BILL ANALYSIS Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair 798 (DeSaulnier) Hearing Date: 05/28/2009 Amended: 04/29/2009 Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 9-0 _________________________________________________________________ ____ BILL SUMMARY: SB 798 would increase the daily rates and maximum grant amounts for federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Center programs and would reduce the percentage of funding that may be awarded to programs serving high school pupils. _________________________________________________________________ ____ Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund 21st Century Directs future funding Federal ASES Pressure to absorb more General* slots *Counts toward meeting the Proposition 98 minimum funding guarantee _________________________________________________________________ ____ STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED. 21st Century Community Learning Centers are federally funded programs that provide academic enrichment and support to disadvantaged pupils either before or after school. The 2009-10 Budget Act includes $129.4 million for this program. Under current law, 50 percent of grants are awarded to grantees serving elementary or middle school pupils and 50 percent are awarded to grantees serving high school pupils. Per pupil rates for serving elementary and middle school pupils is $7.50 per day for after school programs and $5 per day for before school programs (there is no daily rate for high school pupils). Total grant awards for the after school component are capped at $112,500 for elementary school programs and $150,000 for middle school programs. Grants for the before school component are capped at $37,500 for elementary school programs and $49,000 for middle school programs. Grants for high school programs are capped at $250,000. This bill would modify the principle funding rates and caps for 21st Century Learning Centers by raising both the daily rates and total grant awards, as shown below: -------------------------------------------------------------------- | Current Law | SB 798 | -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- | |Before School |After School |Before |After School | | | | |School | | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------| | |Daily |Total |Daily |Total |Daily |Total |Daily |Total | |-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------| |Elementary |$5 |$37,500 |$7.5 |$112,500 |$7 |$52,500 |$10 |$150,000 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Middle |$5 |$49,000 |$7.5 |$150,000 |$7 |$68,600 |$10 |$200,000 | |-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------| |High |NA |$250,000 |NA |$250,000 |NA |$250,000 |NA |$250,000 | |School | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 2 SB 798 (DeSaulnier) This bill would also increase funding rates for intersession programs from $7.50 to pupil to either $20 or $10 per pupil depending on the number of hours provided. Before school 3-hour programs would receive $7 per pupil. The other major component of this bill is to shift funding away from high schools. Currently, 50 percent of grants are awarded to programs that serve high school pupils. This bill would lower that percentage to 35 percent. The bill would also make other miscellaneous changes to the program. The bill states that changes to the program daily per pupil rates and total grant award caps would take effect only when sufficient federal funds are available to ensure that the cumulative number of pupils that can be served at the new rates is equal to or greater than the number of pupils that can be served under the rates applied in the 2008-09 fiscal year. Given the large increases in the rates (ranging from a 33 percent increase to 267 percent depending on the category), it is likely that this bill would require an increase in federal funding of approximately 40 percent to take effect. This bill would use this future increase in federal funding to increase rates rather than provide services to more students. Indeed, in the event there is a gradual increase in students served after the 2008-09 year due to relatively modest annual increases in federal funding, this bill may actually result in a reduction of service from the most recent year(s) prior to the year in which this bill takes effect. This bill would direct increases in federal funding toward large rate increases rather than more funding more before and after school slots. Given that there are currently far more applicants for grants that can currently be served, this bill may have the unintended effect of putting pressure on the General Fund program (the After School Education and Safety program). Author's amendments would make the bill operative on July 1, 2010, and provide that the rate increases would not go into effect until an increase in federal funding would be sufficient to fund slots from the previous year at the higher rate.