BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 915 (Liu) - Teacher recruitment: California Center on
Teaching Careers
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|Version: March 14, 2016 |Policy Vote: ED. 8 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: April 11, 2016 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill reestablishes the California Center on
Teaching Careers (Center) to recruit individuals into the
teaching profession. Specifically, this bill requires the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), subject to an
appropriation, to contract with a local educational agency to
administer the program, with the concurrence of various
institutions of higher education.
Fiscal
Impact:
Program operation: Unknown fiscal impact to establish the
Center through a contract with a local educational agency, but
costs could be in the low millions to low tens of millions
based on historical funding levels of the former Cal Teach
program. (Proposition 98) (See Staff Comments)
Administrative costs: The CDE indicates the need of $56,000
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for staff to select a contractor in the first year of
implementation and $28,000 ongoing for staff to continue to
oversee the contract. (General Fund)
Concurrence requirement: The California State University (CSU)
indicates costs of about $2,000 per campus in staff time to
provide teacher education program information to the Center.
Assuming this estimate for all University of California (UC)
and CSU campuses that offer teacher preparation programs,
costs would be about $60,000 General Fund. The California
Community Colleges Chancellor's Office and the Commission on
Teacher Credentialing indicate minor and absorbable costs.
Background: This bill reestablishes the California Center on Teaching
Careers, known as Cal Teach, which was initially created in 1997
by SB 824 (Green, Chapter 864, Statutes of 1997). It contains
virtually the same program elements and responsibilities except
that this bill requires a local educational agency to administer
the program instead of the California State University. The
former program used a variety of methods to carry out its
responsibilities, including a website, telephone hotline and
call center, media campaigns, outreach, and collaboration.
The Budget Act of 2013 implemented the Local Control Funding
Formula and permanently consolidated the vast majority of
categorical programs, including the Professional Development
Block Grant which supported professional development activities
such as teacher recruitment and retention incentives, along with
revenue limit apportionments, into a single source of funding.
The statutory and programmatic requirements for almost all of
these categorical programs were also eliminated, leaving any
related activities to local districts' discretion.
Currently school districts utilize the Education Job
Opportunities Information Network (EdJoin) to post teacher
vacancies which can be viewed by out-of-state candidates. In
addition, both the UC and the CSU implement teacher recruitment
efforts. UC's program targets undergraduates to become teachers
in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. CSU
engages in partnerships with school districts to encourage high
schools to become teachers and to teach in their local
community.
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Proposed Law:
This bill establishes the Center to recruit individuals into
the teaching profession. This bill requires the SPI to contract
with a local educational agency to establish and administer the
Center with the concurrence, as specified, of representatives of
the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the UC, the CSU, the
Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges, and
the independent institutions of higher education.
Duties of the Center include: (1) developing and distributing
statewide public service announcements relating to teacher
recruitment and effective recruitment publications; (2)
providing information to prospective teachers regarding
requirements for obtaining a teaching credential, admission and
enrollment requirements for conventional and alternative teacher
preparation programs, and financial aid and loan assistance
programs; (3) creating or expanding a referral database for
qualified teachers seeking employment; and (4) conducting
outreach activities to high school and college students, and to
teachers to fill existing teacher shortage areas.
This bill also requires the Center to periodically reassess its
recruitment activities for effectiveness, as specified, and to
periodically review all products and communication tools.
Finally, this bill requires the Commission on Teacher
Credentialing and the Legislative Analyst Office to conduct an
evaluation of this program by January 1, 2020.
Related
Legislation: SB 915 is part of a legislative package with SB
933 (Allen) and SB 62 (Pavley) to address teacher recruitment
and retention. SB 933 creates a California Teacher Corps
program that would provide matching grants to local school
districts to create or expand teacher residency programs while
funding the teacher credentialing process for recruited
candidates. SB 62 makes various programmatic changes and
authorizes additional warrants for the existing Assumption
Program of Loans for Education. SB 933 is scheduled to be heard
in this committee on April 11, 2016.
Staff
Comments: Due to state budget constraints, the former Cal Teach
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program was last funded in the 2002-03 fiscal year at $2 million
General Fund. At its peak, the program was funded at $11
million General Fund in the 2001-02 fiscal year (including $7
million specifically for in-state recruitment and $2 million for
out-of-state recruitment). If adjusted for inflation, funding
needed to operate this program could range between $2.6 million
and $14.7 million in 2015-16 dollars depending on the level of
recruitment that would be pursued by the Center.
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