BILL ANALYSIS
AB 339
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GOVERNOR'S VETO
AB 339 (Torres)
As Amended April 29, 2009
2/3 vote
EDUCATION 10-0 APPROPRIATIONS 16-0
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| |Brownley, Nestande, |Ayes:|De Leon, Nielsen, |
| |Ammiano, Arambula, | |Ammiano, |
| |Carter, Eng, Garrick, | |Charles Calderon, Davis, |
| |Miller, Solorio, | |Duvall, Fuentes, Hall, |
|Ayes:|Torlakson | |Harkey, Miller, |
| | | |John A. Perez, Price, |
| | | |Skinner, Solorio, Audra |
| | | |Strickland, Torlakson |
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ASSEMBLY: 73-0 (May 14, 2009) SENATE: 34-0 (July 9, 2009)
SUMMARY : Requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to include
school districts, county offices of education, and other
agencies deemed eligible pursuant to state and federal law in
any application for federal aid to education, in any allocation
of federal funds made pursuant to law, and in any rules and
regulations adopted governing the allocation of those funds;
also makes findings and declarations regarding the purposes for,
the contributions made by, and the treatment of COEs.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides base funding by requiring the SPI to make prescribed
calculations for the apportionment of state aid to local
educational agencies.
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2)Establishes and funds categorical programs that focus
resources and/or compliance requirements on specific classes
of students or schools, or on specific uses of funds,
identified by the Legislature as priorities.
3)Authorizes the allocation and apportionment of federal funds
to recipients and for uses as specified in federal and state
law.
4)Requires the SBE to make timely application for federal
education funds and to direct the allocation of federal funds
to local education agencies.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee,
pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : This bill proposes to require the SBE to include COEs
in any application for federal aid to education, in any
allocation of federal funds currently made to school districts,
and in any rules and regulations adopted governing the
allocation of those funds. This proposal has pointed out
inconsistencies in statute. In the code sections amended by this
bill, regarding the SBE making applications for federal funds or
allocating those funds, there are references to "school
districts", "local education agencies", and "local school
districts and other agencies entitled to receive federal funds
for the support of schools." These different references do not
appear to be related to any substantive difference in the
treatment of those agencies in terms of the application for or
allocation of federal funds. Five observations can be made
about this issue: i) these terms are used in an ambiguous and
interchangeable manner in these sections of code; ii) these code
sections exist the context of the authorization of the state's
full participation in Federal Programs and Interstate
Agreements; iii) the federal government generally focuses
education funding on schools and students rather than on school
districts, county, or regional education agencies (note that the
federal government has to take a one-size-fits-all approach to
local education governance, since there are many organizational
models across the states); iv) according to the CDE, there are
no instances where federal education funds are currently made
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available to school districts, but not to COEs, unless there is
federal or state statute requiring that differentiation; and v)
these sections of the code were enacted by AB 3100 (Greene),
Chapter 1010, Statutes of 1976, which implemented a complete
revision of the education code and have not been clarified
since. Given these observations, it could be concluded that the
proposal made in this bill, to have the students and schools
under the administration of COEs included in applications and
eligible for the receipt of federal funds, unless specifically
excluded, is consistent with the intent of the Legislature as
stated in the Education Code sections amended by this bill.
Given this conclusion, this bill is of a technical nature in
that it would serve to clarify that COEs be considered eligible
for federal education funds during application or allocation,
unless excluded by statute.
Effectively, this bill reconciles existing ambiguous and
seemingly interchangeable references to "school districts" and
"local education agencies" in existing law, and thus clarifies
that school districts, county offices of education, and all
other educational agencies deemed eligible are required to be
considered by the SBE when any application or allocation of
federal funds is being made.
GOVERNOR'S VETO MESSAGE :
"This bill would redefine 'school districts' to include school
districts, county offices of education, and other agencies
deemed eligible pursuant to state and federal law, for the
purpose of allocating federal education funds. However, in its
current form, I am concerned that the bill may have unintended
consequences for charter schools and/or other educational
agencies currently eligible for these federal funds."
Analysis Prepared by: Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0002155
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