BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                      



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                   SB 754|
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                              UNFINISHED BUSINESS


          Bill No:  SB 754
          Author:   Padilla (D)
          Amended:  8/6/12
          Vote:     21

           
          PRIOR SENATE VOTES NOT RELEVANT

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  75-0, 8/21/12 - See last page for vote


           SUBJECT  :    School funding:  economic impact aid

           SOURCE  :     Author


           DIGEST  :    This is a new bill.  As it left the Senate, it 
          dealt with the California English Language Development 
          Test.  Those provisions were deleted in the Assembly.  This 
          bill now requires a school district, as a condition of the 
          receipt of economic impact aid funds, to post in an easily 
          accessible location on its Internet Web site data related 
          to its economic impact aid funding and expenditures, as 
          specified.

           ANALYSIS  :    Existing law provides economic impact aid 
          funding to school districts based on the number of 
          economically disadvantaged pupils and English learners 
          enrolled in the school district. 

          Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public 
          Instruction to perform specified calculations to determine 
          the amount of economic impact aid a school district 
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          receives for a fiscal year and further requires each school 
          district to expend these funds for specified programs and 
          activities.


          This bill, as a condition of the receipt of economic impact 
          aid funds, require a school district to post in an easily 
          accessible location on its Internet Web site data related 
          to economic impact aid funding, for purposes of budget 
          transparency, including all of the following:

          1. The amount of economic impact aid allocated to the 
             school district in that fiscal year.

          2. The amount of economic impact aid used by the school 
             district for administrative costs in that fiscal year.

          3. The amount of economic impact aid expended for 
             limited-English-proficient pupils in that fiscal year 
             and the prior fiscal year by the school district and by 
             each school within the district.

          4. The amount of economic impact aid expended for state 
             compensatory education in that fiscal year and the prior 
             fiscal year by the school district and by each school 
             within the district.

          5. The amount of unexpended economic impact aid and an 
             explanation of why these funds have not been expended.
           
          Background  

          In the last 25 years the English Learner population has 
          doubled, a trend reaffirmed by the 2010 Census.  California 
          educates 1.5 million English Learners which accounts for a 
          quarter of the K-12 population. In Kindergarten forty 
          percent of students are English Learners. 

          In 1976, Governor Brown signed the Bilingual-Bicultural 
          Education Act which created a groundbreaking system to 
          improve English Learner education.  The Act had a noble 
          goal of "?as effectively and efficiently as possible, to 
          develop in each child fluency in English." 








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          Thirty-six years later, the failure of the current English 
          Learner system is clear.  Today, English Learners have the 
          lowest graduation rate of any student demographic.  
          Thirty-one percent of English Learners who make it to 9th 
          grade drop out before graduation.  While some English 
          Learners receive their high school diploma, only 13% of 
          English Learners will earn a bachelor's degree.  

          Empowering and informing parents about the fiscal decisions 
          of their child's school is important for creating 
          educational success for English Learners. When parents and 
          communities are informed they are able to hold their 
          schools accountable. 

          Currently, districts do not report school-level funding 
          figures, instead they use district averages.  While many 
          districts do post their budgets online, they only list 
          funds in broad categories.  The public does not have access 
          to specific, school level expenditures.  Parents and 
          communities are largely unaware of how schools spend 
          English Learner funds because school districts are not 
          required to report or post them.

          There have been several recent reports calling for more 
          transparency in the education funding.  The Public Policy 
          Institute, the New America Foundation and researchers and 
          Stanford University have called for more transparent school 
          budgets.  The Stanford 2008 report title "Reforming 
          California School Finance" was authored by State Board of 
          Education President Michael Kirst, California Supreme Court 
          Justice Goodwin Liu, and former California Secretary of 
          Education Alan Bersin.  The report stated that the: 

            "? Ýeducation finance] system as a whole should be 
            simple, transparent, and easily understood by 
            legislators, school officials, and the public?" 

          The report asserts that transparency is needed in order for 
          Californians to support more revenues for schools because:

            "?.legislators cannot explain to their constituents (much 
            less defend) how education dollars are allocated; and the 
            public cannot understand how additional revenue for 
            education will affect their local schools." 







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          Transparency is necessary to inform schools and empower 
          parents.  When schools are informed and parents are 
          empowered, positive improvements can be made.  For example, 
          in Coachella Valley Unified School District, the district 
          failed every single category during their last compliance 
          monitoring review.  The review put sunshine onto the 
          problems and deficiencies in the districts programs and 
          expenditures. 

          Since then, under the leadership of a new Superintendent 
          and in partnership the Families Improving Schools Education 
          initiative, the district was able to work with parents and 
          the community to restructure their English Learner 
          programs.

          The Coachella community established the 
          Parent-School-Community collaborative for Student Success, 
          and a Parent Engagement Taskforce between the district, 
          parents, and community partners.  Through these efforts, 
          they have established a monitoring mechanism and are 
          supporting improvements to new and existing programs for 
          successful reclassification. Schools and parents can work 
          together to see that students receive the supports and 
          services they need to succeed. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  No   
          Local:  No

           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  8/21/12)

          ACLU
          California Association for Bilingual Education 
          California Immigrant Policy Center
          Californians Together
          Education Trust West
          Families in Schools
          Los Angeles Unified School District 
          Mexican American Legal Defense Education Fund 
          Public Advocates
          Reading and Beyond

           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :    The author states, "Current law 
          lacks transparency in school budgets that would allow 







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          policymakers, students, parents, teachers and communities 
          to understand how schools and districts provide services to 
          English Learners." 

          This bill requires as a condition of the receipt of EIA 
          funds, school districts to post in an easily accessible 
          location the information about EIA allocations and 
          expenditures at the school district and school site level. 


           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  : 75-0, 08/21/12
          AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, Bill 
            Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, 
            Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos, 
            Carter, Cedillo, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson, 
            Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani, 
            Beth Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Gorell, 
            Grove, Hagman, Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hill, 
            Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lara, Logue, 
            Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor, Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell, 
            Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Norby, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. 
            Manuel Pérez, Portantino, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, 
            Swanson, Torres, Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, 
            John A. Pérez
          NO VOTE RECORDED: Chesbro, Roger Hernández, Hueso, Nielsen, 
            Valadao


          RJG:m  8/21/12   Senate Floor Analyses 

                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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