BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó






                          SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
                              Alan Lowenthal, Chair
                            2011-2012 Regular Session
                                         

          BILL NO:       SB 275
          AUTHOR:        Hancock
          AMENDED:       April 25, 2011
          FISCAL COMM:   Yes            HEARING DATE:  May 4, 2011
          URGENCY:       No             CONSULTANT:Daniel Alvarez

           SUBJECT  :  Career Technical Education block grant funding.
          
           SUMMARY  

          This bill creates a career technical education block grant 
          program, beginning in 2013-14, that contains funding 
          dedicated for (a) Regional Occupational Centers and Programs 
          (ROCPs), (b) partnership academies, (c) specialized secondary 
          programs, and (d) agricultural career technical education 
          incentive programs.  Allows for limited flexibility of 10 
          percent between programs, provides for a regional process for 
          administrative collaboration, and requires the California 
          Department of Education to develop program quality 
          accountability measures, as specified.

           BACKGROUND 

          Existing law establishes and funds categorical programs that 
          focus resources and /or compliance requirements on specific 
          classes of students or schools, or specific uses of funds, 
          identified by the Legislature as priorities.

           Regional Occupational Centers and Programs

           Existing law establishes various career technical education 
          (CTE) programs for public schools including Regional 
          Occupational Centers and Programs that allow students from 
          multiple schools or districts to participate in career 
          technical training programs regardless of the geographical 
          location of their residence in a county or region.  Existing 
          law authorizes the following types of ROCPs operational 
          models:  (Education Code § 52300 et. seq.)

              County ROCP:  Existing law authorizes county 
               superintendents, with the consent of the State Board of 




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               Education (SBE) to establish and maintain a ROCP to 
               provide education and training in career technical 
               courses. 
              (EC § 52301(a))

              Joint Powers Agency ROCP:  Existing law authorizes two 
               or more school districts to form a joint powers agency 
               (JPA) for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a 
               ROCP for students who are enrolled in those districts.  
               (EC § 52301(a)(2))

              Single District ROCP:  Existing law authorizes certain 
               very large districts, who do not wish to be part of a 
               county ROCP, to apply to the SBE through their county 
               superintendent for permission to establish and maintain 
               a ROCP for students enrolled in the district.  The 
               county superintendent may supervise the establishment of 
               the ROCP. ( EC § 52301(b))

           Partnership Academies
           
          The Partnership Academy model is a three-year program, for 
          grades ten through twelve, structured as a 
          school-within-a-school and incorporates (1) rigorous 
          integrated academics with a career focus; (2) business 
          partnerships that provide support through curriculum 
          resources, classroom speakers, field trips, mentors, and 
          internships; and (3) teachers who work as a team in preparing 
          students for careers and postsecondary education. (EC § 54690 
          et. seq.)

           Specialized Secondary Programs
           
          Specialized Secondary Programs is a four-year grant program 
          to provide opportunities for students to obtain advanced 
          instruction, in addition to core course work, and skills in 
          technology appropriate to the curriculum. California 
          comprehensive high schools may use the grant funds for 
          programs that provide students with advanced learning 
          opportunities in a variety of subjects, including but not 
          limited to English-language arts, mathematics, science, 
          history and social science, foreign language, and the visual 
          performing arts. The acquisition of technology skills and the 
          use of technology as a tool for instruction and learning are 
          also emphasized in these programs. Frequently, specialized 
          secondary programs are established as a smaller learning 




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          community or a school-within-a-school.  (EC § 58800 et. seq.)

           Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Program

           The Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive program 
          provides local educational agencies (LEAs) with funds to 
          improve the quality of their agricultural vocational 
          education programs. The goal is to maintain a high-quality, 
          comprehensive agricultural vocational program in California's 
          public school system to ensure a constant source of 
          employable, trained, and skilled individuals.  (EC § 52460)

           ANALYSIS
           
          This bill:

          1)   Requires the State Superintendent of Public Instruction 
               (SPI) beginning in 2013-14, and each year thereafter, to 
               apportion funds appropriated for (a) regional 
               occupational centers and programs (ROCPs), (b) 
               specialized secondary program grants, (c) partnership 
               academies, and (d) agricultural career technical 
               education incentive program to each county office of 
               education (COE) based on the same relative proportion 
               that LEAs within that particular county received funding 
               for these programs in 2007-08.
          2)   Requires each COE to allocate to the funding ROCPs, 
               school districts, and COEs a proportion of the total 
               funds based on the proportion that these entities 
               received in 2007-08.

