BILL ANALYSIS Ó
ACR 45
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 8, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
ACR 45 (Weber) - As Amended: May 2, 2013
SUBJECT : Early care and education
SUMMARY : Urges the California State Legislature, the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), and the Governor to
restore budget funding to early care and education programs and
to support efforts to fund and implement the Quality Rating and
Improvement System (QRIS) and other programs that support early
care and education. Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes declarations and findings that include the following:
a) Eighty percent of a child's brain development occurs by
age three and 90 percent of brain development by age five.
Children who attend quality early care and education
programs are more likely to pass reading exams through
third grade.
b) Poor African Americans and Latino students, and English
learners are overrepresented among students scoring in the
lowest levels on the National Assessment of Educational
Progress and on state standards-based test.
c) A high-quality early care and education program that
engages parents results in higher grades, better school
attendance, increased motivation, and higher graduation
rates.
d) An integral part of a sound pubic investment strategy to
secure California's economic future must include the
development of, and the appropriate compensation levels to
recruit and retain a highly trained early care and
education workforce.
e) President Barack Obama has proposed making high-quality
preschool available to every single child in America,
stating that "Every dollar we invest in high-quality early
childhood education can save more than seven dollars later
on - by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy,
even reducing violent crime."
ACR 45
Page 2
2)Resolves by the Assembly, with the Senate concurring, that
colleagues of the Legislature, the SPI, and the Governor are
urged to restore budget funding to early care and education
programs and to support efforts to fund and implement the QRIS
and other programs that support early care and education.
3)Resolves that the Assembly urges its colleagues to commit to
improving the public's understanding of the role that early
care and education plays in securing an educated, nimble, and
stable workforce to help keep California's economy vibrant and
strong for years to come.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes eligibility for child care services and child
development programs administered by the California Department
of Education (CDE) and requires the SPI to adopt rules and
regulations on eligibility, enrollment and priority of
services needed for implementation (Education Code (EC)
Section 8263).
2)Establishes the California State Preschool Program (CSPP),
comprised of funding from State Preschool, Prekindergarten and
Family Literacy Programs (PKFL), and General Child Care
center-based programs, for part-day and full-day services for
three- and four-year old children. (EC Section 8235)
FISCAL EFFECT : None. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS : Studies, such as those from the RAND corporation,
have shown that quality early childhood education programs have
a number of benefits, including improving children's readiness
for school, higher test scores, reduced grade-level retention,
higher rates of school completion, and higher likelihood of
college attendance.
Background. The CDE administers a child care and development
system, maintaining 1,401 service contracts with approximately
758 public and private agencies supporting and providing
services to children from birth to 13 years of age. Contractors
include school districts, county offices of education, cities,
colleges, other public entities, community-based organizations,
and private agencies. In fiscal year (FY) 2011-12, $2.3 billion
ACR 45
Page 3
was provided for child care and development programs from state
and federal funds, enrolling an estimated 345,000 children.
This is down from $2.669 billion initially provided in the FY
2010-11 budget (prior to midyear trigger cuts) with almost
416,000 slots. According to the Legislative Analyst's Office,
overall funding for the child care and development program has
decreased by almost $1 billion since 2008-09, with the
elimination of 110,000 slots. The Governor's proposed FY
2013-14 budget provides an increase of $12 million over FY
2012-13 funds for a total of $2.2 billion for child care and
development programs to provide an estimated 341,000 child care
and preschool slots.
In February, President Obama announced his plans for early
childhood education, including providing high-quality preschool
for all low- and moderate-income four-year-old children at or
below 200% of poverty, extending and expanding voluntary home
visits, and investment in a new Early Head Start-Child Care
partnership. In April, President Obama released his proposed
2014 budget, which includes over $90 billion for early childhood
programs, including the following:
$75 billion over the next decade to expand access to
high quality preschool for all low- and moderate-income
four-year-olds, funded by a $.94 cent tobacco tax.
$15 billion for the voluntary home visiting program over
the next 10 years. These voluntary programs provide
nurses, social workers, and other professionals that meet
with at-risk families in their homes and connect them to
resources that impact a child's health, development, and
ability to learn.
$1.4 billion for new early Head Start-Child Care
partnerships to enhance and support early learning
settings, provide new, full-day, comprehensive services
that meet the needs of working families and prepare
children for the transition into preschool.
This resolution urges the Legislature, the SPI and the Governor
to restore funding for early care and education programs.
QRIS . This resolution also urges the Legislature, the SPI and
the Governor to support efforts to fund and implement the QRIS.
SB 1629 (Steinberg), Chapter 307, Statutes of 2008, established
ACR 45
Page 4
the Early Learning Quality Improvement System Advisory Committee
and required the Committee to develop a policy and implementation
plan for an Early Learning Quality Improvement System. The
provisions of the bill repealed on January 1, 2012. The
Committee's final report recommended creating a statewide,
tiered-reimbursement QRIS to evaluate and reimburse programs
based on five quality elements: ratios and group size; teaching
and learning practices; family involvement; staff education and
training; and program leadership. In 2011, California was
awarded a $52.6 million four-year federal grant, the Race to the
Top - Early Learning Challenge grant, to strengthen the quality
of early learning programs. California awarded the majority of
the funds to 17 Regional Leadership Consortia, each led by an
established organization that is already operating or developing
a QRIS. The 17 Consortia in 16 counties includes: Alameda, Contra
Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Los Angeles, Merced, Orange,
Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara,
Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Ventura, and Yolo.
According to the CDE, "As part of this grant, the Consortia will
bring together organizations in their regions with the same goal
of improving the quality of early learning and will expand their
current areas of impact by inviting other programs to join their
QRIS or reaching out to mentor other communities. By joining
California's Race to the Top effort, the Consortia voluntarily
agree to align their local QRIS to a common "Quality Continuum
Framework" based on research-based elements and related
assessment and improvement tools. They also agree to implement in
their QRIS two common tiers using the Framework in addition to
locally determined tiers and to set local goals to improve the
quality of early learning and development programs." The
consortias will set local goals to improve the quality of early
learning and development programs in the following three areas:
1) child development and readiness for school; 2) teachers and
teaching; and 3) program and environment quality.
The author states, "A child who attends quality early care and
education programs is less likely to be arrested and more likely
to earn higher incomes than a child who does not, and the
opportunity to participate in such programs prepares children to
attain a higher standard of living as adults and to become
members of the high-skilled workforce that is critical to our
nation's economic future."
Related legislation . AJR 16 (Bonilla), pending in the Assembly,
ACR 45
Page 5
urges Congress to enact President Barack Obama's budget proposal
to increase funding for preschool and early learning and the SPI
to prepare a plan for making California competitive for future
increases in federal funding.
Previous legislation . AB 2592 (Buchanan), held by the author in
the Senate in 2010, would have required the CDE to implement an
early learning quality improvement rating scale pilot program
that is based on the final recommendations developed by the
Early Learning Quality Improvement System Advisory Committee.
SB 1629 (Steinberg), Chapter 307, Statutes of 2008, established
the Early Learning Quality Improvement System Advisory Committee
and required the Committee to develop a policy and
implementation plan for an Early Learning Quality Improvement
System. The provisions of the bill sunset on January 1, 2012.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087