
On the budget side, the Legislative conference committee has approved language to modify the truancy notification and habitual truants mandates *to limit costs while preserving the underlying mandates*.
Our understanding is that the language would allow school districts to provide notification via phone calls or emails, or via letters- whatever measure the district deems necessary. Further, it is our understanding that the legislative intent by this action is to significantly reduce the state cost of the mandate.
It is our position that the passage of SB 1317 along with the intent to modify the truancy notification and habitual truants mandates are inconsistent and miss the important linkage between those issues and the critical need to reduce California*s dropout rate.
The Legislative Advocate Office wanted to schedule meetings Susana Cooper and Capitol staffers to convey the importance of the truancy notification notices and to steer the conversation at the state level to find effective ways to reduce truancy rather than viewing the issue as being bureaucratic and expensive.
On that same day, the Legislative Advocate Office also convened a meeting with advocates of other public associations such as (Children Now, public advocates, the California Association of School Counselors, California Together, the California State PTA, and of course CASCWA) to and determine whether it would be useful to work together on these important topics.
As a result of that meeting, the next steps are:
1. To request a meeting with Senator Liu to discuss the working group and the need to involve organizations such as ours, and not just state agency staff.
2. If the conference committee language is approved, we will request a meeting with State Controller Chiang to discuss the criteria for truancy notifications that meaningfully *preserve the underlying mandate*.
OTHER INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS IN LEGISLATION:
There was some excitement last week regarding the release of the Federal Jobs money. In a move that will help Republican Lt. Governor candidate Able Maldonado, the Governor officially requested SB 847 (Steinberg)<http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/sen/sb_0801-0850/sb_847_bill_20100901_enrolled.html>
and AB 185
(Buchannan)<http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_0151-0200/ab_185_bill_20100902_enrolled.html>
and allowed Maldonado, as acting Governor, to sign the bills into law.
SB 847 will allow for the immediate appropriation of the federal JOBS money. The CDE released estimated apportionments for LEAs early in the week. AB 185 will allow for the appropriation of the second round of federal SFSF stimulus funds and School Improvement Grant (SIG) funds.
CDE is expecting to act quickly on these funds and will put out a notice shortly. The Governor was pushed by districts to act quickly on these funds. His request for the bills was required to allow the bills to move before the state passes a budget for the current year.
The Big 5 have been meeting regularly about the budget, the big question is whether or not there is resolution in sight. Announcement by the Controller that cash flow is sufficient to head off IOUs until October has relieved some pressure to resolve the standoff. The rest of the members have gone back to their districts to campaign.
Legislative Update - September 3, 2010 - Rick Tebbano, CASCWA Leg. Rep.
FEDERAL FUNDS ON THE WAY:
In the closing hours of the Legislative session, the Legislature approved two bills that will allow the CDE to allocate more than $1.5 billion in federal funding for K-12 education!
SB 847 (Steinberg) authorizes the allocation of about $1.2 billion in one-time federal Education Jobs funding. Ninety percent of this funding will be allocated quickly (likely by October) on the basis of school district, county office of education, and charter school revenue limits. The funds may be used over the current and subsequent school year for compensation, benefits, and other expenses, including support services, that are necessary to retain existing employees, recall or rehire former employees, and to hire new employees at the school-level for educational and related services.
Because the state lacks a current-year budget, SB 847 is an appropriation outside the budget. Therefore, the Governor must ask the Legislature to send him the bill in order to approve the spending ahead of the budget. The Governor is expected to ask for the bill before he leaves the state for international travel next week. Education groups are sending letters to the Governor encouraging him to ask for the bill and sign it so funds can move as quickly as possible.
The CDE has posted the preliminary calculations for the amounts local educational agencies are entitled to receive based on the state’s revenue-limit formulas at http://www.cde.ca.gov/193082.
AB 185 (Buchanan) authorizes the allocation of federal SIG funding to the districts and schools whose applications were approved by the SBE last month. This program allocates more than $400 million one-time funds to these schools over a three-year period. Relatively few schools are impacted, but the level of funding for those schools is high. For example, several high schools on the list will receive nearly $2 million per year, for three years, to implement major restructuring efforts.
AB 185 also authorizes the allocation of the final installment of the federal SFSF, representing about $271 million in one-time funding for K-12 education. These funds (approximately $40 per ADA) will be allocated to offset cuts to school district and county office of education revenue limits, likely on the same basis as the prior SFSF funds were released. Districts will have three years to expend the funds. The Governor is expected to sign this bill.
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STILL NO STATE BUDGET:
The Legislature failed to approve a state budget during its last day of the regular legislative session. Legislative leaders staged a budget drill, but the votes were predictable and fell along party lines. The Democrats voted for the Conference Committee version of the budget, which rejects all the Governor's proposed cuts to K-12 education. The Republicans voted for the Governor's May Revision proposal, which contains no tax increases, but makes deep cuts (approximately $275 per ADA) to K-12 education.
While at his Wednesday press conference the Governor posited that they were “very close”, no one in the leadership of either house thinks that is true.
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2009-10 LEGISLATIVE SESSION ENDS:
Tuesday marked the official end of the legislative session. All legislation having passed both houses of the Legislature must now be signed by the Governor within 30 days in order to become law.
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FOLLOWING ARE KEY EDUCATION BILLS SENT TO THE GOVERNOR:
AB 184 (Block) Special education funding
Summary: Existing law adjusts funding for individuals with exceptional needs based on an incidence multiplier, as defined, for each special education local plan area. This bill would continue the current special education incidence factor formula through the 2010-11 fiscal year. The bill would make the adjustment inoperative on July 1, 2011, and repeal it on January 1, 2012.
AB 1860 (Berryhill, Tom) Alcoholic beverages: places of consumption
Summary: Existing law generally prohibits the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages at a public schoolhouse or any grounds thereof. Existing law provides that this prohibition does not apply if the alcoholic beverage is possessed, consumed, or sold, pursuant to a license, for an event during the weekend or at other times when pupils are not on the grounds of an overnight retreat facility owned and operated by a county office of education in a county of the 18th or 20th class. This bill would expand the exception to the prohibition to allow the possession, consumption, or sale of alcoholic beverages at such a retreat facility that is owned or operated by a county office of education in a county of any class or by a school district.
SB 675 (Steinberg) Partnership academies: Clean Technology and Renewable Energy Job Training, Career Technical Education, and Dropout Prevention Program
Summary: This bill would require the Controller annually to allocate $8,000,000 from the Energy Resources Program Account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for expenditure in the form of local grants to be allocated pursuant to the existing provisions for creating and maintaining partnership academies. The bill would require a grantee to implement or maintain a partnership academy that focuses on employment in clean technology businesses and renewable energy businesses and provides skilled workforces for the products and services for energy or water conservation, or both, renewable energy, pollution reduction, or other technologies.
SB 1059 (Liu) Local educational agencies: districts of residence
Summary: This bill would provide that a school district into which a pupil is placed in a regularly licensed children's institution, a licensed foster home, or a family home pursuant to a placement under a designated statute is the district of residence. The bill would further require that this school district of residence would be responsible for providing the pupil with a free appropriate public education, as defined. Because this provision would impose new requirements on school districts, it would constitute a state-mandated local program.
SB 1317 (Leno) Truancy
Summary: This bill would define a chronic truant as any pupil subject to compulsory full-time education or to compulsory continuing education who is absent from school without a valid excuse for 10% or more of the schooldays in one school year, from the date of enrollment to the current date, provided that the appropriate school district officer or employee has complied with specified provisions of law.
SB 1357 (Steinberg) California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System
Summary: This bill would require the department, contingent on federal funding for this purpose and in consultation with the Department of Finance and the Legislative Analyst's Office, to prepare CALPADS to include data on a quarterly rate of pupil attendance. The bill would require that CALPADS be capable of issuing to local educational agencies periodic reports on district, school, class, and individual pupil rates of absence and chronic absentees, as defined.
SB 1381 (Simitian) Kindergarten: age of admission
Summary: This bill would change the required birthday for admission to kindergarten and first grade to November 1 for the 2012-13 school year, October 1 for the 2013-14 school year, and September 1 for the 2014-15 school year and each school year thereafter, and would require a child whose admission to a traditional kindergarten is delayed to be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program, as defined. The bill would require pupils who are participating in transitional kindergarten to be included in computing the average daily attendance of a school district in accordance with specified requirements.
Legislative Update - August 24, 2010 - Rick Tabbano, CASCWA Leg. Rep.
You may already have this, but here this is what is contained in SB 1317. We are following this bill closely and I will keep you updated.
SB 1317 (Leno) creates a misdemeanor when a parent or guardian of a pupil of six years of age or older has failed to reasonably supervise and encourage the pupil's school attendance and the pupil has become a chronic truant. Specifically, this bill:
1) Deems any pupil a "chronic truant" when he or she is absent form school without valid excuse for 10 percent or more of the schooldays in one school year, from the date of enrollment to the current date, provided that the appropriate school district officer or employee as complied with existing law.
