BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1683
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1683 (Torres)
As Amended May 28, 2010
Majority vote
EDUCATION 8-0 APPROPRIATIONS 12-0
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|Ayes:|Brownley, Nestande, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Ammiano, |
| |Ammiano, Arambula, | |Bradford, |
| |Carter, Chesbro, Norby, | |Charles Calderon, Coto, |
| |Torlakson | |Davis, |
| | | |Monning, Ruskin, Skinner, |
| | | |Solorio, |
| | | |Torlakson, Torrico |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to include
school districts, county offices of education (COEs), 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.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides base funding by requiring the SPI to make prescribed
calculations for the apportionment of state aid to local
educational agencies.
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.
AB 1683
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FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, no additional state General Fund / Proposition 98
costs.
COMMENTS : This bill makes a proposal related to the inclusion
of COE's in federal funding, which was made in AB 339 introduced
by the author in 2009; AB 339 was passed by the Legislature and
subsequently vetoed by the Governor.
Specifically, 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: 1) these terms are used in an ambiguous, but
interchangeable, manner in these sections of code; 2) these code
sections exist the context of the authorization of the state's
full participation in Federal Programs and Interstate
Agreements; 3) 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); 4) according to the CDE, there are no
instances where federal education funds are currently made
available to school districts, but not to COEs, unless there is
federal or state statute requiring that differentiation; and, 5)
these sections of the code were enacted by AB 3100 (Greene),
Chapter 1010, Statutes of 1976, which implements a complete
revision of the education code and have not been clarified
since. Given these observations, it can be concluded that this
proposal, 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
AB 1683
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Education Code sections amended by this portion of the bill.
Given this conclusion, this proposal 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, including charter schools and
educational joint powers authorities, deemed eligible under law
are required to be considered by the SBE when any application
for or allocation of federal funds is being made.
Analysis Prepared by : Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0004657