BILL ANALYSIS
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 81
Author: Alquist (D)
Amended: 9/4/09
Vote: 27 - Urgency
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 9/11/09 - See last page for vote
SB 307 VOTES :
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 9-0, 6/17/09
AYES: Romero, Huff, Alquist, Hancock, Liu, Maldonado,
Padilla, Simitian, Wyland
SENATE FLOOR : 40-0, 6/24/09 (Consent)
AYES: Aanestad, Alquist, Ashburn, Benoit, Calderon,
Cedillo, Cogdill, Corbett, Correa, Cox, Denham,
DeSaulnier, Ducheny, Dutton, Florez, Hancock, Harman,
Hollingsworth, Huff, Kehoe, Leno, Liu, Lowenthal,
Maldonado, Negrete McLeod, Oropeza, Padilla, Pavley,
Price, Romero, Runner, Simitian, Steinberg,
Strickland, Walters, Wiggins, Wolk, Wright, Wyland,
Yee
SUBJECT : Regional occupational centers or programs
SOURCE : Metropolitan Education District
DIGEST : Assembly Amendments delete the Senate version
expressing the intent of the Legislature to enact necessary
statutory changes relating to the Budget Act of 2009. This
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bill now places SB 307 (Alquist) into the bill requiring,
for the 2009-10 fiscal year to the 2012-13 fiscal year, a
regional occupational center or program, maintained by a
joint powers authority, to receive its operating funds
directly from the county office of education of the county
in which it is located, as specified.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. Authorizes the establishment of regional occupation
centers or programs (ROC/Ps) by high school districts,
district consortia (operating as a joint powers agency
[JPA]), or county offices of education.
2. Establishes a funding formula for ROC/Ps based on per
pupil revenue limits for each ROC/P, current year
average daily attendance (ADA) or a cap on funded ADA as
established historically and in the prior year, any
annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) made to the per
pupil revenue limit amounts in the annual Budget Act,
and any adjustments to the funded cap on ADA made for
growth.
3. Provides for temporary flexibility to spend the funds
appropriated for nearly all categorical programs,
including funding for ROC/Ps, in order to relieve local
budget pressure created by the current economic
downturn.
This bill:
1. Requires, for the 2009-10 through the 2012-13 fiscal
year, that an ROC/P, established and maintained by
school districts acting as a JPA, receive its operating
funds directly from the county office of education (COE)
of the county in which it is located in a manner that is
consistent with the apportionments for those school
districts that comprise the JPA and that are provided to
the COE pursuant to the annual Budget Act.
2. Authorizes a JPA receiving an apportionment for a school
district pursuant to #1 above to disburse those funds,
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pursuant to its joint powers agreement, to the school
district to which that apportionment was made.
3. Specifies that nothing in these provisions prevents any
school district or COE from using ROC/P funding for any
educational purpose.
Comments
This bill originally served as a budget bill intended to
enact statutory changes relating to the Budget Act of 2009.
As such, this bill has not been heard in any policy of
fiscal committee. This bill in its current version is
substantially similar to SB 307 (Alquist). That bill was
heard by the Assembly Education Committee and was held
under submission in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
ROC/Ps offer a vocational educational program for high
school students and adults, and may be operated by a
district, a consortium of districts under a joint powers
agreement, or by a COE. Nearly every COE in California
operates a single, countywide ROC/P. California's 74
ROC/Ps have existed as part of California's educational
system for over 35 years. According to the California
Department of Education (CDE), nearly 470,000 students age
16 or older enroll in ROC/Ps each year; approximately 30
percent of those students are adult learners. Twenty-six
of the current ROC/Ps operate as a JPA. These JPAs operate
under specific requirements, defined in Government Code,
dealing with governance, fiscal and programmatic
accountability, and the nature of the agreement between the
member districts. The JPA administers the programs,
classes and day-to-day operations of the ROC/P; ROC/P
funding apportioned to each of the member districts
provides the fiscal support for the JPA.