2) Provides that a parent or guardian of a pupil of six years of age or older who is in Kindergarten or any of Grades 1 to 8, inclusive, whose child is a chronic truant, who has failed to reasonably supervise and encourage the pupil's school attendance, and who has been offered language-accessible support services to address the pupil's truancy is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not exceeding $2,000, or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment. A parent or guardian guilty of a misdemeanor, as specified, may participate in the deferred entry of judgment (DEJ) program.
3) Allows superior courts to establish DEJ programs that includes the following components, inclusive, to adjudicate cases involving parents or guardians of elementary school pupils who are chronic truants:
a) A dedicated court calendar;
b) Leadership by a judge of the superior court in that county; and,
c) Service referrals for parents or guardians, including, but not necessarily limited to, all of the following:
i) Case management;
ii) Mental and physical health services;
iii) Parenting classes and support;
iv) Substance abuse treatment; and,
v) Child care and housing.
d) A clear statement that, in lieu of trial, the court may grant DEJ with respect to the current crime or crimes charged if the defendant pleads guilty to each charge and waives time for the pronouncement of judgment and that, upon the defendant's compliance with the terms and conditions set forth by the court and agreed to by the defendant upon the entry of his or her plea, and upon the motion of the prosecuting attorney, the court will dismiss the charge or charges against the defendant;
e) A clear statement that failure to comply with any condition under the program may result in the prosecuting attorney or the court making a motion for entry of judgment, whereupon the court will render a finding of guilty to the charge or charges pled, enter judgment, and schedule a sentencing hearing as otherwise provided in this code; and,
f) An explanation of criminal record retention and disposition resulting from participation in the DEJ program and the defendant's rights relative to answering questions about his or her arrest and DEJ following successful completion of the program.
4) Mandates funding for the DEJ program shall be derived solely from non-state sources.
5) Prohibits a prosecutor from charging a parent or guardian of an elementary school pupil who is a chronic truant, with a violation of this section and Penal Code Section 272 relating to contributing to the delinquency of a minor for parents and guardians of truant children.
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The Legislature continues to work on finalizing legislation for the year. Bills are now out of committees and moved to the floors of each house for final action. Most were amended and require a trip back to the House of Origin for concurrence in amendments before moving to the Governor. Several hundred bills remain on both floors to be resolved before the 31st.
Budget
We hear that the "Big 5" have not met as a group for weeks, but small groups of those 5 leaders have been meeting off and on. There will be a special session that starts after they officially close August 31st that will deal strictly with the budget...but that's a broad definition, so expect education policy to work its way in.
Education Funds Deferred
The Controller John Chiang, Treasurer Bill Lockyer, and Finance Director Ana Matosantos sent today a letter to the Chairs of the Senate and Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committees, informing them that the deferral of payments to K-12 schools and counties that had been scheduled for October is being moved into September to ensure sufficient cash reserves. The amount of the K-12 deferral is $2.5 billion, and the amount of the deferral to counties is $400 million.
The authority for the deferrals (and their acceleration) is contained in ABX8 5, which was approved in February during Special Session.
As details and the impacts become clearer I will let you know.
Federal Jobs Funds are tied up in this budget delay. State legislative authorization is required before these funds can actually be distributed to school districts and county offices of education. Senator Darrell Steinberg, President Pro Tem of the State Senate, has amended SB 847 to provide this authorization. The co-author is Assembly Speaker John Perez. With the regular legislative session scheduled to end this week, this SB 847 will need to move very quickly.
Legislative Update - August 9, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
State budget news – Legislative leaders are talking openly about sending a budget to the Governor by the end of August, but privately, staff is speculating that there will be no final budget until the Governor signs or vetoes all of the legislation currently pending, which would put the budget off until September 30th.
The federal education jobs funding is hung-up in the budget process because without legislation authorizing the release of funds, districts won’t see the money. How the state distributes the funding is the major issue under consideration. Obvious methodologies remain ADA, revenue limit, and Title 1. If you have a strong preference, please let us know so we can advocate on your behalf.
LEGISLATION - It was an active week for legislation as the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees took action on their “suspense files”. The suspense file is basically a holding cell for bills costing the state more than $100,000. Bills are heard by the committee and then sent to the suspense file to await their fate on a single day when the committee chair and respective house leadership decide which bills will be released. If not released, bills are held in committee, never actually receiving a “NO” vote. “How” and “why” certain bills are chosen to move forward is more art than science, and more politics than finance.
Legislation passing out of the respective Appropriations Committees now goes to the house floors for consideration. Both the Senate and the Assembly have scheduled floor sessions everyday for the next two weeks to debate and vote on legislation. It is the time of year when the two houses (both dominated by large democratic majorities) often play a chess game of hostage-taking and negotiation regarding the fate of bills. August 31 is the final day the Legislature may vote to pass bills to the Governor. He then has until September 30th to sign or veto legislation.
* Of particular note – SB 1357 (Steinberg) passed committee unanimously.
BILLS THAT ARE MOST RELEVENT UNDER THE UMBRELLA OF CWA
AB 2266 (Bradford) SCHOOL DISTRICT RECORDS.
Summary: Existing law requires the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Department of General Services, to approve and adopt appropriate standards for the purpose of storing and recording documents in electronic media and requires the standards to include a requirement that a trusted system, as defined, be used. This bill , commencing January 1, 2012, would authorize the destruction of an original of a school district record of which a photographic or microfilm copy has been made when provisions are made for permanently maintaining that copy in the files of the district and would authorize the destruction of an original record of which an electronic copy has been made if the governing board of a school district annually certifies that provisions are made to maintain the copies in a trusted system, as defined, and the copy is a non-alterable optical image reproduction produced by technology that does not permit alterations, changes, additions, or deletions to be made of the original record . The bill would state that these provisions do not relieve the governing board of a school district from a requirement in law to produce an original record that is basic to a required audit, unless that record can be reproduced from the copy that was made from the original record.
The measure passed committee 7-4.
SB 1381 (Simitian D): KINDERGARTEN AGE OF ADMISSION.
Summary: Existing law requires that a child be admitted to kindergarten at the beginning of a school year, or at any time later in the same year if the child will have his or her 5th birthday on or before December 2 of that school year. An elementary school is required to admit a child to the first grade during the first month of a school year if the child will have his or her 6th birthday on or before December 2 of that school year. This bill would change the required birthday for admission to kindergarten and first grade to November 1 for the 2012-13 school year, October 1 for the 2013-14 school year, and September 1 for the 2014-15 school year and each school year thereafter, and would require a child whose admission to a traditional kindergarten is delayed to be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program, as defined. The bill would require pupils who are participating in transitional kindergarten to be included in computing the average daily attendance of a school district in accordance with specified requirements. To the extent those changes establish new administrative duties on the governing boards of school districts in implementing the changes; they would impose a state-mandated local program.
The measure passed committee with Democrats supporting and Republicans opposing.
AB 2027 (Blumenfield): ONLINE EDUCATION/SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.
Summary: This bill, commencing with the 2012-13 fiscal year, would provide that school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools that offer online education courses may claim attendance toward average daily attendance on the basis of a pupil's attendance in an online course or courses that satisfy prescribed criteria.
The measure was held in committee.
AB 2446 (Furutani): GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS.
Summary: This bill, commencing with the 2011-12 school year and until July 1, 2016, would add completion of a course in career technical education, as defined, as an alternative to the requirement that a pupil complete a course in visual or performing arts or foreign language.
The measure was held in committee.
SB 381 (Wright): INSTRUCTION – COURSE OF STUDY.
Summary: This bill would prohibit a school district from adopting a graduation requirement that commences with the 2010-11 school year and requires the completion of additional coursework to meet or exceed the requirements and prerequisites for admission to a 4-year California public university unless the district also requires the completion of a sequence of at least 3 career and technical education courses. However, this provision would not apply to a school district that, by June 30, 2009, has adopted graduation requirements that require the completion of all minimum coursework necessary to meet the requirements and prerequisites for admission to a 4-year California public university.
This measure was held in committee.
Legislative Update - July 23, 2010- Sandra Morales, SI&A
While the Legislative Summer recess continues, there are a few issues in motion.
There will be a special meeting of the State Board of Education on Monday, August 2. Among other things, they will tackle issues related to the common core standards and Open Enrollment and Parental Trigger from Gloria Romero’s RTTT bill.
Common Core: Last week, the Academic Standards Commission and staff came to agreement on a complex set of recommendations for integrating the national common core with California’s existing academic standards for math and English language arts.
The English language arts section was adopted by the commission without dissent, while math – far more complicated and controversial – was approved on a vote of 14-2. The proposal now goes to the California State Board of Education on August 2, where it is likely to be well received.
Open Enrollment/Parental Trigger: Last week, the State Board of Education took adopted emergency regulations implementing the Open Enrollment Act, SB X5 4 (Romero). The Board approved the portion of the regulations that define how the list of 1,000 "low achieving" schools will be identified. The Department of Education will be recalculating the list in September, following release of the new API data. The proposed regulations were amended to remove provisions that would have required school districts to start accepting transfer applications for enrollment in the 2010-2011 school year. The proposed regulations were also amended to eliminate language that limited the definition of “adverse financial impact” as a basis for denying transfers.
If the emergency regulations are approved by the Office of Administrative Law, school districts that have schools on the list of 1,000 low performing schools will be required to notify parents or guardians of each pupil enrolled in a low achieving school of their option to transfer to another district. This notification will be required on the first day of instruction. If the first day of instruction takes place before CDE releases the final list of 1,000 schools, then notification must be provided no later than September 15, 2010.
