BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 62
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Date of Hearing: August 3, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
SB 62
(Pavley) - As Amended February 1, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill makes various modifications to the Assumption Program
of Loans for Education (APLE), including:
1)Amending the definition of "eligible school" to mean a school
serving a percentage of students classified as an English
learner, eligible for a free or reduced-price meal, or is a
foster youth, as determined by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI), and eliminating the requirement that an
eligible school must rank in the lowest two deciles on the
Academic Performance Index (API).
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2)Eliminating the requirement that an applicant has received or
is approved to receive a loan under the Federal Family
Education Loan Program, and instead requiring that an
applicant has demonstrated financial need.
3)Removing the provision allowing up to 400 APLE loan assumption
agreements to go to credentialed teachers, as specified, each
year.
4)Amending 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 for such teachers
is in the lowest 60 percentile of the API.
This bill also authorizes the California Student Aid Commission
(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.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Administrative costs for the SPI and CSAC to adopt the program
modifications of this bill should be minor and absorbable. There
have been no authorizations for new APLE warrants for several
years. Since current law already requires new warrants to be
authorized through the Budget Act, this bill does not impose any
new cost pressures.
COMMENTS:
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1)Background. The APLE program, established in 1983, provides
loan assumption benefits to credentialed teachers. Generally,
APLE warrants are given to credential candidates and then
redeemed for the loan assumption benefit once the candidate
has earned a credential and completed a year of eligible
teaching. The program, which is designed to increase the
number of qualified teachers in disadvantaged schools or
high-priority subject areas, "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--$2,000 for the first year of teaching and $3,000 for
each of the next three years.
Additional loan forgiveness of $1,000 per year over the four
years (a total of $15,000) is provided for those who teach
math, science or special education, and an additional $1,000
is provided (a total of $19,000) 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).
2)Purpose. According to the California Commission on Teacher
Credentialing (CTC), enrollment in teacher preparation
programs has fallen from almost 78,000 a decade ago to less
than 20,000 in 2013. The number of newly-issued CTC
credentials has fallen every year for the past decade. The
California Teachers Association contends that one-third of
California's teachers are at or near retirement age.
According to the author, many reasons exist as to why the
state has a shortage of teachers; from the costs of obtaining
a college degree, to the low salaries teachers make. The
author contends, "Eliminating California's teacher recruitment
and financial aid programs over the past decade has not helped
matters."
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As mentioned above, no new APLE warrants have been authorized
for several years. The 2015 Budget Act (AB 93, Weber), as
enacted by the Legislature on June 15, authorized 1,000 new
warrants. However, SB 97 (Senate Budget and Fiscal Review),
which provided subsequent amendments to AB 93, deleted this
authorization. The 2016 Budget Act similarly does not
authorize any new APLE warrants.
3)Prior Legislation. SB 1264 (Pavley) of 2014, which was held in
the Senate Appropriations, proposed to establish the Educator
Excellence Program, an assumption loan program for up to 6,500
teachers who satisfied specified criteria.
SB 212 (Pavley) of 2013, which was also held in the Senate
Appropriations, sought to appropriate $5 million, from an
unspecified funding source, for 7,200 new warrants for the
assumption of school loans for teachers in areas with
identified teacher shortages.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081