BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 505
AUTHOR: Jackson
AMENDED: April 1, 2013
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 10, 2013
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lenin Del Castillo
SUBJECT : Education Technology.
SUMMARY
This bill realigns the provisions in current law that
support the use of technology through the California
Technology Assistance Project (CTAP) and the State
Education Technology Services (SETS) projects by moving
them under the K-12 High Speed Network (K12HSN) to create a
consolidated technology support system. This bill also
extends the sunset date for CTAP and the SETS projects from
January 1, 2014, to January 1, 2017.
BACKGROUND
Current law authorizes the CTAP to provide a regionalized
network of technical assistance to schools and school
districts on the implementation of education technology.
CTAP is composed of regional consortia that work
collaboratively with school districts and county offices of
education to meet locally defined technology based needs.
CTAP's functions include providing technical services to
support access, planning, and use of high-speed
telecommunications networks as well as providing technology
planning and implementation assistance to rural and
technologically underserved school districts and county
offices of education.
Current law also authorizes the SETS projects, which
consist of the California Learning Resource Network (CLRN),
the Technology Information Center for Administrative
Leadership (TICAL), and Technical Support for Education
Technology in Schools (TechSETS). CLRN helps teachers
select online materials by conducting a review of
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electronic learning resources, such as software and video,
for alignment with content standards. TICAL provides
professional development for education administrators in
areas of data-driven decision making, integrating
technology into standards-based curriculum, and technology
planning, operations, and management. TICAL also maintains
a web portal that features resources for administrators to
assist with digital school leadership. TechSETS provides
resources and support for school technology staff through
an online interactive help desk, professional development,
and assistance with planning and installing technology
infrastructures.
The 2012 Budget Act includes $14.1 million in Proposition
98 General Fund for the California Technology Assistance
Project (CTAP) and the State Education Technology Services
(SETS) projects but these funds are "flexed" and school
districts may utilize them for any educational purpose.
CTAP and the SETS projects are scheduled to sunset on
January 1, 2014.
Current law authorizes the K-12 High Speed Network
(K12HSN), which is operated by a consortium consisting of
the Imperial County Office of Education, Butte County
Office of Education, and Mendocino County Office of
Education. K12HSN provides participating schools and local
education agencies with network connectivity, internet
services, network diagnostic services, teaching and
learning application coordination, and videoconferencing
coordination and support. The K12HSN also administers
public school participation in the California Research and
Education Network (CalREN), which is the high-speed,
high-bandwidth statewide network of hub sites and circuits
linking all K-12, University of California, California
State University, and community college node sites. CalREN
is also linked to a national network, forming an advanced
state and national (intranet) for educational use.
California's participation in CalREN allows network and
internet services to be provided to nearly 8,000 schools,
861 school districts, and all of the county offices of
education in the state, servicing nearly 4.8 million
students. The 2012 Budget Act includes $8.34 million in
Proposition 98 General Fund for the K12HSN.
ANALYSIS
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This bill realigns the provisions in current law that
supports the use of technology through CTAP and the SETS
projects by moving them under the K12HSN to create a
consolidated technology support system. More specifically,
this bill:
1) Removes the requirement for the Superintendent of
Public Instruction to use a competitive grant process
to select a local educational agency as the Lead
Education Agency to administer the K12HSN.
2) Requires the K12HSN's statewide coordination of
network uses to instead be used for support services
that benefit teaching and learning with the common
core standards and in support of the computer-adaptive
assessment system adopted by the State Board of
Education.
3) Requires the K12HSN to provide centralized statewide
educational technology services that address regional
and statewide needs and are more efficiently and
effectively provided or coordinated on a statewide
basis to support the common core standards and
computer-adaptive assessments implemented by the State
Board of Education. The statewide educational
technology services to be supported include, but are
not limited to:
a) The review of electronic learning resources.
b) Professional development focused on digital
school leadership for educational administrators.
c) Access for schools for training, support,
and other resources for technical professionals.
d) Statewide coordination of a regional
assistance program to provide technical
assistance to schools and school districts in the
implementation of digital learning resources and
tools.