Students attending low achieving schools may then start applying for transfers to a school in another school district not on the list of low-achieving schools and with a higher API ranking. The list of 1,000 lowest performing schools excludes alternative schools such as community day and charter schools, and schools that would result in a given school district having more than 10% of its schools on the low performance list.
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Legislative Update - June 28, 2010- Sandra Morales, SI&A
There is growing opposition to Steinberg’s SB 1285 (The ACLU/LAUSD lawsuit bill), which is up this week. The bill would attempt to impose new sweeping statewide requirements for hiring with strict penalties and no funding. Additionally, the bill is responding to a trial court lawsuit – not an appellate court decision – so this thing could change and legislative action now would be premature. Labor organizations are obviously opposed and now ACSA and many LEAs are taking an oppose position.
The Budget Conference Committee negotiations continue. Only a couple of small, non-education items were closed last week. We’ll be doing this for a while…
The Governor signed AB 191, which will allow the send out to schools $800 million of deferred education funds by the end of June.
The Assembly Education Committee put off all bills to their last regular hearing of the year, which is next Wednesday.
The Senate Education Committee met and move passed several measures:
· AB 548 (Chesbro) would allow districts to choose between two options for class size reduction apportionments, addressing the concern that some districts underestimated their 2008-09 CSR numbers hoping to settle up later in 2009. The potential $100 million additional state cost could hold this up in Appropriations committee.
· AB 1741 (Coto) would require petitions for charter schools in which at least 15% of the pupils will be English Learners to provide specific information regarding the education program to be provided to those pupils.
· AB 1854 (Ammiano) would expand the list of documents that districts are required to accept as proof of residency.
· AB 1876 (Torlakson) would allow the use of After School Education & Safety Program funds for weekend programs.
· AB 1933 (Brownley) would extend the right of foster children to remain in their school of origin after changing residential placement.
· AB 2266 (Bradford) would allow school districts to make “trusted copies” (electronic) of documents rather than retaining original records.
· AB 2444 (Furutani) would provide that a pupil who has been granted an interdistrict transfer does not have to re-apply for that transfer in order to remain enrolled at the school the following year.
The Assembly Public Safety Committee passed SB 1317 (Leno) and re-referred the bill to the Assembly Education Committee. This bill will be heard on Wednesday, June 30th. As reported before, this bill would define “Chronic Truancy” and provide the same amount of imprisonment as Penal Code 272.
High School Curriculum Reform – AB 2648 of 2008
The Assembly Select Committee on Career Technical Education and Workforce Development met Thursday to hear SPI Jack O’Connell present the findings of the AB 2648 report on High School Curriculum Reform. This brief overview focused on recommendations surrounding addition hands-on learning opportunities and the potential of restructuring of CTE programs through a remodeled ROP structure. The report stresses the multiple pathways or “linked learning” approach. At least 2 additional hearings on the report are forthcoming. One, by Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, next week in the Select Committee on Schools and Communities. Another by the Assembly Education Committee has a date yet uncertain.
California’s decision to adopt of modify the new federal Common Core Standards is still pending. SI&A has made available a free new blog written by Scott Hill on California academic standards – please read it and encourage others. Visit http://sia-standards-watch.blogspot.com. The blog provides a running commentary on the Common Core adoption debate in California as well as background material on academic standards and the systems to support them.
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Legislative Update - June 21, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
Good news from the Capitol. There is agreement that $800 million that had been school deferred payments from June 2010 to July 2010 will now be paid in June! Better news is that they are actually on track to make that happen, although the timeline is tight.
AB 191 was amended and passed by the Senate on Thursday. The bill is now scheduled for concurrence in those amendments by the Assembly today, Monday, June 21st. If the Assembly gets the bill to the Governor AND the Governor signs the bill on June 21st, the apportionment is scheduled to be available to schools by June 30, the close of the fiscal year. So, while I wouldn’t bet the house on it, I think the odds are really good.
Besides the current year advance payment, the Budget Conference Committee heard all of the education items, but closed almost nothing, leaving open discussion of Class Size Reduction, mandates, categorical flexibility, Prop 98 calculations, etc. I don’t expect them to return to education topics for at least a week. There was an excellent discussion on Thursday afternoon about the interaction of state and local funds. I’ve included this link to the LAO briefing paper on the topic which goes through how programs came to be funded either locally or by state government. Discussion of requirements the state puts on local governments will also translate into the schools discussion in the weeks ahead, so the members’ familiarity with these issues will be helpful. http://www.lao.ca.gov/handouts/Conf_Comm/2010/Overview_CA_Local_Gov_6_15_10.pdf
The LAO is proposing to merge CTE funds into a CTE block grant which is receiving considerable attention. The proposal still has not been fully fleshed out and the devil is in the details but the short version of the plan so far is that it would merge ROP, partnership academy, apprenticeship, specialized secondary and ag voc ed into one CTE Block grant that could only be used for CTE programs (as yet, undefined). Funding would flow through county offices of education. Each would get the same dollar amount as all of the agencies in that county received last year. The block grant would be tied to additional accountability for outcomes including participation in sequenced courses, grad rates and a reduction for the need in remediation in post-secondary or industry programs. The block grant would result in less flexibility for tier III flex program funds like ROP and more Ag Voc Ed and Partnership Academies, causing different results from district to district. More details will be forthcoming, but members were interested enough in the idea to send LAO back to keep working on it.
Meanwhile, Education Policy Committees met in both houses. AB 346 (Conway) was recently amended to delay implementation for 1-year of requirements for volunteer coaches to obtain Activity Supervisor Certification from CTC. This will allow the myriad of technical problems with the bill to be negotiated and a workable clearance system to be in place for the 12-13 school year. The bill passed Senate Education Committee unanimously and is being fast tracked to be signed before this new school year started.
The Senate also passed AB 1841 (Buchanan) which conforms state special education law to federal law by specifically prohibiting schools from initiating due process procedures against a parent of a student with special needs if the parent revokes consent for special education. This bill will next be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Assembly Education Committee passed SB 1255 (Padilla) which restricts the sale of sweetened electrolyte replacement beverages (ERBs). Effective July 1, 2011, with the beginning of the next school year, middle and high schools can’t sell ERBs that contain 42 grams or less of added sweeteners from one-half hour before the start of the school day until one-half hour after the end of the school day. There was discussion in committee about also limiting the sale of unsweetened vitamin waters, but instead the committee asked the Dept. of Public Health to investigate the toxicity of those waters, particularly situations where children are receiving high levels of some vitamins by drinking multiple drinks. That issue goes out for further investigation. The bill will now be heard in Senate Health Committee. Bills of interest this coming week in Senate Education Committee include: AB 2366 (Brownley) which defers inclusion of the Meals for Needy Pupils program into the revenue limit for one year, allowing that number to adjust upward and not penalize districts in this economy. AB 2027 (Blumenfield) expands the use of on-line education.
AB 2446 (Furutani) allows a CTE course to meet graduation requirements in lieu of a foreign language or art course.
SB 1317 (Leno) will be heard tomorrow (June 22) in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. This bill has been amended to include the definition of “Chronic Truant” (as previously defined by bill SB 1148 Alquist). This bill would define a chronic truant as any pupil subject to compulsory full-time education or to compulsory continuing education who is absent from school without a valid excuse for 10% or more schooldays in one school year, from the date of enrollment to the current date. This bill would provide that a parent or guardian whose child is a chronic truant, and who has failed to reasonably supervise and encourage the pupil’s school attendance, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not exceeding $2,000, or by imprisonment in a county jail for a period not exceeding one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment. The bill would prohibit a prosecutor from charging a parent or guardian with a violation of both these provisions and specified provisions of existing law involving criminal liability for parents or guardians of truant children.
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Legislative Update - June 11, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
The week has passed and the Joint Budget Conference Committee still has not take up education issues. We had been told that they were going to take up education issues on Thursday (yesterday) but that did not happen. The current plan is that they will address education on Monday at 10am. They have little expectation of closing many items, but anticipate a substantial discussion of the flexibility issues, including a proposal to merge all of the CTE programs into a “CTE block grant”. It would include ROC/P monies that are now flexible and partnership academy and other programs that are not now flexible.
While there is a June 15 constitutional deadline for budget adoption that will not be met, there is still desire to have a bill to the Governor before June 30th. About half of the items have been closed so far but major issues remain in corrections, High Speed Rail, veterans services, In-home Support Services and transportation. The Budget Conferees will also hear on Monday or Tuesday an overview on the interaction of local government finance with state government funds in an effort to make clear who pays, who delivers, and who determines services. That will help drive the taxation discussion. It is unlikely a first pass of the entire conference report will be complete until next weekend. Stay tuned for a long summer.
Policy committee hearings also begin in earnest next week so most education bills will be heard. I’ve highlighted the most interesting.
Assembly Education Committee will hear the following bills:
SB 331 (Romero D) Migrant education. (Revises program requirements)
SB 798 (DeSaulnier D) Before and after school programs: 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program.
