BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 424
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Date of Hearing: May 15, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 424 (Donnelly) - As Amended: April 23, 2013
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC),
when the history-social science framework is revised, to
consider incorporating specified documents in the framework.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Specifies the following documents be considered for
incorporation in the framework:
a) The Magna Carta.
b) The Articles of Confederation.
c) The California Constitution.
2)Requires the IQC, as part of the history-social science
framework revision, to encourage instruction that promotes an
understanding of the governments of California and the U.S.,
including, but not limited, to the development of democracy
and the history of the development of the U.S. Constitution.
FISCAL EFFECT
To the extent the requirements of this bill are already included
in the scheduled history-social science curriculum framework
review process, there will be minor, absorbable GF costs to the
State Department of Education (SDE) to implement this measure.
If these requirements cannot be achieved within the existing
review process, there will likely be one-time GF administrative
costs to SDE between $75,000 and $150,000.
COMMENTS
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1)Background . Existing law requires the IQC, when the
history-social science framework is revised, to ensure the
following historical documents are incorporated in the
framework: the Declaration of Independence, the U.S.
Constitution (including the Bill of Rights), the Federalist
Papers, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address,
and George Washington's Farewell Address.
Statute also requires the State Board of Education (SBE) and
SDE to request the IQC review and revise, as necessary, the
course requirements in the history-social science framework to
ensure that minimum standards for courses in American
government and civics include teaching pupils how to interact
with state and local government agencies and representatives
to solve problems and to petition for changes in laws.
2)Purpose . The author states: "America, arguably the greatest
democracy ever to exist, will only stay as such if subsequent
generations understand its importance and the work necessary
to secure its preservation. In the effort to ensure this vital
education for future Californians, this bill aims to
standardize instruction in the fundamentals of democracy and
the formation of our republic."
3)Current law establishes a required course of study for grades
7-12. The course of study includes instruction in social
sciences. Statute also requires instruction in this subject
area to include a foundation for understanding the history,
resources, development, and government of California and
United States.
Existing law also requires local governing boards, when
adopting instructional materials, to require the textbooks for
social science or civics classes to contain the Declaration of
Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
4)How will this measure effect the completion of the
history-social science curriculum framework ? AB 2 X4 (Evans),
Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009, specified that local education
agencies (LEAs) are not required to purchase instructional
materials (IM) through the 2012-13 fiscal year (FY).
Consistent with the non-purchasing requirement, Chapter 2 also
suspended the requirement for SBE to adopt IM or conduct other
procedures associated with adoption (i.e., adopting curriculum
frameworks) until the 2013-14 school year. SB 70 (Committee on
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Budget and Fiscal Review), Chapter 7, Statutes of 2011,
extended this suspension until the 2014-15 FY.
Prior to the enactment of AB 2 X4, the next history-social
science curriculum framework was scheduled for adoption in May
2010 and the IQC had completed all of the necessary work,
including approval to conduct a 60-day comment period. With
the passage of SB 1540 (Hancock) - see below, the IQC is
expected to complete the framework process within the next
year and a half. It is unclear if this bill will cause the IQC
to restart the framework process to ensure specified
historical documents are incorporated in the framework and
that the framework encourages instruction that promotes the
understanding of the state and federal government.
In order to ensure this measure will not lead to additional
costs to the current framework process, the following
uncodified language modified to clarify the requirements of
this measure do not affect the current process:
Sec. 2. For purposes of adopting the subsequent
history-framework only, this shall not be construed as
requiring the Instructional Quality Commission to meet
specifically for purposes of implementing the requirements of
Section 1 of this act. Any recommended revisions made
pursuant to Section 1 shall be implemented in accordance with
the regular adoption process and shall not increase the costs
of developing the subsequent curriculum framework .
5)SB 1540 (Hancock), Statutes of 2012 , authorizes the SBE to
consider adoption of a revised curriculum framework and
evaluation criteria for instructional materials in
history-social science, and prohibits SDE from conducting work
necessary to revise this framework until it has completed work
related to the development of curriculum frameworks for the
Common Core Content Standards in English language arts and
mathematics.
6)Previous legislation . AB 2546 (Donnelly), similar to this
measure, was held on this committee's Suspense File in May
2012.
7)Related legislation .
a) AB 137 (Buchanan), pending in the Senate, requires the
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IQC to include information related to civics education
whenever it revises the history-social science curriculum
framework.
b) AB 700 (Gomez), pending in this committee, requires the
IQC, when the history-social framework is revised as
required by law, to encourage a voter education component
to be included in the American Government and civics
course, as specified.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081