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April 22, 2005 Memorandum To: CCEA Council of District Representatives From: Peter Birdsall Subject: Legislative Update For the 2005 legislative session our top priority has been to correct serious problems with last year’s categorical block grant legislation, AB 825 (Firebugh). An additional priority has been to work with the California Department of Education to have AB 825 implemented in a manner consistent with the priorities of CCEA. At the request of CCEA we have also taken the lead in seeking legislative approval of a resolution declaring May as Educational Options Month. As we do each year, we have also reviewed all new legislation and amendments to identify proposals that may be of concern to CCEA. Finally we believe the Governor’s appointment of the Committee on Education Excellence creates an opportunity to move forward to address CCEA concerns about recognition and funding for continuation high schools. Following is a more detailed report on each of these four major activities:
AB 825 Clean-up and Implementation As CDR may recall, last year CCEA decided to support the inclusion of the continuation high school revenue add-on in the pupil retention block grant. This block grant proposal moved through the legislature as SB 1510 (Albert). Unfortunately, in the final days of last year’s legislative session, last minute amendments were accepted to obtain the support of the Governor’s administration. SB 1510 was dropped and the final compromise was amended into AB 825, which was approved and signed into law by the Governor on September 29, 2004. Although the final amendments concerned the hourly supplemental instruction programs, these amendments have the potential of serious negative consequences for continuation high school revenue add-on. Specifically, the two key amendments: 1) Establish the requirement that school districts must use the hourly supplemental instruction funding included in the pupil retention block grant to operate hourly supplemental instruction programs in order to continue to receive this funding; 2) Require the Department of Education to withhold 25% of the pupil retention block grant to protect against deficits in the uncapped hourly supplemental instruction programs. Since the enactment of AB 825, we have made significant progress on each of the issues of concern to CCEA. On March 14, the California Department of Education released its first program advisory concerning the implementation of AB 825. That advisory concluded that: “New continuation high schools will generate additional dollars. However, current law governing continuation education was not repealed. Consequently, foundation funding will be rescinded for continuation high schools that close subsequent to receiving the Pupil Retention Block Grant funds.” In drafting the language incorporated in SB 1510 and ultimately carried into AB 825 we were very careful to not repeal the underlying statutes for continuation high school. This is distinctly different from the treatment of most other programs included in AB 825. The department interpreted AB 825 in a manner consistent with the continued linkage of continuation high school funding to the maintenance of those continuation high schools. AB 831, the Department of Education’s “fast track” technical clean-up bill, will be amended to remove that requirement the districts use their hourly supplemental instruction funding for hourly supplemental instruction programs. This amendment has been approved by the Department of Finance and the Governor’s administration and it is our expectation this change will be enacted prior to June 30, 2005. AB 831 will also be amended to allow the Department of Education to release the 25% set aside as soon as it can “ensure” that there is no deficit in the uncapped programs. This should allow the funding to be released during the fiscal year. Meanwhile, we are working with Assembly Member Dymally, who has introduced AB 1136 and Assembly Member Karnette, who has introduced AB 682, to entirely eliminate the 25% set aside. Education Options Resolution The Education Options Resolution this year is being carried by Senator Martha Escutia (D -Whittier). The measure is SR 13. New Legislation There are several bills of potential concern to CCEA. These bills and the recommended positions are as follows: AB 1136 (Dymally)-- this measure would remove the core academic programs from the pupil retention block grant as established by AB 825 (Francis Firebugh/2004) and would eliminate the 25% set aside. Recommended position: Support. AB 682 (Karnette)-- this bill is a proposed clean-up bill to AB 825. The author is working with our office to include the reduction or elimination of the 25% set-aside. Recommended position: Support. AB 831 (Committee on Education)- - this is the Department of Education’s technical clean-up bill. It includes the elimination of the requirement that districts use their hourly supplemental instruction funding for hourly supplemental instruction programs. This will make those funds available within the block grant for the purposes of continuation high schools. Recommended position: Support. AB 949 (Coto) -- Effective 2008-09 this bill would require the students in grades 9-12 attend school for at least 36,500 minutes in order for school districts to receive a full unit of ADA. This equates to 360 minutes of minimum day. Recommended position: Oppose. Committee on Education Excellence In March, Governor Schwarzenegger established his Advisory Committee on Education Excellence. This committee was given four important charges, as follows: “The distribution and adequacy of education funding; the functioning and effectiveness of governance structures; teacher recruitment and training; and the preparation and retention of school administrators.” The establishment of this committee creates the opportunity for CCEA to raise issues of the adequate funding of continuation high schools and the severe problems of the current system with regard to equity of funding among school districts. Our office will be working with the leadership of CCEA to bring these issues to the attention of the committee and seek to have these issues addressed in the final recommendations of the committee. The members of the committee are:
Revised: April 27, 2005 |
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