SB 1191 (Wiggins D) Education: minimum funding. (Requires QEIA reporting to include counseling review)
SB 1255 (Padilla D) Schools: nutrition: beverages. (Prohibits sale of electrolyte beverages)
SB 1290 (Kehoe D) Physical education: self-defense and safety instruction.
SB 1357 (Steinberg D) California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System.
SB 1451 (Yee D) Education: instructional materials.
SB 1473 (Wyland R) School facilities bond proceeds: performance audits. (Sets audit standard)
SCR 44 (Corbett D) Child care.
SCR 47 (DeSaulnier D) Education funding: child development centers and preschools.
Senate Education Committee will hear:
AB 35 (Furutani D) Education: workforce development.
AB 548 (Chesbro D) Education finance: Class Size Reduction Program. (This allows different formulas to be used).
AB 1223 (Block D) Linked learning.
AB 1713 (Furutani D) Public education: reporting requirements.
AB 1724 (Chesbro D) Necessary small schools: Del Norte County Unified School District.
AB 1841 (Buchanan D) Special education: parental consent. (Addresses providing services after parent withdraws consent. Please look)
AB 1874 (Evans D) Education finance: Vallejo City Unified School District.
AB 1933 (Brownley D) Foster children: education.
AB 2034 (Knight R) Public charter school volunteers: persons convicted of sex or controlled substance offenses.
AB 2048 (Torlakson D) School facilities.
AB 2081 (Committee on Education) Education Omnibus Bill.
AB 2160 (Bass D) Teacher credentialing: instruction to pupils with autism.
AB 2363 (Mendoza D) Charter schools: authorization.
ACR 88 (Torlakson D) Education.
AJR 39 (Torlakson D) Common state education standards.
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Legislative Update - June 7, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
Legislation
Las week was the deadline week for bills to get out of the house of origin, members were on the floor all day Monday through Thursday working their files and passing bills. I say passing bills because the Assembly only killed 4 bills that made it to the floor and the Senate did a similarly small number. Thus, if it got off the Appropriations Suspense File, it almost certainly moved to the other house.
A list of those bills concerning education is attached. Many have been assigned to policy committees in the second house, but those that just moved this week show up as at the desk for assignment. If you have concerns about any in particular, please let me know.
SB 1381 (Simitian) which advances the date for kindergarten admission is proceeding and was particularly called out in budget hearings as a fairly painless way to save money in the budget. AB 346 (Conway) was amended to give a one year extension of the activity supervisor clearance certificate law that has been causing districts heartache for volunteer coaches and the like. The extension is intended to give all parties more time to work out a solution to the increased cost and burdens of the new requirement. There is no opposition to the extension so we are hoping it moves quickly.
Budget Conference Committee
Both houses finished their budget work, and Conference Committee has begun with their overview on Friday. Troublingly, the only member of the 10 member committee to sit on the Education Policy or Budget Subcommittee is Senator Huff, which means he’ll need to carry the weight of explaining a number of the education issues to his colleagues.
The Assembly conferees are:
Bob Blumenfield (D – Van Nuys) – Chair, Assembly Budget Committee
· Felipe Fuentes (D – Los Angeles) – Chair, Assembly Appropriations Committee
· Nancy Skinner (D – Berkeley) – Chair, Assembly Rules Committee
· Jim Nielsen (R – Biggs) – Vice Chair, Assembly Budget Committee
· Connie Conway (R – Visalia) – Vice Chair, Assembly Appropriations Committee
The Senate conferees are:
Denise Ducheny (D – San Diego) – Chair, Senate Budget Committee
· Mark Leno (D – San Francisco) – Chair, Public Safety Committee
· Alan Lowenthal (D – Long Beach) – Chair, Transportation and Housing Committee
· Bob Dutton (R – Inland Empire) – Vice Chair, Senate Budget Committee
· Bob Huff (R – Diamond Bar) – Vice Chair, Education Committee and Budget Sub-committee #1 on Education Finance
The Education Coalition released a letter last week praising the Assembly version of the budget, which includes full funding for education. Their support however is not evidenced by either the Senate or the Governor’s office. The Legislative Analyst, Mac Taylor, presented to the committee this morning the various proposals and made his own recommendations and predictions.
Of greatest concern was his firm belief that “I don’t know how you get around suspension (of Prop 98) this year”. He noted that if additional revenues are in the mix it will increase the base and make suspension even more likely.
A link his comparison presentation is found here http://www.lao.ca.gov/handouts/conf_comm/2010/Overview_Budget_Plans.pdf
In discussing cash flow, Taylor noted that the Controller believes he will have plenty of cash through the end of August but that October will be very tight and that the Controller will likely start holding payments in August to ensure funds are available in October. He noted that “we’re at the end of the road on what we can take from schools.” So the good news is he isn’t looking to us for more than the deferrals already approved.
Taylor cautioned that difficult choices will have to be made and that the committee will “need to revisit actions already taken and areas not touched before”, meaning that some changes to child care and CalWORKS are still likely forthcoming. He also expects that revenues will have to be included.
The LAO predicts an out year problem for at least 2 years and recommends that the target for balancing this budget should be that at least half of the solution be on-going funding. When pushed to reflect on the Assembly proposal for borrowing, he noted that it could be held up in the courts and deepen the problem. He also noted that the language is not yet available and that the devil could be in the details (a sentiment echoed by Republicans). Concurrently Assm. Budget Chair Blumenfield noted that everything in their package has been done before. He also requested a comparison of the employment revenue generated by each of the proposals noting the impacts on government services and revenues with more Californians employed. That data, along with balance sheets showing impacts of cost shifts to local governments by the Governor’s plan, is scheduled to be reviewed on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.
Senator Ducheny noted that there is a real disconnect for the public on who provides services and who pays for them and suggested this should be seen as an opportunity to re-align funding with services more clearly over the next 2 years.
Education is not scheduled to be discussed until Thursday. They hope to have completed the first pass through the budget by Friday night. No one is suggesting that a budget will be accomplished by the June 15 Constitutional deadline, nor even the June 30 date to have it signed by the Governor.
Flexibility remains a mantra for Republicans as does ‘no new taxes’. Stay tuned. This will be a bumpy ride. How the elections play out next week will also impact the tone of discussions.
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Legislative Update - May 14, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
Following is our initial read of the Governor’s May Revision to his January Budget proposal. The Department of Finance is providing a briefing at 4:00 PM today. We will update you if we discover new details.
The Governor’s proposal for K-12 education funding is similar to his January proposal, except for the elimination of most child care programs. As a result of the elimination of the child care program, the Proposition 98 guarantee is re-benched downward by $1.4 billion.
Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg almost immediately described the Governor’s proposal as a “non-starter.”
2010-11 FY Adjustments:
- Reduces the Proposition 98 funding level for 2010-11 from $50 billion to $48.4 billion, resulting in an additional $1.5 billion in reductions compared to the Governor's January budget. This funding level reflects the Governor's estimate of the minimum guarantee for 2010-11 and results in a total programmatic reduction of roughly $3 billion in the budget year.
- In terms of K-12 per pupil funding, when adjusted for the removal of child care, the Governor's May Revision provides approximately $7,088 per pupil. When comparing prior year per pupil funding levels, this level of funding is roughly the level provided in 2004-05. Additionally this level of funding reflects a reduction of approximately $1,000 per pupil since 2007-08.
2010-11 Major Highlights:
- Eliminates $1.2 billion in state funding for child care and shifts $386 million in ongoing program costs to be paid for with one-time re-appropriations.
- Continues to reduce school district revenue limits by approximately $1.5 billion but withdraws the proposal to specifically require those reductions come from district administration or contracting out.
- Restores a portion of the reduction to county offices of education (COE), reducing COE revenue limits by $28.2 million rather than $45 million. This reduction is proportional to the reduction proposed for school districts. The Administration also withdraws the proposal to consolidate COE services and functions.
- Reduces school district and COE revenue limit and categorical programs by $206.3 million due to lower Cost-of-Living adjustments (roughly the same as the Governor's January Budget).
Child Care
The biggest component impacting education funding is the elimination of CalWORKS and CalWORKS Childcare, for a savings of $1.45 billion. Caseloads would be shifted to the Alternative Payment Program.
The proposal also eliminates the remainder of state funding for need-based, subsidized child care totaling $1.4 billion. State Preschool is exempted because it is a part-day education program that supports school readiness and is consistent with the Governor’s goal of preserving educational programs.
In total, the proposals would eliminate approximately 142,000 subsidized child care slots. Federal funds would remain for approximately 78,000 slots.
Senator Steinberg took particular issue with the idea that as a result of the Governor’s proposal, California would become the only state without a safety net for children.
Two-thirds of the $7.7 million now provided to CDE for Adult Education and ROCPs to train CalWORKS recipients is proposed for elimination effective the second quarter of the 2010-11 FY. $2.5 million would remain to fund first quarter obligations.
Cash Flow
The Governor proposes a shift of $15.7 million for one-time appropriations to allow the CDE to make advance apportionments to schools that will be in a cash flow deficit in June as a result of the payment deferrals and are unable to make payments.
Other reductions
Special education, Economic Impact Aid, Child Nutrition and Charter School Categorical Block Grant Programs are proposed to decrease to reflect anticipated savings in these programs. These reductions are not intended to impact schools.
