BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 575
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|Author: |O'Donnell |
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|Version: |June 20, 2016 Hearing |
| |Date: June 29, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Lynn Lorber |
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Subject: Instructional materials: follow up adoptions
NOTE: This bill has been amended to replace its contents and
this is the first time the bill is being heard in its current
form.
SUMMARY
This bill re-establishes a fee supported process for the follow
up adoption of instructional materials.
BACKGROUND
The State Constitution, and related statutes, provide for the
State Board of Education to adopt textbooks and other
instructional materials for Kindergarten and grades 1-8.
(Constitution of California, Article IX, § 7.5)
Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt at
least five basic instructional materials for all applicable
grade levels in specific subject areas. Existing law authorizes
instructional materials to be submitted for adoption in any of
the specified subject areas every eight years. (Education Code
§ 60200)
Existing law no longer provides for follow up adoptions of
instructional materials. Statutes specifically authorized
follow up adoptions from 2004-2011; those provisions were for a
limited period of time and have been repealed.
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ANALYSIS
This bill re-establishes a fee supported process for the follow
up adoption of instructional materials. Specifically, this
bill:
1) Provides that a follow up adoption is any adoption other
than the primary adoption that occurs within the existing
eight-year cycle.
2) Requires the California Department of Education (CDE),
before conducting a follow up adoption in a given subject
area, to post an appropriate notice on its Web site and
notify all publishers or manufacturers known to produce
basic instructional materials in that subject area.
3) Requires the notice to specify that each publisher or
manufacturer choosing to participate in the follow up
adoption be assessed a fee based on the number of programs
the publisher or manufacturer indicates will be submitted
for review and the number of grade levels proposed to be
covered by each program.
4) Requires the fee to offset the cost of conducting the
follow up adoption process and reflect the California
Department of Education's (CDE's) best estimate of the
cost. This bill requires the CDE to take reasonable steps
to limit costs of the follow up adoption and to keep the
fee modest, recognizing that some of the work necessary for
the primary adoption need not be duplicated.
5) Requires the CDE, before incurring substantial costs for
the follow up adoption, to require that a publisher or
manufacturer who wishes to participate in the follow up
adoption first declare the intent to submit one or more
specific programs for the follow up adoption and specify
the specific grade levels to be covered by each program.
6) Requires the CDE, after a publisher or manufacturer has
declared the intent to submit one or more programs and the
grade levels to be covered by each program, to assess a
fee.
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7) Requires the fee to be payable by the publisher or
manufacturer even if the publisher or manufacturer
subsequently chooses to withdraw a program or reduce the
number of grade levels covered.
8) Prohibits a submission from being reviewed for purposes of
adoption, either in a follow up adoption or in any other
primary or follow up adoption conducted thereafter, until
the fee assessed has been paid in full.
9) States legislative intent that the fee not be so
substantial that it prevents small publishers or
manufacturers from participating in a follow up adoption.
10) Authorizes the State Board of Education, upon the request
of a small publisher or manufacturer, to reduce the fee for
participation in the follow up adoption.
11) Defines "small publisher" and "small manufacturer" as an
independently owned or operated publisher or manufacturer
who is not dominant in its field of operation, and who,
together with its affiliates, has 100 or fewer employees,
and has average annual gross receipts of $10 million or
less over the previous three years.
12) Requires revenue derived from fees to be budgeted as
reimbursements and subject to review through the annual
budget process and authorizes the fees to be used to pay
costs associated with any adoption and any costs associated
with the review of instructional materials.
13) Modifies existing provisions regarding the submission of
instructional materials from every eight years to at least
once but not more than twice every eight years.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill. According to the author, "Due to the
state budget crisis, the Legislature and Governor
temporarily suspended all statewide instructional materials
adoptions in 2009 and only recently lifted the suspension
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for the 2015-16 school year. As a result of the
suspension, the authority to conduct follow up adoptions
was not extended past the sunset date of January 1, 2011.
In 2010, the State Board of Education adopted the
California Common Core State Standards. However, funding
was unavailable to revise the math curriculum framework and
conduct an instructional materials adoption. In 2013,
legislation authorized a special instructional materials
adoption for math within the existing freeze on adoptions.
The adoption occurred one year later in January 2014. The
funding for this adoption came from the publishers
themselves. Similarly, legislation in 2013 provided the
same funding authority for the 2015 English Language
Arts/English Language Development instructional materials
adoption. AB 575 includes this funding model. AB 575 is
cost-neutral to the State because the funding for the
adoption activities will come from those publishers who
voluntarily participate."
2) Why the rush? This bill was recently gutted and amended.
According to the California Department of Education (CDE),
it has an urgent need for authority to conduct a follow up
instructional materials adoption for mathematics because
the adoption of mathematics materials in 2014 occurred on
an extremely accelerated timeline that in effect excluded
the submission of more programs. In addition, that
adoption occurred before publishers knew how the
assessments would measure the proficiency of the Standards
for Mathematical Practice and the California common core
standards. The CDE believes another opportunity to adopt
instructional materials for mathematics is appropriate to
expand district choice and to provide flexibility for
districts that have a local policy requiring the use of
State Board of Education (SBE)-adopted instructional
materials (rather than district-adopted materials).
3) Why not limit to mathematics? According to the CDE, there
is an urgent need to conduct a follow up adoption for
mathematics. However, this bill is not limited to
mathematics; it allows for follow up adoptions in any
subject area. According to the CDE, this bill is not
limited to mathematics because "school districts want a
dynamic list of available instructional materials for
existing subject areas. AB 575 would allow the SBE to
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conduct a follow up adoption when appropriate. This
authority would allow the state to be responsible to the
needs of the field quickly - without having to seek
legislation for each subject area and conducting the
necessary rulemaking process to establish appropriate
regulations, all of which would take much more than a year.
CDE believes a comprehensive approach would streamline the
process and provide the SBE flexibility to determine when a
follow up adoption is required. CDE anticipates that
English language arts and the Next Generation Science
Standards will also require follow up adoptions because of
the statewide assessments. CDE will need authority to
improve the quality of instructional materials programs
after assessment results become available."
Should the authority to conduct follow up adoptions be
limited to the specific subjects in need of a follow up
adoption?
4) Why not include a sunset? Prior statutory authority for
follow up adoptions existing from 2004-2011; those
provisions were for a limited period of time and have been
repealed. The two prior measures that authorized follow up
adoptions included sunset clauses. This bill does not
include a sunset date. California Department of Education
(CDE) does not believe that a sunset on this authority is
necessary. According to CDE, "AB 575 simply permits the
State Board of Education (SBE) to conduct a follow up
adoption when appropriate, and not more than once between
regular adoptions."
Should this bill include a sunset date?
5) Amendment. Prior statutes that authorized follow up
adoptions included a provision that was inadvertently
excluded from this bill. Staff recommends an amendment to
add the following:
On page 11, after line 22, insert: (h) Notwithstanding
subdivision (b) of Section 60200, if the department
determines that there is little or no interest in
participating in a follow up adoption by publishers and
manufacturers, it shall recommend to the state board that
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the follow up adoption not be conducted, and the state
board may chose not to conduct the followup adoption.
6) Fiscal impact. This bill has not been analyzed by a fiscal
committee. This bill imposes a fee on publishers to offset
the costs to the CDE, and requires revenues derived from
fees to be budgeted as reimbursements. According to the
Assembly Appropriations Committee's analysis of prior
legislation, likely costs between $150,000 and $250,000 to
the CDE to conduct a follow up adoption for instructional
materials.
SUPPORT
Association of California School Administrators
California School Boards Association
California Teachers Association
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson
OPPOSITION
None received.
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