BILL NUMBER: AB 2405 INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Negrete McLeod FEBRUARY 21, 2002 An act relating to workforce training programs, and making an appropriation therefor. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2405, as introduced, Negrete McLeod. Workforce training programs: task force. Existing law makes legislative findings and declarations regarding the importance of preparing pupils for an economy that demands strong academic and career skills, and creates the Interagency Partnership for School-to-Career Programs as a formal collaboration among the Secretary for Education, the State Department of Education, the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges and the Health and Human Services Agency, for the purpose of administering a grant program to local entities who meet certain requirements. This bill would require the State Department of Education, in cooperation with specified educational agencies, to form a task force to establish educational and workforce training programs relevant to alternative sources of renewable energy. The bill would appropriate $100,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for use by the task force for those purposes. Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. (a) The State Department of Education, in cooperation with the Employment Development Department, the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and, to the extent that they wish to cooperate, the University of California, shall form a task force to establish educational and workforce training programs relevant to alternative sources of renewable energy. The task force shall oversee the development of educational and workforce training programs that train students for careers in various facets of the renewable energy sector, including, but not limited to, solar, photvoltaic, biomass, wind, hydrogen, geothermal, and fuel cell energy. In carrying out this function, the task force shall consult with public and private elementary and secondary schools, community, junior, and four-year colleges, and postgraduate educational institutions, and with representatives from the renewable energy sector. The task force shall coordinate its efforts with other state agencies in order to secure any available state, federal, and private grant funding available for this purpose. (b) The sum of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) is hereby appropriated from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for use by the task force for the purposes described in this section.