4th Grade CST
The May Revision proposes to restore the writing component of the fourth grade English/language arts California Standards Test (CST) beginning in 2010-11.
Elimination of ASAM
The Governor proposes to eliminate the Alternative Schools Accountability Model (ASAM) program.
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Legislative Update - May 4, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
Last week’s action revolved around Appropriations Committees and Budget hearings.
Budget
The Senate Budget Subcommittee on Education heard the issue of authorizing the release of $72 million in federal Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) funds that have been stuck at the state level for months while schools have anxiously awaited reimbursement.
In August 2009, the CDE notified eligible California schools of the availability of the additional federal stimulus funds that flow to schools as 50% formula grants and 50% competitive grants. Schools applied for the competitive grants and schools receiving formula funds expected to receive funds based upon their school technology plans. However the CDE did not have the required legislative approval to appropriate the funds as proposed to LEAs.
At the budget hearing, the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) proposed using the EETT funds in a fundamentally new way, by instead directing the funds to Pre-K and high school priorities. Currently, the competitive grants may only be used for grades 4-8. LEAs from around the state strongly protested the last minute change in rules, pointing out the that many of them already spent funds anticipating the ability to use the federal funds to reimburse themselves. If the rules are changed, LEAs are left holding the bag.
Action on this item was deferred to after the Governor’s May Revision. Stay tuned…
Both the Senate and Assembly Subcommittees hear the issues around appropriation of anticipated federal funds and both heard comments about the proposed release of SIG funds. Both committees expressed concerns that the proposal is significantly different than they indicated in the special session bills in December.
The Assembly Budget Subcommittee also heard the Governor’s proposal to fund $51 million in the Emergency Repairs facilities program. That amount includes $17 million that should have gone out in this fiscal year. There was substantial finger pointing around the fact that the $17 million never went out, with the Controller’s office taking the bulk of the blame, potentially because they were the only player not in the room. There was some sizeable sentiment agreeing with the Williams Act attorney that the program should actually be funded at the full $100 million since there are EMERGENCY repairs. Don’t get too excited though. Even if the Assembly decides to go to this higher amount, the Governor would likely veto the excess to balance his budget. But the list could at least shorten somewhat.
Legislation
Attached for your review is a list of the bills that we are closely monitoring. We will keep you posted if major changes are made to any of those bills.
Most of the bills in the Appropriations Committees are going straight to the Suspense File for action without public testimony or comment at the end of May. We are still anticipating the May Revision of the Budget on May 14th. It will give guidance on how much each house should even consider spending in new legislation this year.
Other
Superintendent Jack O’Connell announced on April 30 that California would continue its efforts to improve student achievement and will seek federal funding through Phase 2 of the Race to the Top competition. There had been anticipation that a ‘3 large district’ consortium would submit the only application from our state, but apparently Federal Education Secretary Arne Duncan pressured the Governor and O’Connell directly to submit a state application. Los Angeles, Long Beach and Fresno are expected to be part of the state application.
April revenues are down from projections, by about $3 million. But the Controller cautions we should wait until early next week to say what we know. This is such an unusual year and there could be some surprises, but right now the picture doesn’t look good. We’re still waiting for the Feds to decide on the Governor’s request to waive Maintenance of Effort requirements so see if that stops the proposed new education cuts.
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Legislative Update - April 26, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
Last week not surprisingly, after a long full deadline day of hearings in the Senate and Assembly Education policy committees, almost no bills were killed. Some were pulled from calendar though, so at least those are now generally off the docket.
Senate Education Committee took almost 2 hours to hear SB 955 (Huff) which was amended just last week to include the Governor’s proposals regarding staffing notification deadlines, layoff and dismissal procedures and reemployment preferences pertaining to certificated staff. The bill had an unusually thorough hearing of the issues, policies and politics around these proposals. Labor unions strongly opposed the bill. EdVoice and Education Trust-West joined in support. The bill narrowly passed the committee on a 5-4 vote, with Democrats Alquist and Romero joining Republican members of the committee in support. It now moves to the Appropriations Committee, as do most of the bills passed that day.
Other legislation considered in the Senate Education Committee included :
- · SB 974 (Steinberg) calling for tax credits for businesses partnering with LEA’s to provide career pathway education passed unanimously. This one goes next to Senate Revenue & Taxation Committee next week.
- · SB 1186 (Liu) calling for a restructuring of state education governance, by strengthening the roles of the SPI and Secretary of Education and reducing the role of the State Board of Education. This passed on a purely partisan vote. Republicans and Senator Romero stayed off the bill.
- · SB 1255 (Padilla) calling for a prohibition on the sale of sugary sports beverages on school campuses. Opposed by the manufacturers of these beverages, no arguments were made for the health benefits of such benefits to children. This, too, was a partisan 6-2 vote.
- · SB 1396 (Lowenthal) gives complete categorical flexibility, including class size reduction and EIA funding, to a pilot group of 3 high performing districts. Sponsored by Long Beach Unified, the bill was opposed by CTA who again made the case that full funding, not flexibility, is the answer to improving schools. There were no “NO” votes in committee.
- · SB 1451 (Yee) addresses concerns about the new Texas textbook standards inappropriately impacting the California adoptions. The bill requires the State Board of Ed to ensure that the next revision of the History/Social Science Framework is consistent with existing requirements. This bill was unanimously approved.
Senate Health Committee, heard the arguments for and against SB 1051 (Huff) regarding volunteer application of Diastat for epilepsy. The same groups and arguments were presented as were heard in Senate Education Committee, with the same result. The bill narrowly passed and moved forward. Union opposition was apparently prepared for that outcome and at the 11th hour, were able to convince Senate President pro Tem Steinberg to take the unusual step to “triple refer” the bill to Senate Judiciary Committee where it will now be heard in May. Passage there will be a similar struggle, and the effect of the triple referral alone may delay the bill so much in the process that it simply runs out of time in the legislative process this year. Yet, it is still alive and moving. Senator Alquist provided the courtesy 5th vote since all 3 Republican committee members were unavailable for committee that day.
School Nurses were, however, pleased that they were able to kill AB 1802 (Hall) in the Assembly Business, Professions and Consumer Protection Committee. That bill would have allowed non-nurse school employees to administer emergency insulin during the school day.
Assembly Education Committee had a similarly complex series of bills to consider. However, they had many more measures on a consent calendar, including:
- · AB 2027 Blumenfield which dramatically expands the ability of schools to utilize on-line education, historically opposed by the Dept. of Finance.
On the regular file and heard were:
- · AB 1967 (Mendoza) shifts the kindergarten eligibility date to September 1, beginning with the 2013-13 school year, and was approved unanimously. Another bill, AB 2553 (Brownley) establishing a committee to establish a new policy on kindergarten readiness passed with a partisan vote.
- · AB 2272 (Block), sponsored by San Diego USD, that makes changes to the funding reductions for exceeding the K-3 CSR ratios by providing a second optional calculation formula. The bill passed on a partisan vote.
- · AB 2320 (Swanson) limits the ability of County Offices and the State Board to approve charter school petitions denied at the local level and adds additional requirements to the charter application process. It passed on a partisan vote.
AB 2034 (Knight) easily passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee. This bill authorizes LEAs to request an automated records check of prospective nonteaching volunteer aides to determine if the aide has been convicted of any sex, controlled substance or violent/serious offense and would prohibit the use of such volunteers if a conviction is found.
Likewise AB 1960 (Ma) requiring the purchase of local fruits, nuts and vegetables for school food programs if those foods are comparable in price and quality, easily passed that committee.
No good rumors out of the Governor’s office yet on the May Revision budget, but May 14th is coming soon.
The week ahead should be relatively quiet with the Assembly Budget Subcommittee hearing an updates on CALPADS implementation and the Governor’s elimination of the Curriculum Commission last year.
The Senate Budget Subcommittee will hear that last issue and the Federal Funds issues including SIG grants.
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Legislative Update - April 16, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
Diastat Administration
As with the week before, we had a long and passionate discussion of SB 1051 (Huff) regarding the administration of Diastat for epilepsy by school district volunteers. The bill narrowly passed the committee despite opposition from all of the organized labor groups, but will be heard again next week in the Senate Health Committee where 2 of the most skeptical votes – Senators Alquist and Romero will have a chance to vote again. Members who will hear the bill for the first time include Senators Strickland (R), Aanestad (R), Cedillo, Cox (R), Leno, Negrette McLeod and Pavley. The Republicans are likely “yes” votes but the Democrats are in a tough place with their labor supporters so we’ll need to push at least 2 of them to add on. Proponents have taken a number of amendments to strengthen the liability protections and the protections against coercion of employees to “volunteer”, but not enough to solve the labor concerns and certainly nothing will alleviate the concerns of the School Nurses Association about job loss.
Speaking of nursing jobs, Assemblyman Tom Torlakson amended his AB 2454 this week, to not only require each district to employ a school nurse, but to require a school nurse for every 750 children. The bill will be heard next week in Assembly Education Committee. Naturally the Nurses Association loves this version, but no one thinks it is realistic in light of current budget concerns. The same arguments about civil liberties for special needs children will surface on this one as the Diastat bill however, that children needing special services should be assigned to the most proper academic program, not just the school where there is medical assistance.