ROC/P funding is provided to districts as part of the
Principal Apportionment, which also includes regular
revenue limit funding, and is included in a block of
funding (equal to the sum of Principal Apportionment
funding for all districts in a county) that the CDE
provides to the COE. COEs have historically served as
clearinghouses that distribute this funding to each of the
districts in the county according to a schedule that is
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also provided by the CDE. Up to and including the 2008-09
fiscal year, funding for ROC/Ps operating as a JPA was
treated in this manner with the funds moving from the CDE
to the COE, then being transferred to each JPA member
district, and finally being submitted by the member
districts to the JPA. This process was to be changed
commencing with the 2009-10 fiscal year as a result of SB
1197 (Alquist), Chapter 519, Statutes of 2008. SB 1197
requires that a ROC/P operated as a JPA receive its funding
directly from the COE, rather than the funds being
transferred from the COE to the member districts prior to
the JPA receiving those funds from each of the school
districts. This new provision was enacted January 1, 2009,
and was to be operative for the 2009-10 fiscal year.
In February 2009, SB 4XXX (Ducheny), Chapter 12, Statutes
of 2009-10, Third Extraordinary Session [as amended in July
by AB 2XXXX (Evans), Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009-10, Fourth
Extraordinary Session], implemented categorical flexibility
for the 2008-09 through 2012-13 fiscal year. This
flexibility allows recipients to use restricted educational
funding from 43 categorical programs, including ROC/P
funding, for any discretionary educational purpose. This
flexibility was achieved by deeming those funding
recipients to be in compliance with the program and funding
requirements contained in statutory, regulatory, and
provisional language associated with those programs.
Funding for these flexible programs is apportioned from the
amounts provided in the Budget Act in an amount based on
the same relative proportion that the recipient received in
the 2008-09 fiscal year for those programs. As a condition
of receiving this flexibility, district governing boards
and county boards of education are required to hold public
hearings on the proposed use of the flexible funds, and are
required to fully account for all expenditures.
Implementation of the flexibility provision (i.e., placing
the flexibility provisions of AB 2XXXX ahead of the intent
of SB 1197) in the case of JPA-operated ROC/P funding could
create fiscal problems for the JPA, in the same way that
other educational programs may be affected by flexibility,
if a JPA member school district chooses to make use of its
flexibility authority and move ROC/P funds to another use.
On the other hand, failure to allow that district to
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implement flexibility (by placing the intent of SB 1197
ahead of the flexibility provisions), may jeopardize a JPA
member district's fiscal status. The fundamental question
raised by this bill is whether the Legislature, in SB 4XXX,
intended that ROC/P funds, including those apportioned for
JPA member school districts, be subject to flexibility in
that those previously restricted monies could be used by
the recipient school district or COE for any discretionary
purpose.
This bill proposes to resolve this question so that under
any circumstances during the 2009-10 through 2012-13 fiscal
years, COEs transfer the apportioned funds to JPAs in order
to continue the operation of the JPA ROC/Ps. In other
words, this bill places the provisions of SB 1197 in a
dominant position over the flexibility provisions of SB
4XXX. Effectively, this bill provides a protected status
for JPA operated ROC/Ps in that funding apportioned to JPA
member school districts will be spent on the ROC/P
activities with no opportunity for the member school
district to put those funds to another discretionary use.
Supporters of this bill state that, "This bill will correct
an unintended consequence of the 2009-10 budget trailer
bill [SB 4XXX]," and describe this bill as "a cleanup bill"
that "has no fiscal impact and remains consistent with [SB
4XXX], by ensuring local control and flexibility."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 9/10/09)
Metropolitan Education District (source)
SB 307 SUPPORT (6/18/09) :
Association of California School Administrators
California Association of Regional Occupational Centers and
Programs
California Association of Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning
Contractors' National-Association
California Automotive Business Coalition
California Federation of Teachers
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California Industrial and Technology Education Association
East San Gabriel Valley Regional Occupational Program and
Technical Center
Metropolitan Education District
Mission Valley ROP
Southern California Regional Occupational Center
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,
Bradford, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon,
DeVore, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong,
Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick,
Gilmore, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber,
Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Krekorian, Lieu, Logue,
Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava,
Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, John A. Perez, V. Manuel
Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva,
Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson,
Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, Bass
NO VOTE RECORDED: Brownley, Hagman, Vacancy
DLW:mw 9/17/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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