4) Requires the K-12 High Speed Network (K12HSN) advisory
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board to annually report its recommendations for
measuring the success of the network, improving
network oversight, and monitoring, strengthening
accountability, and optimizing the use of the K12HSN
and its ability to improve education to the
Legislature, the Governor, the Department of Finance,
the president of the State Board of Education, and the
Legislative Analyst's Office.
5) Removes an outdated provision of the Lead Agency of
the K12HSN to contract for an independent evaluation.
6) Requires the duties of the Lead Agency of the K12HSN
to include:
a) Entering into appropriate contracts to
provide identified needs that are more
efficiently and effectively provided on a
statewide basis, as specified.
b) Entering into appropriate contracts for
regional consortia to meet the locally defined
educational needs of school districts as they
address common core standards curriculum and
computer-adaptive assessments that can be
addressed effectively with the use of technology,
as specified, but including professional
development, electronic learning resources,
hardware, and telecommunication infrastructure.
Additionally, this bill extends the sunset date for the
California Technology Assistance Project (CTAP) and the
State Education Technology Services (SETS) projects from
January 1, 2014, to January 1, 2017.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . CTAP and the SETS projects
currently operate under categorical flexibility and
the Proposition 98 funds provided for these programs
can be diverted for any other educational purpose by
local school districts. These programs are scheduled
to sunset on January 1, 2014. The K12HSN is currently
not subject to categorical flexibility and therefore
its funding remains dedicated for the program.
According to the author, while these programs serve an
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important statewide function in the delivery of
education technology based services; there is a lack
of coordination among the programs. By moving CTAP
and the SETS projects under the K12HSN, this bill
would extend the technology services these programs
currently provide and also create a more coordinated
service delivery system by consolidating the programs.
The author believes this support system will be
valuable as schools prepare to transition to the
recently adopted common core standards and
computer-based assessment system.
2) Staff Amendments . It is unclear why extending the
sunset date for CTAP and the SETS projects in Section
2 of the bill is necessary given that the bill already
proposes to place these statutory provisions under the
sections of law pertaining to the K12HSN. Therefore,
staff recommends that Section 2 be removed from the
bill.
Staff also recommends that the bill be amended to
establish an accountability system regarding the
expenditure of funds for the K12HSN in which a school
district must meet specified preconditions that
include the development of a plan, in conjunction with
parents and teachers, to accelerate pupil progress
towards academic proficiency. Proposition 98 funds
for CTAP and the SETS projects are currently subject
to categorical flexibility. By moving the statutory
provisions for these programs under the K12HSN, this
bill could help provide a dedicated source of funds
for them because funding for the K12HSN is not
currently flexed. An accountability system would help
ensure these funds are spent in the most cost
effective manner.
3) Governor's Local Control Funding Formula . As part of
the 2013-14 Governor's Budget, the Administration
proposes to restructure the existing K-12 finance
system and eliminate over 40 existing programs while
also repealing, what the Administration determines are
countless "discretionary" provisions of statute, while
implementing a new formula known as the Local Control
Funding Formula (LCFF). The LCFF would consolidate
the vast majority of state categorical programs and
revenue limit apportionments into a single source of
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funding (12 categorical programs, including Special
Education, Child Nutrition, Preschool, and After
School programs, would be excluded). The LCFF
proposal would also eliminate the statutory and
programmatic requirements for almost all existing
categorical programs - the programs would be deemed
"discretionary" and programs in any of these areas
would be dependent on local district discretion. To
the extent that the LCFF or a modified version of it
is adopted as part of the budget, the majority of
currently required categorical activities would be
left to local districts' discretion. Therefore, the
new technology support system under the K12HSN
proposed by this bill could be diluted, eliminated,
rendered obsolete or
discretionary at the local level.
SUPPORT
Superintendent of Public Instruction (sponsor)
OPPOSITION
None on file.