          3)   Requires, as a condition of receiving funds, the 
               governing board of each ROCP, in collaboration with 
               individuals representing school districts within each 
               region, partnership academies, agricultural vocational 
               education programs, and other career technical programs 
               to develop a plan for establishing a sequence of 
               courses, as specified, and certify to the California 
               Department of Education (CDE) that the sequence of 
               courses has been developed.

          4)   Specifies that funds allocated for ROCPs, specialized 
               secondary program grants, and partnership academies can 
               only be expended for the purposes of the programs for 
               which they were appropriated; except that up to 10 
               percent of the funds from each identified programs, upon 




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               agreement between the school district and the ROCP, may 
               be used to support any combination of the programs for 
               one year.  This may be renewable annually with the 
               agreement of both boards.

          5)   Requires growth funding for ROCPs be allocated 
               exclusively for the purposes of equalization of an equal 
               funding allotment for each high school pupil in the 
               service delivery area served by the ROCP. After 
               equalization, growth funds would be distributed in a 
               manner to maintain equal per pupil funding levels.

          6)   Specifies that as a condition of receiving funds 
               consistent with this bill, programs that receive funding 
               shall collect and report data as required by the CDE to 
               prepare and update specified accountability measures.

          7)   Requires the SPI to align the accountability measures 
               for the four programs into a uniform accountability 
               metric based on any career ready standards adopted 
               pursuant to the federal Elementary and Secondary 
               Education Act (ESEA) and 11 program quality indicators 
               in the California State Plan for Career Technical 
               Education, including, but not limited to:

             a)   High quality curriculum and instruction aligned with 

               state standards.

             b)   System alignment and coherence, including 
               postsecondary 
                    education.

             c)   Reflection of labor market demands, and provision of 
               current 
                    equipment.

             d)   Skilled faculty and professional development.

             e)   Data-based pupil evaluation, accountability, and 
               continuous 
                    improvement.

             f)   Pupil support and leadership development.

             g)   Industry partnerships and advisory committees.




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          1)   Requires accountability measures to also include, but 
               necessarily be limited to:

               a)        The number of pupils completing high school.

               b)        The number of pupils earning an 
               industry-recognized certification or 
                    licensure or other measures of technical skill 

               attainment.

               c)        The number of pupils completing career 
               technical education 
                    courses and completing a career technical education 
                    program of study, consisting of a sequence of two 
                    or more career technical courses.

               d)        The number of pupils employed and the types of 
               businesses in 
                    which they are employed.

               e)        The number of pupils enrolled in postsecondary 
               education or 
                    apprenticeship programs, or serving in the Armed 

               Forces.


           STAFF COMMENTS 

           1)   Categorical program funding reductions and flexibility 
               given to assist school districts and provide greater 
               local decision-making  . SB 4 (Chapter 12, 2009) and 
               extended by SB 70 (Chapter 7, 2011), authorizes local 
               educational agencies (LEAs) through the 2014-15 fiscal 
               year, to use funding for approximately 40 categorical 
               programs (totaling $4.5 billion statewide) for any 
               educational purpose to the extent permitted by federal 
               laws.  Regional occupational centers and programs 
               (ROCPs) and specialized secondary programs, were part of 
               the 40 categorical programs impacted. These measures 
               also deem LEAs to be in compliance with program and 
               funding requirements related to the 40 categorical 
               programs, and requires LEA governing boards to make 
               flexible expenditure decisions in a regularly scheduled 




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               public meeting.  The flexibility granted under SB 4 and 
               SB 70 came as a result of funding the categorical 
               programs approximately 20 percent lower for the 2008-09 
               through the 2014-15 fiscal years, as well as reductions 
               to school district and county office of education 
               revenue limits (the basic general purpose money 
               allocated to districts. (EC § 42605)
                
                The Legislature stopped short of including all 
               categorical programs within the "Tier 3" flexibility 
               (reduction and flex), and decided that certain programs, 
               including partnership academies and agricultural career 
               technical education, were of such high priority that no 
               flexibility or limited flexibility would be provided.

