BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
836 (Torlakson)
Hearing Date: 08/27/2009 Amended: 08/20/2009
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 6-1
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 836 would require the establishment of an
education technology task force for the purposes of making
recommendations to the SPI on technology literacy model
standards for grades 7-12 and of developing a comprehensive
statewide technology plan. The bill would further require the
State Board of Education to adopt technology literacy model
content standards within two years of the convening of the task
force.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Task Force $375 Private*
Implementation Unknown, but potentially significant
costs General
depending on recommendations
*To the extent private donations fail to materialize, the bill
results in General Fund pressure.
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
Currently, the California Technology Assistance Project (CTAP)
provides regionalized support for school district education
technology needs. The 11 regional projects develop and
implement technology plans to provide assistance in areas such
as professional development, telecommunication infrastructure,
and electronic learning resources. Under the federal No Child
Left Behind Act (NCLB), states are required to develop a plan to
ensure that use of educational technology is consistent with the
goals of improving student achievement. The State Board of
Education approved the NCLB State Technology Plan in 2005 to
meet the federal requirement.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) will
begin assessing pupils on technology literacy in 2012. The
National Assessment Governing Board will begin randomly testing
pupils across the country in the 2011-2012 school year. This
bill would require the development of model content standards in
preparation for that assessment.
The Department of Education would need two consultants and one
half of an analyst position to complete the work of the task
force, totaling costs of approximately $375,000. Further
downstream costs could also materialize depending on the
recommendations. While the bill specifies that work will be
funded through private donations, staff notes that meeting
relevant NAEP timeframes will result in pressure for
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AB 836 (Torlakson)
the Department of Education to initiate work immediately
regardless of whether or not sufficient donations materialize to
fully fund the effort.
SB 1330 (Torlakson, 2008) would have required the Superintendent
of Public Instruction to convene a task force for the purpose of
developing recommendations for a
comprehensive statewide plan to increase and enhance the level
of technology used to deliver instruction in California public
schools. SB 1330 was vetoed by the Governor, whose veto message
read:
This bill is unnecessary since current law does not
prohibit the Superintendent of Public Instruction from
convening an internal advisory committee to update the
statewide education technology plan with approval of the
State Board of Education. Increasing and enhancing
technology in our schools is important, but the provisions
in this can be accomplished without legislation.