Drop-outs and Data
The Education Committee also heard SB 1357 (Steinberg), a measure continuing the pro Tem’s interest in drop-out prevention, which changes the definition of “chronic truant” and requires additional data collection about those students. The Senate leader, not surprisingly, got an 8-0 vote on his bill. There was very little discussion about the current status of the CalPADS system into which this data would go. The Assembly Budget Subcommittee #2 is scheduled to receive an update on the status of CalPADS implementation and funding needs on Tuesday, April 27th.
Also out of the Senate Education Committee with flying colors was SB 1148 by Senator Alquist. This bill creates a new classification of “chronic truant”. SB 1148 deems a chronic truant any pupil who is absent from school without a valid excuse for at least 10 percent of the school year, and requires the permanent record of a pupil to reflect if he or she has been deemed a chronic truant.
If both bills were to become law, SB 1148(Alquist) and SB 1357 (Steinberg), schools would be identifying chronically truant and chronically absent pupils.
Kindergarten Start Date
Also up this week was Senator Simitian’s SB 1381 which over 4 years moves the kindergarten start date from December 1st to September 1st, beginning with a one month shift in the 2011-12 school year. It passed 8-0. The discussion is significant because the Legislative Analyst (LAO) is calling for an immediate shift to the September date beginning with the 2010-11 year to save the state $700 million. Senate Budget Subcommittee #1 heard and discussed this proposal this week without any resolution of the issue. Much of the discussion centered around using at least some of the recaptured funding to subsidize child for low income children who would be kept out of kindergarten. Assemblyman Mendoza also has AB 1967 which changes the start date directly to September 1st but effective for the 2012-13 school year. That measure has yet to be heard.
Week Ahead
The Senate Public Safety Committee will hear SB 1317 (Leno) which creates a new misdemeanor for parents of a pupil deemed chronically truant, and establishes a deferred entry of judgment program specifically designed to address issues of chronic truancy.
The Assembly Arts & Entertainment Committee is hearing AB 2079 (Torlakson) regarding the recruiting of student athletes.
Assembly Education Committee will also hear AB 2027 (Blumenfield) which expands access to on-line education.
Meanwhile, we continue to hope that yesterday’s tax returns bring in big numbers for a more optimistic May Revision and a real start on the budget for next year.
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Legislative Update - April 12, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
As you may have seen, March revenues exceeded projections by $356 million – bringing the state’s total general fund revenues $2.3 billion above year-to-date projections. Also, State Controller John Chaing says the state is also spending less than projected. As April 15th tax day approaches, lawmakers and the Governor are watching the daily revenue reports to see if this trend will hold.
There was a long discussion last week in the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance regarding the increasing number of school districts struggling to balance their local budgets. FCMAT’s Joel Montero testified on Wednesday that 27 districts in the state are near insolvency and are now identified on a unpublished FCMAT list identified for “lack of going concern.” The list of districts that are classified as ‘lack of going concern’ is separate but even more troublesome than the state’s ‘watch’ list of financially unbalanced districts because the state has not necessarily identified them as needing assistance and they are expected to grow in numbers.
The official state ‘watch list’ was released in late March and showed a 17 percent increase over last year in districts with uncertain fiscal health. The report identified 12 districts as negative certification, while 114 districts were given a qualified certification.
Montero indicated that not all the districts that ‘lack going concern’ were given a negative rating by the state. Some districts had a qualified or positive certification but still made FCMAT’s list because the agency had serious concerns about their fiscal health. Although FCMAT does not go public with the list of districts that lack going concern, they have contacted them directly.
The Senate and Assembly have begun hearing policy measures. Last week, a number of measures were passed by The Assembly Education Committee:
· AB 1839 (Torrico): School Safety – Establishes the Safe Schools Initiative, under which the SPI shall award grants to school districts with high schools located in areas with the highest crime rates. This bill passed 5-0.
· AB 2265 (Salas): Pupil Achievement: CALPDS – Establishes a grant program to support local data management activities required of LEAs and direct-funded charter schools as part of the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS). The measure passed 6-0, with Republicans abstaining.
· AB 2298 (Torlakson): Physical Education – Requires periodic updates on the rules for physical education, deletes the requirement for K-8 schools to provide PE instruction for at least 200 minutes each 10 days and requires the SBE to adopt instructional materials for PE. The measure passed 6-0.
· AB 2446 (Furutani): Graduation Requirements – Adds career technical education (CTE) as an option for pupils to fulfill the existing high school graduation requirement to complete a course in visual or performing arts or foreign language. The measure passed 8-0.
In the Senate, the focus was much more on the various mandate reform proposals. The Governor proposes suspending most mandates for 1 year. The LAO proposes eliminating some, paying some, and hybrids of others, but endorsed the suspension proposal as a next best option. A litany of speakers opposed suspension as completely impractical for districts to do for 1 year. Likewise, they suggested that trying to do comprehensive mandate reform in the budget committee did not allow for needed policy and implementation discussions. All of the Education community offered to participate in a working group to discuss mandate reform, but the prospect of starting the school year without clear direction on what’s in and what’s out is simply unfair to districts. No action was taken. A big Thank you to Sheila Lawrence for attending the hearing and testifying on this issue.
Moving to flexibility proposals, the LAO learned their lesson and took the survey piece about student-teacher ratios out of the handout. This made discussion of LAO’s proposed consolidating more programs into CTE flex and flexing Home-to-School transportation the priority of the conversation. Again, there were pros and cons stated that the committee took under advisement.
Next week, the Senate Education Committee will hear a number of controversial measures, including SB 1051 (Huff), the Diastat administration bill, and SB 1413 (Leno) requiring fresh drinking water in food service areas. The Assembly Education Committee will not meet next week.
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Legislative Update - April 2, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
It’s been a quiet week with the Legislature gone on Spring recess. But they come back Monday starting off fairly easily. Things will get busier the week of April 12th.
The Senate Budget Subcommittee #1 will hear on Thursday comments regarding the Legislative Analyst’s funding flexibility proposals and the Governor’s education mandates proposals. Sheila Lawrence, from San Leandro USD, will testify on behalf of CASCWA voicing our concerns regarding the suspension or elimination of the Truancy mandates.
Considerable discussions behind the scenes continue to find a solution to the SB 1051 administration of Diastat issue as well as a fix for AB 1025 of last year which requires multiple background checks for most non-credentialed athletic coaches and other non-credentialed personnel. One of which would be approved by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The AB 1025 analysis only begins to touch on how comprehensive this bill seems to be as implementation begins.
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Legislative Update -March 26, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
AB 317 (Solorio) School attendance: H1N1 (2009) influenza virus. Current Text: Amended: 1/15/2010 pdf html Status: 2/11/2010‐Referred to Com. on ED. Summary: Existing law establishes the system of public elementary and secondary schools in this state, as well as the statutory scheme for the provision of funding for this system. State apportionments to school districts, the amounts of which are computed based on the average daily attendance of pupils in the schools operated by those districts, among other factors, constitute a major source of school funding. Existing law generally requires that the total days of attendance of a pupil at the schools and classes maintained by a school district is the number of days school was actually taught for not less than the minimum schooldays during the fiscal year less the sum of his or her absences. This bill would provide that pupil absences related to the H1N1 (2009) influenza virus, as defined, in any public elementary or secondary school be deemed to be an epidemic for the purposes of the provisions described above. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.
AB 1933 (Brownley) Foster children: education. Current Text: Introduced: 2/17/2010 pdf html Status: 3/25/2010 From committee: Amend, do pass as amended, and re refer to Com. on HUM. S. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (March 24). Summary: Existing law requires a local educational agency, at the initial detention or placement or any subsequent change in placement of a foster child, to allow the foster child to continue his or her education in the school of origin, as defined, for the duration of the school year. This bill would instead require a local educational agency to allow the foster child to continue at the school of origin at the foster child's initial detention, placement, or any subsequent change in placement for the duration of the jurisdiction of the court, and would require the local educational agency to allow the child to continue his or her education at that school of origin for the duration of the school year if the court's jurisdiction is terminated prior to the end of the academic year. The bill would specify other requirements for a foster child's placement in school when the foster child is transitioning between school grade levels, as specified. By requiring local educational agencies to perform additional duties, this bill would impose a state mandated local program. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.
AB 2359 (Conway) Minimum schoolday: high schools. Current Text: Introduced: 2/19/2010 pdf html Status: 2/22/2010 Read first time. Summary: Existing law provides that the minimum schoolday in any high school, except as specified, is 240 minutes. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.
AB 2444 (Furutani) School districts: interdistrict attendance. Current Text: Introduced: 2/19/2010 pdf html Status: 3/11/2010‐Referred to Com. on ED. Summary: Existing law requires each person between the ages of 6 to 18 years, inclusive, who is not otherwise exempt, to attend the public full‐time day school in the school district in which his or her parent or guardian is a resident. Existing law authorizes the governing boards of 2 or more school districts to enter into an agreement, for a term not to exceed 5 school years, for the interdistrict attendance of pupils who are residents of the districts. This bill would preclude a pupil who is enrolled in a school pursuant to these provisions from having to reapply for an interdistrict transfer, and would require the governing board of the school district of enrollment to allow the pupil to continue to attend the school in which he or she is enrolled.
