BILL ANALYSIS Ó ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 339| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ THIRD READING Bill No: AB 339 Author: Bonilla (D) Amended: 7/6/11 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 6-2, 6/29/11 AYES: Lowenthal, Alquist, Hancock, Liu, Price, Simitian NOES: Blakeslee, Huff NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner, Vargas, Vacancy SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 6-1, 8/15/11 AYES: Kehoe, Alquist, Lieu, Pavley, Price, Steinberg NOES: Walters NO VOTE RECORDED: Emmerson, Runner ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 52-27, 5/31/11 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Instructional materials: social content reviews: fees SOURCE : Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson DIGEST : This bill reestablishes provisions of the Education Code that recently sunset relating to the social content review of instructional materials conducted at the request of publishers. Sunsets on January 1, 2017. ANALYSIS : Existing law requires instructional materials, in addition to meeting the requirements of the content CONTINUED AB 339 Page 2 standards, curriculum frameworks, and evaluation criteria, to also be approved for social content, for example: 1. Provides that instruction in social sciences shall include the early history of California and a study of the role and contributions of both men and women, black Americans, American Indians, Mexicans, Asians, Pacific Island people, and other ethnic groups to the economic, political, and social development of California and the United States with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society. 2. Requires instructional materials used in schools to accurately portray the contributions of both men and women in all types of roles, including professional, vocational, and executive role and the role and contributions of Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, and members of other ethnic and cultural groups to the total development of California and the United States, as well as the role and contributions of the entrepreneur and labor in the total development of California and the United States. 3. States that the governing board of a school district shall require, when appropriate to the comprehension of pupils, that textbooks for social science, history or civics classes contain the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution when adopting instructional materials for use in the schools. 4. Prohibits school districts from adopting instructional materials that contain any matter reflecting adversely upon persons because of their race, color, creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, handicap, or occupation or any sectarian or denominational doctrine or propaganda contrary to law. 5. Provides that all instructional materials adopted by any governing board for use in the schools shall be, to the satisfaction of the governing board, accurate, objective, and current and suited to the needs and comprehension of pupils at their respective grade levels. CONTINUED AB 339 Page 3 6. Authorizes, in the event that, after the good faith acquisition of instructional materials by a governing board, the instructional materials are found to be in violation of provisions pertaining to instructional materials and the governing board is unable to acquire other instructional materials which meet requirements in time for them to be used when the acquired materials were planned to be used, the governing board may use the acquired materials but only for that academic year. This bill reestablishes provisions of the education code that recently sunset relating to the social content review of instructional materials conducted at the request of publishers. More specifically, this bill: 1. Requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to adopt regulations to govern the social content reviews conducted at the request of a publisher or manufacturer of instructional materials outside the primary instructional material adoption processes. (This requirement sunset as of January 1, 2011.) 2. Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to do the following: A. Conduct, or contract for, social content review of instructional materials, as defined, outside the primary adoption process, provided that the publisher pays a fee assessed by the CDE. B. Assess a fee on a publisher or manufacturer that does not exceed the reasonable costs to the department to conduct a social content review pursuant to this statute. C. Provide notice to publishers and manufacturers of the establishment of the fee. (These requirements sunset as of January 1, 2011.) 3. Remains in effect until January 1, 2017, unless a later enacted statute, enacted prior to January 1, 2017, deletes or extends that date. CONTINUED AB 339 Page 4 Comments Until the beginning of this year, the CDE was authorized to conduct social content reviews for state-adopted instructional materials, and also conducted reviews for non-adopted instructional materials, such as supplemental materials. The publisher or manufacturer requesting the review would be charged a fee for the out-of-cycle social content review. The CDE contends that the social content review of non-SBE-adopted instructional materials is a service offered to school districts to ensure all instructional materials comply with social content requirements. Social content review and fee assessment . Generally, the Legislature has provided for the sunset of statutes that typically allow for the imposition of fees in order to provide periodic review of the necessity and efficacy of the fee. Instructional Material (IM) adoption process . Statute, prior to its suspension, requires the SBE to adopt basic IM in the core academic content areas (English language arts, mathematics, history/social science, and science) every six years for use in grades K-8. It also established a schedule for the adoption of IM in other subjects. Statute also required the SBE to adopt statewide academically rigorous content standards in the core curriculum areas. These content standards are implemented through the curriculum frameworks, as adopted by SBE. The adopted IM must be consistent with the criteria and standards of quality prescribed in the adopted curriculum frameworks. The development of curriculum frameworks is a multi-year process. Also, the governing board of each school district maintaining one or more high schools is authorized to adopt IM for use in the high schools (grades 9-12) under its control. Related Legislation SB 302 (Yee), 2011-12 Session, also reinstates the California Education Code Section relating to social content reviews of instructional materials with a sunset on CONTINUED AB 339 Page 5 January 1, 2017. (In Assembly Appropriations Committee) AB 250 (Brownley), 2011-12 Session, attempts to revise the IM adoption process, including the role of the Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission. (In Senate Appropriations Committee) SB 140 (Lowenthal), 2011-12 Session, establishes a streamlined process for the state-level adoption of instructional materials that are aligned with the Common Core Academic Content standards, and expands the authority of local school boards to adopt instructional materials to include K-8 schools. (In Assembly Appropriations Committee) FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund Social content reviews Potentially significant costs, fully Fees* reimbursed by fees * Publisher fees submitted with instructional materials SUPPORT : (Verified 8/17/11) Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson (source) ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office, the CDE indicates that without this measure, they will not be able to charge fees to support the process necessary to conduct review of instructional materials outside the primary adoption process. Therefore, local districts will have to conduct their own review of instructional materials for out-of-social content. This result places a burden on those local districts and allows the possibility of inconsistencies in social content reviews from district to district. CONTINUED AB 339 Page 6 ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 52-27, 5/31/11 AYES: Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos, Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Davis, Dickinson, Eng, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani, Galgiani, Gatto, Gordon, Hall, Hayashi, Roger Hernández, Hill, Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Lara, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Portantino, Skinner, Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez NOES: Achadjian, Bill Berryhill, Conway, Cook, Donnelly, Fletcher, Beth Gaines, Garrick, Grove, Hagman, Halderman, Harkey, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Logue, Mansoor, Miller, Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Norby, Olsen, Silva, Smyth, Valadao, Wagner NO VOTE RECORDED: Gorell CPM:mw 8/17/11 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED