BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 62|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 62
Author: Pavley (D), Block (D), and Huff (R), et al.
Amended: 4/7/15
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 8-0, 3/25/15
AYES: Liu, Huff, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Mendoza, Pan, Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/28/15
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
SUBJECT: Student financial aid: Assumption Program of Loans
for Education: Governor's Teaching Fellowships
Program
SOURCE: Superintendent of Public Instruction
DIGEST: This bill makes various programmatic changes to the
existing Assumption Program of Loans for Education (APLE).
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Establishes the APLE program, administered by the California
Student Aid Commission (CSAC), to provide loan assumption
benefits to credentialed teachers. 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
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program "forgives" up to $11,000 of college loan debt for a
person who teaches for four 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). Qualifying schools include those with high
proportions of low-income youth or emergency permit teachers
and those located in rural areas.
2) Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
annually determine teacher subject matter shortages.
3) Provides additional loan forgiveness of $1,000 per year for
up to four years for those who teach math, science or special
education (for a total of $15,000) and an additional $1,000
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).
4) Prohibits CSAC from awarding a greater number of agreements
than is authorized in the annual Budget Act.
This bill makes various programmatic changes to the existing
APLE. Specifically, this bill:
1) Makes technical, conforming changes the legislative findings
and declarations for APLE.
2) Amends the definition of "eligible school" to those that
serve a percentage of unduplicated pupils, as determined by
the SPI.
3) Eliminates the requirement that an eligible school is ranked
in the lowest two deciles on the API.
4) Removes the requirement that an applicant has received or is
approved to receive a loan under the Federal Family Education
Loan Program and replaces it with the requirement that an
applicant has demonstrated financial need.
5) Requires that an applicant will be teaching in a shortage
area, as determined by the SPI.
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6) Removes the provision allowing up to 400 APLE loan
assumption agreements to go to veteran teachers each year.
7) Modifies the list of schools (that serve a large population
of pupils from low-income families) that the SPI is required
to provide to CSAC each year.
8) Removes the requirement for the SPI to provide CSAC with a
list of schools ranked in the lowest two deciles of the API
and a list of high priority schools.
9) Removes the prohibition for teachers in self-contained
classrooms and multi-subject credential holders from
participating in the APLE.
10)Allows the list of teaching shortage areas that the SPI must
develop each year to include teaching in a self-contained
classroom and multiple subject credentials.
11)Amends the provision allowing loan forgiveness of $1,000 per
year for those who teach math, science or special education
by eliminating the requirement that the school is in the
lowest 60 percentile of the API.
12)Modifies the annual report that CSAC is required to submit
to the Legislature, as specified.
13)Authorizes CSAC to continue to implement APLE as it read on
January 1, 2015, for the allocation of funds for loan
agreements made before that date and for the purpose of
collecting payments from former program participants.
14)Makes the implementation of APLE contingent upon funding
provided in the annual Budget Act and also caps the number of
warrants to be awarded at 1,000.
Comments
Need for the bill. According to the author, California's
schools are facing a pending teacher shortage crisis. They
indicate that the Commission on Teacher Credentialing reports
enrollment in teacher preparation programs has fallen from
almost 78,000 a decade ago to 19,933 in 2013-a decrease of 74%.
In addition, one-third of the state's teaching workforce is
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nearing retirement age. Further, the California Department of
Education has designated English, History, Social Sciences,
Computer Education, as well as those teachers teaching all
subjects in an elementary class as shortage areas.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, this bill will
result in cost pressures in the tens of millions in General
Fund. Additionally, the California State University reports
minimal costs for the APLE awards and CSAC has indicated
increased workload to cost in the high hundreds of thousands.
SUPPORT: (Verified 6/2/15)
Superintendent of Public Instruction (source)
Association of California School Administrators
California College and University Police Chiefs Association
California School Boards Association
California State PTA
California Student Aid Commission
California Teachers Association
Las Virgenes Unified School District
Los Angeles County Office of Education
Saugus Union School District
Numerous individuals
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/1/15)
None received
Prepared by:Lenin Del Castillo / ED. / (916) 651-4105
6/2/15 10:46:16
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