BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 361
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Date of Hearing: June 22, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
SB 361 (Berryhill) - As Amended: May 31, 2011
SENATE VOTE : 40-0
SUBJECT : School funding: minimum schoolday: Center for
Advanced Research and Technology
SUMMARY : Extends, for five years, the sunset on provisions
that prohibit the Center for Advanced Research and Technology
(CART) from receiving funding as a charter school, and that
establish the formula for calculating the authorized
apportionment of revenue limit funding for pupils concurrently
enrolled in regular secondary school classes and classes
operating pursuant to a joint powers agreement (JPA) put in
place prior to January 1, 2008.
EXISTING LAW :
1) Establishes the minimum day for a pupil enrolled in
regular day classes to be 240 minutes in grades 4 through
12.
2) Establishes the minimum day for a pupil concurrently
enrolled in regular secondary school classes and classes
operated pursuant to a JPA that became effective prior to
January 1, 2008, to be 180 minutes and requires that a
pupil must attend the full 180 minutes of class to generate
a "day of attendance "for purposes of funding.
3) Provides that the 180 minute school day described above
will generate only three-quarters (75 percent) of a day of
attendance for the purpose of calculating average daily
attendance (ADA) but that the ADA generated by the pupil's
attendance may be claimed as part of a school district's
ADA.
4) Requires, starting in 2008-09, the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (SPI) to compute funding for each pupil,
enrolled in classes pursuant to a JPA that became effective
prior to January 1, 2008, by multiplying the pupil's annual
clock hours of attendance, up to a maximum of three clock
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hours per school day, by an hourly rate that is computed to
represent an hourly equivalent of the pupil's home district
revenue limit.
5) Requires the SPI to add the funding computed pursuant to
4) above, to the revenue limit of the school district of
attendance of the pupil.
6) Deems for the purposes of computing attendance that a
pupil, attending classes operated pursuant to a JPA that
became effective prior to January 1, 2008, satisfies the
requirement that the pupil be under the immediate
supervision and control of a district employed teacher.
7) Requires as part of a school district's annual audit to
insure attendance funding is in compliance with conditions
specified for each school district that is party to a JPA
that became effective prior to January 1, 2008, and
requires funding to be reduced for noncompliance, when
applicable.
8) Requires that the number of hours of instruction at
regional occupational centers or programs that are claimed
for funding be used, in addition to specified hourly rates,
in the computation of the ADA of the regional occupational
center or program.
9) Prohibits, commencing with the 2008-09 fiscal year, the
Center for Advanced Research and Technology operating
pursuant to a JPA between Clovis and Fresno Unified School
Districts from being eligible for funding under charter
school funding laws.
10) Makes these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2012, and
repealed as of January 1, 2013.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, "the funding provided in AB 2246 is in excess of what
the pupils would otherwise generate relative to current law.
FUSD and CUSD have revenue limits of approximately $769 less per
pupil than the amount this bill would provide to the CART.
Assuming 1,300 units of average daily attendance at CART, this
bill would cost $999,700 General Fund annually."
COMMENTS : CART was established as a charter school in April of
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1998 by a joint powers agreement established between the Clovis
Unified School District (CUSD) and the Fresno Unified School
District (FUSD). CART is a career technical education center
that provides instruction to pupils in grades 11 and 12 from
both districts, where the pupils spend half of their
instructional day at CART and the other half in their regular
district high school.
The instructional model at CART combines rigorous academics with
career clusters that include professional sciences, engineering,
advanced communications and global dynamics. Within each
cluster are several career-specific laboratories in which
students complete industry-based projects and receive academic
credit for advanced English, science, math, and technology.
Data produced and analyzed by CART in a self-published study,
shows that from 2002-2008, students who participated in CART's
Linked Learning program were more likely to graduate from high
school, had a higher rate (by 11 percentage points) of
enrollment in community colleges, and had a higher rate (by 2
percentage points) of enrollment in universities, than a
comparison group of similar students drawn from CUSD and FUSD.
These results held for pupils upon completion of grade 12 and in
follow-up surveys completed one year after high school.
Current law requires charter schools to enroll pupils in
classroom instruction for at least 80% of the school day, or be
considered "non-classroom based" charter schools subject to
special review and reduced funding. Current law also provides
that school districts, and charter schools, may not claim
general purpose funding for the attendance of pupils in classes
that are not under the supervision and control of a teacher that
is an employee of the district or charter school.
In the mid-2000s, CART ran afoul of both of these laws in that
the pupils were in charter school classrooms only 50% of the
day, although they attended regular high school classes during
the other 50%; also, though teachers from both districts taught
at CART, so pupils were not always being instructed by employees
of their home district or the CART charter school. In 2006, the
State Controller's auditors determined that the charter school
could not claim any funding for that year, or any later year
until the charter school either complied with the law or was
granted an exception. In 2007, CART's funding for the 2006-07
fiscal year was specifically authorized by SB 345 (Aanestadt),
Chapter 524, Statutes of 2007. The 2006 audit was settled
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without penalty, but a long term solution was still needed; AB
2246 (Villines), Chapter 762, Statutes of 2008, provided that
longer term solution and codified the current funding formula
for CART. AB 2246 established a July 1, 2012, inoperative date
and a January 1, 2013 repeal date on those special funding
provisions; this bill extends those dates five years further
into the future.
Previous legislation: AB 2246 (Villines), Chapter 762, Statutes
of 2008, codified the current funding formula for CART, by
making CART ineligible to receive funding under charter school
funding provisions and establishing a specific funding formula
for calculating additional ADA based funding to be included in
CUSD's and FUSD's revenue limit apportionments. SB 345
(Aanestadt), Chapter 524, Statutes of 2007, authorizes CART to
receive the charter school general-purpose funding for the
2007-08 fiscal year for a total ADA not to exceed CART's ADA as
determined at the second principal apportionment for FY 2006-07.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Clovis Unified School District
Fresno Unified School District
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087