BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 212 (Pavley) - Assumption Program of Loans for Education
Amended: April 11, 2013 Policy Vote: Education 8-1
Urgency: Yes Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 13, 2013 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 212 appropriates $5 million from the General
Fund to the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) to fund
7,200 new warrants for the assumption of school loans for
teachers in identified areas of a shortage of teachers. This
bill is an urgency measure.
Fiscal Impact:
Appropriation: $5 million General Fund earmarked for APLE
warrants.
Complete application automation: CSAC estimates that it
would require $90,000 for a one-time, temporary contract to
complete database conversion and automating an online
application for APLE before it can implement this bill.
Cost pressure: Deleting existing statutory language which
links the number of APLE warrants issued to the annual
Budget Act creates cost pressure to continue funding APLE at
this level regardless of competing budget priorities.
Background: The APLE was established in 1983 to provide loan
assumption benefits to credentialed teachers, and is
administered by CSAC. Generally, APLE warrants are given to
credential candidates; the warrants are then redeemed for the
loan assumption benefit once the candidate has earned a
credential and completed a year of eligible teaching. The
program is designed to increase the number of qualified teachers
in disadvantaged schools or high-priority subject areas. The
program "forgives" up to $11,000 of college loan debt for a
person who teaches for 4 consecutive years in a qualifying
school or subject area (paying $2,000 for the first year of
teaching service and $3,000 for each of the next three years of
teaching).
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Qualifying schools include those with high proportions of
low-income students or emergency permit teachers, and those
located in rural areas. Qualifying subject areas are those with
teacher shortages, and are annually determined by the
Superintendent of Public Instruction; math, science and special
education have been listed consistently for many years.
(Education Code � 69612)
Additional loan forgiveness of $1,000 per year for up to four
years is provided for those who teach math, science or special
education (for a total of $15,000) and an additional $1,000 is
provided for those who teach math, science or special education
in schools with an academic performance index (API) of 1 or 2
(for a total of $19,000).
(EC � 69613.8)
CSAC is prohibited from awarding a greater number of agreements
than is authorized in the annual Budget Act. (EC � 69615.8)
Proposed Law: SB 212 appropriates $5 million General Fund for
7,200 new APLE warrants for the 2013-14 fiscal year. This bill
also deletes language that links APLE funding to the annual
Budget Act. This bill includes an urgency clause.
Staff Comments: This bill appropriates $5 million General Fund
to CSAC to issue 7,200 new APLE warrants in the 2013-14 fiscal
year, which it would begin paying in 2014-15, (after the
credential candidates have become teachers and taught for a
year). CSAC has indicated that the commission was in the process
of completing a database conversion and automating an online
application for the APLE program when funding was vetoed
(suspending the program). Programming staff were redirected to
work on California Dream Act award implementation, which will
not be completed before this bill would take effect (as an
urgency). CSAC estimates that it would require a contract
programmer for up to 6 months to complete coding, testing,
deployment, and provide temporary support for the APLE system;
CSAC estimates this will cost $90,000.
This bill also severs the link between the award of warrants and
funding provided in the annual Budget Act. The Governor vetoed
language in the 2012-13 Budget that would have authorized a
total of 7,300 warrants for loan assumption (100 were for
nursing). The Governor's proposed 2013-14 Budget does not
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include funding for loan assumption warrants, and there does not
appear to be an effort by the Legislature to pursue such funding
in the Budget Act. This bill seeks to restore the level of
funding vetoed in 2012-13, and creates cost pressure to continue
the program at that funding level.