BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 700
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 15, 2013

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                  Mike Gatto, Chair

                      AB 700 (Gomez) - As Amended:  May 6, 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 framework is revised as required by law,  
          to encourage a voter education component to be included in the  
          American Government and civics course that includes instruction  
          on how to register and cast votes in local, state, and federal  
          elections, and how to use the voter information pamphlet and  
          other materials to be become an informed voter.  

           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 

           1)Purpose  .  Current law 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. 

            According to the author, "As the state has become home to many  








                                                                  AB 700
                                                                  Page  2

            new immigrants, including Spanish speaking, Latino  
            families?.California has the responsibility to increase civic  
            engagement not only with first generation voters, but the  
            children of newly registered voters."  This bill requires the  
            IQC to encourage a voter education component in the  
            history-social science framework, as specified.  

           2)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  
            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 include a voter education  
            component.  

            In order to ensure this measure will not lead to additional  
            costs to the current framework process, the following  
            uncodified language should be added 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. 

            Also, there is concern that a voter education "component"  








                                                                  AB 700
                                                                  Page  3

            means a stand-alone curriculum within the history-social  
            science framework.  The committee suggests addressing this  
            issue. 

           3)Technical amendment  .  There is an extra word in a sentence of  
            this bill.  On page 2, line 15, delete the word "ensure." 

           4)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. 

           5)Related legislation  . 

             a)   AB 137, pending in the Senate, requires the IQC to  
               include information related to civics education whenever it  
               revises the history-social science curriculum framework.  

             b)   AB 391 (Wieckowski), pending in this committee, requires  
               the history-social science curriculum framework, when it is  
               revised, to encourage instruction related to the  
               understanding of personal finances. 

             c)   AB 424 (Donnelly), pending in this committee, the IQC,  
               when the history-social science framework is revised, to  
               consider incorporating specified documents in the  
               framework.  



           Analysis Prepared by  :    Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)  
          319-2081