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Legislative Update -March 16, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
State Budget
The Governor has proposed a series of budget manipulations that would impose deep new cuts in services to school children, including a proposal to renege on the July budget agreement he signed into law and the commitment to restore more than $11.2 billion to our students and schools as required by Proposition 98. His proposal would reduce K-12 education funding by $2.4 billion in 2010-11, that is $400 per student.
Meanwhile, the Legislature has closed the Special Session on the State Budget. The Governor has signed $200 million in budget-related measures and now only the deferral clean-up bill (AB x8 14) awaits its fate on the Governor’s desk. The other measure awaiting action was the “gas tax swap” bill, but today in a letter to the Legislative leadership, the Governor announced that he will veto this bill.
Now that regular session has resumed, the Legislature is beginning to work through the Governor’s budget policy proposals. Although the committees may take actions on many of the policy proposals, we expect that most of the funding decisions related on the state budget will be delayed until after the May Revision.
Mandate Funding Proposal
As part of the budget, the Governor once again proposes to suspend all but a couple education mandates. The “suspension” of education mandates is only an attempt to avoid state payments for those mandates. School districts cannot simply suspend for one year and then re-start the next year fundamental activities like collective bargaining, criminal background checks, immunizations, and notices to parents when their children are truant. The Governor’s proposal provides no relief to local schools; it just seeks to avoid state reimbursement.
The truancy notification mandate is among those proposed to be suspended. This same proposal was rejected by the Legislature last year. We believe that CASCWA has particularly strong points to make with regard to the success of this parent notification because of the nature of your job.
Our recommendation is for the Board to approve the letter we have written on behalf of CASCWA. There is a Senate hearing on March 25 and we would like to take this opportunity to increase understanding and awareness of the importance of parent notification to reducing truancy and dropouts. This issue is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly on May 4. It will also be in important component for our April Legislative day.
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Legislative Update -March 8, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
There were a number of significant developments in Sacramento last week.
Early in the week, the Governor signed ABx8 5 authorizing additional deferrals to schools in 2010-11. These deferrals are allowed only in July 2010 for no more than 60 days, October 2010 for no more than 90 days, and March 2011 for no more than 60 days. They cannot exceed $2.5 billion at any time. There was opposition from education groups that the legislation created extreme uncertainty around the timing, scope, and repayment schedule of the deferrals. Democrats in the Legislature quickly responded with clean-up legislation.
Last Thursday (March 4), the Legislature sent two additional bills to the Governor - one would clean up the issues related to the deferrals. The other would implement a “gas tax swap” that largely holds school harmless while also providing approximately $1.1 billion in relief to the state’s general fund.
The deferral clean-up bill: ABX8 14, would clean-up the K-12 payment deferral legislation by requiring the state treasurer, controller and Department of Finance to confirm the date and size of any payment deferrals by March 31, 2010 – giving schools more time to plan. The bill would also require that a March 2011 deferral be repaid by April 29, 2011.
The “gas tax” bill: ABX8 6 makes various amendments to the budget to lower certain gasoline taxes and increase others to provide funding for transportation, transit and General Fund relief. The bill would hold Proposition 98 harmless so that any decline in gas sales tax revenue would not impact schools. A similar tax swap measure proposed by Governor Schwarzenegger would have cut schools by at least $800 million because it would have resulted in an overall reduction to the state’s General Fund – thereby lowering the Prop 98 guarantee.
Expectations are the governor will sign the deferral clean-up legislation, but the fate of the gas tax swap is less certain.
We also heard California is not a finalist for the first round of Race to the Top funds. However, Governor Schwarzenegger, SPI Jack O’Connell and legislative leaders say they are committed to filing an improved application for the competition’s second round of funding on June 1, 2010. Schwarzenegger’s new education secretary, Bonnie Reiss, said in an interview with SI&A’s Cabinet Report Thursday that the administration wants to first look at what the application reviewers have to say about California’s submission before making decisions about what to do next.
The finalist states are as follows: Florida, New York, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
In other RTTT news, the list of California’s lowest performing schools has once again been delayed until at least Monday (March 8). This delay is apparently in response to requests by superintendents that have schools on the list asking for additional time to notify staff and their communities about the coming changes. An initial release from the CDE last month indicated that the CDE had identified 187 schools that would be required to implement one of the four federal turn-around models.
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AB 1741-HS Graduation; AB 2446-Graduation Requirements; SB 1148-Pupil Attendance; SB 1317-Truancy
AB 1741 |
Coto |
High school graduation requirements. |
Summary: Existing law prescribes the course of study a pupil is required to complete while in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, in order to receive a diploma of graduation that includes least 2 courses in mathematics and 2 courses in science. This bill, commencing with the 2014-15 school year, would require a pupil to complete 3 courses in mathematics, at least one of which meets or exceeds the rigor of the content standards for algebra II, trigonometry, precalculus, calculus, or statistics and probability, as adopted by the state board. The bill, commencing with the 2014-15 school year, would also require a pupil to complete 3 courses in science, at least one of which meets or exceeds the rigor of the content standards for chemistry, engineering, physics, or computer science, as adopted by the state board. The bill would set forth specified findings and declarations of the Legislature. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws. |
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Bill Text: Leginfo Link |
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AB 2446 |
Furutani |
Graduation requirements. |
Summary: Existing law prohibits a pupil from receiving a diploma of graduation from high school unless he or she completes specified requirements, including, but not limited to, completing one course in visual or performing arts or foreign language. This bill would, add completion of a course in career technical education, as defined, as an alternative to the requirement that a pupil complete a course in visual or performing arts or foreign language. |
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Subgroup: |
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Bill Text: Leginfo Link |
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SB 1148 |
Alquist |
Pupil attendance. |
Summary: Existing law defines a truant as any pupil subject to compulsory full-time education or to compulsory continuation education who is absent from school without valid excuse 3 full days in one school year, or any combination thereof. This bill would define a chronic truant as any pupil subject to compulsory full-time education or to compulsory continuing education who is absent from school without valid excuse for 10% or more of the schooldays in one school year. |
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Subgroup: |
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Bill Text: Leginfo Link |
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SB 1317 |
Leno |
Truancy. |
Summary: Under existing law, a truant is a pupil who is subject to compulsory full-time education or to compulsory continuation education and who is absent from school without valid excuse 3 full days in one school year or tardy or absent for more than any 30-minute period during the schoolday without a valid excuse on 3 occasions in one school year, or any combination thereof. Existing law requires that a truant be reported to the attendance supervisor or to the superintendent of the school district and that, on a pupil' s initial classification as a truant, the school district send a notice to the pupil's parent or guardian that includes certain information regarding the truancy and the parent's or guardian's obligations. This bill would define as a chronic truant any pupil subject to compulsory full-time education or to compulsory continuation education who is absent from school without valid excuse for 10% or more of the schooldays in one school year. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws. |
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Subgroup: |
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Bill Text: Leginfo Link |
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Legislative Update - March 3, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
Sandra Morales, Legislative Advocate SCHOOL INNOVATIONS & ADVOCACY
On Friday, the Legislature sent ABx8 5 to the Governor for signature. The bill would authorize specific K-12 education deferrals in 2010-11. These deferrals are limited to $2.5 billion at any given time and allowed in July 2010 for no more than 60 days, October 2010 for no more than 90 days, and March 2011 for no more than 60 days. The bill allows for a hardship exemption process for LEAs (inc COEs) and charter schools.
The measure requires the Controller, Treasurer and Director of Finance to review the actual cash situation prior to implementing the deferrals to determine if they are in-fact necessary, and allows those three to not implement the deferrals if they deem it fiscally prudent to do so. If the deferrals are implemented, it requires the Controller, Treasurer and Director of Finance, after April 1, to review the actual cash receipts and disbursements each month, or as necessary, to determine when all or a portion of the deferrals can be paid, and to make such payments as soon as is feasible. The bill also authorizes the Controller, Treasurer and Director of Finance to move these deferrals forward or back one month from those dates specified, if all three determine it is necessary.
On Thursday the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) released their report on “The 2010-11 Budget: Proposition 98 and K-12 Education”. The entire 56-page report may be obtained at www.lao.ca.gov.
The significance of the Governor’s proposal to redefine the 2008-09 Proposition 98 funding guarantee, and to manipulate state General Fund revenues, is made very clear by the Analyst. The LAO projects that the Proposition 98 guarantee would be $2.2 billion higher in 2009-10 and $3.2 billion higher in 2011-12 under current law than under the Governor’s budget proposals. In a briefing for education advocates, LAO staff expressed serious concerns about the legal risks associated with the Governor’s Proposition 98 interpretations and argued that it would be better to reject those proposals and to instead suspend Proposition 98 as necessary to allow the appropriation levels that are finally approved by the Legislature.
Interestingly, the LAO highlights the differential impact of the Governor’s budget proposal on the different education segments. In the very first page of the report, the LAO provides a chart showing that per-student funding for K-12 education goes down by 11.3% from 2007-08 to 2010-11 under the Governor’s proposals. In contrast, community college per student funding goes down 4.8% during this same period, while per-student funding for CSU and UC would go up by 3.8% and 5.2% respectively. The “alternative” budget recommended by the LAO would make more modest cuts to K-12 education, increase community college fees, and reduce the proposed augmentations to CSU and UC.