           2)   Need for the bill .  Currently ROCPs are subject to 
               flexibility (described above) and as such are subject to 
               the possibility of funds shifted to non-career technical 
               education purposes.  Partnership academies and 
               agricultural career technical education were reduced by 
               20 percent (however, not available for flexibility 
               purposes).  The Legislative Analyst has suggested both 
               of these programs be shifted to flexibility in the 
               absence of a block grant approach.  SB 275 would stop 
               the erosion of funding for these particular programs, 
               while providing consistency in sequence requirements 
               across the programs.

           3)   Categorical block grant approaches proposed or used in 
               the past.  

                 Funding flexible block grant, as described above 
               under Comment 
                    #1, through fiscal year 2014-15, converts 
                    restricted categorical funds into discretionary or 
                    unrestricted funding. However this approach, among 
                    other things, suffers from its lack of connection 
                    to the state's programmatic priorities, and may 
                    place protected subpopulations at risk.

                 Grouped or clustered block grant, where funds 
               allocated for 
                    categorical programs focus on a similar pupil 
                    subpopulation or similar activities are grouped 
                    together to create one larger grant.  Revenue is 
                    consolidated and some flexibility is given on the 




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                    expenditure side, but the flexibility is focused 
                    (or linked) to expenditure on programs within the 
                    grouping. This approach maintains a flavor of 
                    legislative spending priorities, but does not 
                    provide a level of flexibility that likely allows 
                    an LEA to truly create educational programs that 
                    match the need of local student populations.  This 
                    approach was utilized under AB 825 (Chapter 871, 
                    Statutes of 2004).

                 True categorical block grants, are similar to the 
               grouped approach, 
                    but an LEA would be allowed to expend funds in a 
                    true block grant on a very broadly determined set 
                    of activities.

           1)   SB 275 is a quasi-grouped block grant approach  , grouping 
               four categorical programs into a career technical 
               education cluster.  Funding would be allocated to each 
               program and then through a local collaborative process 
               up to 10 percent of any one programs' funding could be 
               used to support any combination of the four programs, 
               but only for one-year at a time. 
               The limitations of SB 275 - funding between programs can 
               only be up to 10 percent and then only at one year at a 
               time intervals may make for a less than meaningful 
               approach toward block grant - basically not truly 
               testing the opportunity of expanding or contracting 
               programs based on a match with student populations. And 
               even with a modest 10 percent flexibility between and 
               among programs the one-year time limit does not permit 
               even good programs to flourish.

               A major strength of SB 275 lays with the requirement to 
               insure a quality sequence of courses among the four 
               categorical programs slated for the grouped block grant, 
               and reporting to the state information on accountability 
               measures based on career ready standards and outcome 
               measures, as specified.  

               However, staff recommends an amendment that directs up 
               to 25 percent of the funds from each identified programs 
               upon agreement between the school district and the ROCP, 
               may be used to support any combination of the programs 
               for no less than a three year period.  
               Many programs within the SB 275 block grant are 




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               multi-year programs in high schools, and the proposed 
               amendment would provide greater funding opportunities 
               for growing quality programs, and allow enough time 
               within a cohort of high school pupils to complete at 
               least one-cycle of funding, and permit the collection of 
               data to permit the augmented programs to garner 
               information to make a qualitative programmatic changes 
               if necessary.
           
          2)   Start date of this measure is not consistent with sunset 
               of categorical flexibility.   Notwithstanding the merit 
               of increasing the accountability and consistency in the 
               sequence of course requirements, the current overall 
               categorical flexibility provisions (described in Comment 
               #1) of which ROCPs and specialized secondary programs 
               are part of, have just recently been extended until the 
               end of the 2014-15 school year. The implementation of 
               the "grouping" flexibility found within this measure is 
               schedule to begin in 
               2013-14.
                
                In addition, note that SB 275 would take two programs - 
               partnership academies and agricultural vocational 
               education - currently not available under the 
               flexibility provisions of SB 4 / SB 70, and permit up to 
               10 percent of the funding for these programs to be spent 
               on the other programs identified in the bill. 

               If the Committee chooses to pass this bill, could that 
               encourage other groups to petition to be excluded from 
               categorical flexibility in order to preserve funding for 
               specific programs or ensure that programs continue to 
               operate as they did prior to 2008-09?  

               Staff recommends an amendment to commence the proposed 
               block grant approach of this measure with the 2015-16 
               fiscal year.

           SUPPORT  

          California Association of Leaders for Career Preparation
          California Association of Regional Occupational Centers and 
          Programs
          California Business Education Association
          North Orange County ROP





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           OPPOSITION

           None on file.