BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 189
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 189 (Eng)
As Amended May 27, 2011
Majority vote
EDUCATION 8-0 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Brownley, Norby, Ammiano, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Blumenfield, |
| | Buchanan, | |Bradford, Charles |
| |Butler, Carter, Eng, | |Calderon, Campos, Davis, |
| | Williams | |Gatto, Hall, Hill, Lara, |
| | | |Mitchell, Solorio |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Harkey, Donnelly, |
| | | |Nielsen, Norby, Wagner |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Modifies the existing public hearing and reporting
requirements for participation in categorical flexibility.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires local educational agencies (LEAs) to hold the
regularly scheduled public hearing to take testimony from the
public prior to and independent of a meeting where the school
district or the governing board of the county office of
education (COEs) adopts a budget.
2)Requires the district and COE governing board, if it intends
to close a program, to identify in the hearing agenda notice
the program or programs it proposes to close.
3)Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to
establish a unique resource code for categorical programs
subject to the flexibility provision and inform LEAs that
these funds shall be considered general purpose nonrevenue
limit funding for the purposes of reporting expenditures.
4)Authorizes, until July 1, 2015, the governing board of a
school district to charge a fee for an adult education class
in English and citizenship.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
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Committee:
1)General Fund (GF)/Proposition 98 costs, likely between $75,000
and $125,000, to school districts to report categorical
program information, as specified. Currently, districts are
reporting minimal information on how they are spending their
categorical flexibility funds. This bill requires school
districts to report more detailed information.
2)Increased GF administrative costs, likely less than $75,000,
to CDE to report fiscal information, as specified.
COMMENTS : There are approximately 60 categorical programs that
serve specific goals (e.g., to assist high school students in
passing the high school exit exam) or for specific programs
(e.g., Regional Occupational Programs/Centers, special
education). There are also numerous statutes and regulations
that specify allowable use of categorical funds and how funds
are allocated. The fiscal year (FY) 2009-10 Budget had an
important impact on categorical programs. The Budget agreement
imposed a 20% reduction on 39 programs and gave LEAs that
received those funds in FY 2007-08 the flexibility to use the
funds for any educational purposes from FY 2008-09 through FY
2012-13 �SB 4 X3 (Ducheny), Chapter 12, Statutes of the 2009,
Third Extraordinary Session]. SB 70 (Senate Budget and Fiscal
Review Committee), Chapter 7, Statutes of 2011, extends this
flexibility until FY 2014-15. This reduction and flexibility
provision is commonly known as "Tier 3" flexibility, which
essentially gives LEAs $4.5 billion in additional unrestricted
funds. Tier 1 protected four categorical programs from cuts and
flexibility while 11 categorical programs sustained reductions
but were given no flexibility under Tier 2. For Tier 3 funds,
school districts receive their allocations for seven years based
on the applicable percentage the programs received in FY
2007-08. As a result, until 2015, LEAs are not required to
justify or report average daily attendance (ADA) in order to
receive the specified categorical funds.
Under current law, the governing board of a school district or
COE, at a regularly scheduled public meeting, must take
testimony from the public, discuss, approve or disapprove the
proposed use of the funding. The sponsor of this bill, the
California Council on Adult Education, states that some
governing boards believe they have complied with the public
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meeting requirement through deliberation of the budget. This
bill requires the governing board of a school district or COE to
hold the public meeting prior to and independent of a meeting
where the governing board of a school district or COE adopts a
budget. The sponsor also states that adult education programs,
one of the 39 Tier 3 programs, are closing as a result of
categorical flexibility. In order to ensure that the public has
an opportunity to express their concerns, this bill requires the
notice of the agenda to indicate the program or programs
proposed to be closed.
With the flexibility provisions, LEAs are not required to report
how much funds were diverted and to which programs they were
transferred. As a result, there is no data available to discern
the extent to which LEAs diverted categorical funds for other
educational needs or the number of programs that have been
dismantled. The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) has
conducted two surveys, in the fall of 2009 and 2010, in an
effort to ascertain the effects of flexibility and other
resources in helping LEAs balance their budgets. The survey
results were based on 382 completed surveys out of the 1,000
school districts; the respondents represent 58% of the state's
ADA. Among the findings in the survey is that more districts
are discontinuing programs in FY 2010-11 compared with FY
2009-10, including 7% of survey respondents report discontinuing
adult education programs in FY 2010-11.
This bill also requires the CDE to assign a unique resource code
for all Tier 3 funding and requires the CDE to inform LEAs that
for purposes of reporting expenditures, Tier 3 funds shall be
considered general purpose nonrevenue limit funding (as opposed
to revenue limit funding or restricted categorical funding).
This is to enable the state to better track how Tier 3 funds are
spent as a whole without creating extraordinary burdens for LEAs
to report the expenditures for each Tier 3 program.
Adult education schools offer the following 10 programs: Adult
Basic Education, English as a Second Language (ESL), High School
Diploma or Adult Secondary Education, including General
Education Development certification, Citizenship Preparation,
Career Technical Education, Adults with Disabilities, Health and
Safety, Parent Education, Home Economics, and Older Adult.
Education Code Section 52612 authorizes districts to charge a
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fee required to maintain a class, except for three programs:
Adult Basic Education, ESL, and High School Diploma or Adult
Secondary Education, including General Education Development
certification classes. This bill authorizes a LEA to charge
fees for English and citizenship classes. According to the
author, some districts have discontinued ESL and citizenship
courses but would be willing to maintain them if fees are
allowed to be charged. The author states that in order to
address the growing demand in English acquisition courses,
eliminating the prohibition to charge fees will prevent the
closure of those courses. This bill authorizes the fees to be
assessed only while the flexibility provisions are in effect.
The California Council for Adult Education states, "California
Adult Schools help adult students find jobs, learn English, earn
degrees, become citizens and become better parents. There are
5.3 million California adults without high school diplomas and 3
million English language learners who need access to adult
education resources in order to work in the state's economy. As
categorical flexibility cuts deeper into adult education
programs, these opportunities will be lost, perhaps
permanently."
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0001062