The LAO also recommends that the Legislature seek to approve targeted cuts before reducing revenue limits further. All of these proposed cuts are very difficult politically. The largest consists of $382 million from K-3 Class Size Reduction, representing the LAO recommendation to make a 20% cut equivalent to other Tier III programs and to then fold K-3 CSR into Tier III. The other largest “targeted” cuts are $231 million from QEIA by replacing state funding with federal monies, $125 million from community college fee increases, and $101 million by reducing Economic Impact Aid funding.
On Tuesday, the Governor formally appointed Bonnie Reiss as the State’s newest Education Secretary. Reiss is a long-time personal friend and advisor to the Governor. She formally served on the State Board of Education in the early years of his administration.
It is looking more and more like the Democrats are setting the stage for a new Governor the clean house on the State Board of Education come January 2011. The Senate Rules Committee confirmation hearing for Rae Belisle and Jorge Lopez was cancelled after Lopez announced his resignation. Rae Belisle is expected to attend the March 2010 meeting, but her status on the board after that point is uncertain. Also up in the air is the Senate’s willingness to reappoint SBE president Ted Mitchell. The seat of David Lopez is still up in the air – he has not been reappointed and his term expired on January 15, 2010. The Governor’s appointees may serve up to one year before Senate confirmation. If the Senate does not confirm new appointees to the four seats currently open, the next Governor will have the ability to appoint a total of six seats (a majority of the 11-member board) in January 2011 when two additional members term-out.
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Legislative Update - Feb. 19, 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
All Education Bills as of 2-5-2010 .pdf
Legislation:
We are waiting for the final bills to be introduced today, but I am pleased to say that it looks as though there may be slightly fewer than last year. The budget should take up most of their time. We will sort these late-comers next week and have a list to you shortly for review. Hearings on new legislation will not start until the middle of next month.
Special Session:
As for dealing with the special session on the budget, the Senate has acted on a variety of proposals to reduce the debt, none of which have a direct impact on legislation. There is a “gas tax swap” bill still in the ether but the text has not been made available yet. We expect to see it before Monday’s vote, but understand that it reduces or eliminates the impacts on Prop 98 that the Governor’s office version would have caused. Of course, we wait to see.
State Leadership:
Interesting developments in terms of the Governor’s office education advisors. Next week’s scheduled hearing on the confirmation of Rae Belisle and Jorge Lopez to the State Board of Education has been “indefinitely postponed”. Lopez has now resigned. No word on Belisle.
Meanwhile, long-time advisor to the Governor Bonnie Reiss is likely to come back soon as the Governor’s new Secretary of Education, replacing Glenn Thomas who stepped down last month. Reiss really does have the Governor’s ear and will be an important advocate for education in the inner circle.
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Legislative Update - Feb. 2010 - Sandra Morales, SI&A
The Senate Rules Committee heard and moved forward the nomination of Senator Abel Maldonado for Lt. Governor. Only Senator Aanestad stayed off the vote citing conflict of interest since he is also currently running for the Republican Lt. Governor nomination. The final vote by the full Senate needs to take place by the 22nd, but with the full support by leaders of both parties, it seems secured.
The Governor made the following nominations:
- Theodore Mitchell, Ph.D., of Tustin, has been reappointed to the State Board of Education, where he has served as a member since 2007 and is currently serving as Chair. Mitchell has served as president and chief executive officer of the New Schools Venture Fund since 2005. Previously, he was president of Occidental College from 1999 to 2005.
- Lyn Greene, of Crestline, has been appointed to the State Allocation Board. She has been an assistant professor at Riverside Community College, Norco Campus since 2009.
- Roger Kozberg, of Beverly Hills, has been reappointed to the State Teachers' Retirement System Board, where he has served as a member since 2005.
Secretary of Education Glen Thomas has announced his pending retirement. Speculation is that the Governor may name acting Deputy Secretary Kathy Gaither as the Interim Secretary, but all options remain open.
NEW BILLS
The deadline for introducing legislation for this year is February 19th, so the real volume of bills won’t be put across the desk until after President’s Day. As requested, attached is a list of all the Education bills. We are currently tracking, AB 317 (Solorio) for CASCWA. As always, if you have concerns about any of the bills included on the attached list, please be sure to let me know.
Dropout Calculations and Data
At its January meeting, the State Board of Education approved a new standard for high school graduation rates for the purposes of school accountability. The new high school graduation rate target is 90% by 2020. School targets will be based on the improvement required to move from their current graduation rate to 90% over the next ten years. This new methodology will be used in the fall, 2010, accountability reports. This higher standard was reportedly adopted in response to concerns from the federal government that California’s previous measure was too low. It is expected that this higher standard will mean that more schools and school districts fail to make Adequate Yearly Progress and move into Program Improvement.
Governor Proposes Major Cuts to K-12 Education for 2010-11
The Governor’s proposed budget is made complicated by some extraordinary Proposition 98 re-calculations, but the end point is easy to understand—the Governor is proposing no mid-year cuts to local school budgets, but is proposing $2.4 billion in cuts in 2010-11. Of this amount, more than $1.7 billion represents K-12 education program reductions (about $288 per student) and approximately $200 million consists of cuts to child care.
The proposed program reductions are as follows:
· $1.2 billion from school district revenue limits “targeted to school district central administration”. Department of Finance staff has indicated that the proposed budget language will specify the account codes from which expenditures may be reduced. This represents a revenue limit reduction of slightly more than $200 per ADA.
· $300 million from school district and county office of education revenue limits based on savings from eliminating “barriers to contracting out to enable school districts to achieve cost reductions.” This represents a cut of about $50 per ADA.
· $45 million from county offices of education, based on savings from the consolidation of services and functions through regional consortia (as yet undefined).
· $202 million due to a negative cost-of-living adjustment (-.38%)
In addition, the Governor proposes a decrease of $77.1 million to reduce reimbursement rates in voucher-based child care programs and a further decrease in CalWORKs Stage 3 Child Care of $122.9 million.
Also included in the proposed budget is $550 million in anticipated savings from school districts claiming less funding for K-3 Class Size Reduction, due to the option to operate at higher class sizes with a reduced penalty.
Breaking the “Deal” on 2008-09 Proposition 98 Funding
A linchpin of the Governor’s budget proposal is to obtain legislative approval to revise the Proposition 98 funding guarantee for 2008-09. The budget package enacted in July 2009 included language that specifically certified the Proposition 98 guarantee for 2008-09 as $49.1 billion. The Governor’s budget indicates that final revenues were substantially lower than estimated and the actual Proposition 98 guarantee for 2008-09 should be $46.8 billion. The Governor proposes to lower the Proposition 98 guarantee for 2008-09 and pay for $1.3 billion of school costs that year out of amounts owed to schools for other fiscal years. By lowering the base, this would have the effect of lowering the Proposition 98 guarantee for 2009-10 and 2010-11.
This adjustment allows the Governor to claim he is “protecting” education funding by maintaining roughly the same level of Proposition 98 funding in each of 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11. From a school perspective, the problem is that this “protects” schools at a base level that the Governor is proposing to reduce from what was already being provided. The Governor acknowledges that “all the proposed changes will require legislation”.
Other Key Points About the K-12 Education Budget Proposal
The Governor does not propose new or expanded flexibility over categorical education programs. As he attempted unsuccessfully last year, the Governor again proposes to suspend virtually all K-12 education mandates. In addition, he proposes three other major controversial changes to provide additional flexibility. Those three proposals are:
· Change state law to give districts the flexibility to layoff and rehire teachers without regard to seniority.
· Eliminate the provisions in current law that require laid off teachers to receive first priority for substitute service and be paid at their rate prior to lay-off.
· Change the lay-off notice for teachers to 60 days after the state budget is adopted or amended.
Over-all State Budget for 2010-11
As far as the over-all state budget for 2010-11, the Governor called on all Californian’s to focus on state priorities – protecting education, reducing tax dollars spent on prisons and making long-term reforms.
The Governor’s plan is to close a $19.9 billion revenue shortfall over the next 18 months by streamlining government, reducing costs and bringing more federal funds in to the state to better reflect the share of taxes we pay to the US Government. The Governor declared a fiscal emergency and called for another special session focused on the budget to begin immediately. As before, it will run concurrently with the regular session.
The budget proposes $8.5 in spending reductions and $4.5 billion in alternative funding and fund shifts. To close the remainder of the $19.9 billion budget gap, the budget proposes to obtain $6.9 billion in federal funds, the majority of which he believes is money owed to California based on correcting formula inequities. The budget also includes a $1 billion reserve for economic uncertainties.
Among the reductions is $550 million in savings through a redirection of Proposition 10 funds to “high priority state programs serving children”. The Governor proposes that this shift would be placed on the June 2010 statewide ballot for voter approval.
Also among the reductions are $1.4 billion attributed to at 5% wage cut for state employees and further reductions to the state workforce. State employees will also pay an additional 5% toward their retirement costs. The existing Furlough Friday program will end on June 30th of this year. Both the wage cuts and retirement cost increase are subject to collective bargaining.