BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 275 (Hancock)
Hearing Date: 05/26/2011 Amended: 05/11/2011
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Education 10-0
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 275 creates a career technical education (CTE)
block grant program, beginning in 2015-16, that contains funding
dedicated for: (a) Regional Occupational Centers and Programs
(ROCPs), (b) partnership academies, (c) specialized secondary
programs (SSPs), and (d) agricultural career technical education
incentive programs. This bill allows for limited flexibility of
10 percent between programs, provides for a regional process for
administrative collaboration, and requires the Department of
Education (CDE) to develop program quality accountability
measures, as specified.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12
2012-13 2013-14 Fund
Dedicated program funding Substantial future cost
pressure to fund CTE General*
CDE reporting $130 annually,
beginning in 2015-16 General
*Counts toward meeting the Proposition 98 minimum funding
guarantee
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Existing law establishes various CTE programs for public schools
including ROCPs that allow students from multiple schools or
districts to participate in career technical training programs
regardless of the location of their residence in a county or
region.
Existing law establishes and funds categorical programs that
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focus resources and /or compliance requirements on specific
classes of students or schools, or specific uses of funds,
identified by the Legislature as priorities. Continued budget
reductions to education, and specifically to categorical program
funding, led to granting flexibility in uses of categorical
funding to assist school districts in absorbing reductions and
to provide greater local decision-making in prioritizing
diminished school funds. Local educational agencies (LEAs) are
currently authorized 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 law. ROCPs and specialized secondary
programs were among the 40 categorical programs impacted.
This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI) beginning in 2015-16 (when categorical flexibility is
currently scheduled to sunset), and each year thereafter, to
apportion funds appropriated for (a) ROCPs, (b) SSP grants, (c)
partnership academies, and (d) agricultural CTE 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, This bill
further requires each COE to allocate to the funding ROCPs,
school districts, and COEs a proportion of the total funds based
on the proportion these entities received in 2007-08. This bill
also specifies that funds allocated for ROCPs, SSP 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 may be
used flexibly to support any combination of the programs, as
specified.
This bill seeks to secure funding for the identified categorical
programs by specifying that they shall receive a set stream and
level of funding based on the funding they received in 2007-08
(before categorical flexibility). Specifically protecting these
programs in statute adds cost pressure to fund them at a higher
level than they might otherwise be funded (if budget reductions
continue), and to reduce from other programs not afforded
similar protections. It may also result in future bills to
protect each of the categorical programs currently subject to
flexibility.
As a condition of districts receiving these dedicated funds,
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this bill would impose additional reporting requirements to the
CDE. The CDE would be responsible for collecting, reviewing, and
reporting additional data from funded programs to determine
their effectiveness and the quality of the education provided.
The details of reporting requirements and data collection are
left to the CDE to determine and enforce. The CDE will have to
develop accountability measures and data items based on the
identified program quality indicators and design data collection
systems to collect necessary data. The CDE has indicated that
implementing this provision would require $130,438 for a .5 PY
education programs consultant and 1 PY analyst position.
This bill also requires that growth funding for ROCPs be
allocated by the SPI "exclusively for the purposes of statewide
equalization, until full equalization occurs, based upon an
equal funding allotment for each high school pupil in the
service delivery area served by the regional occupational center
program." While this bill does not appropriate growth funding,
it requires growth funding to be used toward statewide
equalization until that purpose is achieved (rather than
programmatic expansion, or other purposes). Recent data
indicates that full equalization would cost $113,296,653.
Amend per author to increase funding flexibility between
programs from 10% to 25%.
As proposed to be amended: Remove provision specifying how
future growth funding shall be allocated.