BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 1381
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|Author: |Mendoza |
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|Version: |April 4, 2016 Hearing |
| |Date: April 13, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Lenin Del Castillo |
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Subject: Teachers: grants
SUMMARY
This bill requires the State Department of Education (SDE) to
administer a grant program in which full-time, credentialed
teachers would receive varying grants amounts based on their
years of service.
BACKGROUND
Existing law continues implementation of the local control
funding formula (LCFF), which was enacted as part of the 2013-14
Budget Act. The LCFF was a significant reform to the state's
system of financing K-12 public schools. It replaces the prior
system of revenue limits and restricted funding for a multitude
of categorical programs with a new funding formula that provides
targeted base funding levels tied to four grade spans for the
core educational needs of all students and supplemental funding
for the additional educational needs of low-income students,
English learners, and foster youth. The categorical programs
that were consolidated include the Professional Development
Block Grant which supported professional development activities
such as teacher recruitment and retention incentives. Because
the LCFF funds have limited spending restrictions, local
education agencies have considerable flexibility to direct LCFF
resources to best meet their students' needs. (Education Code §
42238.03)
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ANALYSIS
This bill:
1) Specifies various findings and declarations of the
Legislature, including the following:
a) In the last decade, there has been a 70
percent drop in the number of people preparing to
become California teachers. Last year, 22,000 new
credentialed teachers were needed, but only 15,000
were acquired.
b) According to the California Teachers
Association, nearly one in three teachers leave the
profession within seven years, 13 percent of teachers
leave the profession by the end of their second year,
and, every year, 10 percent of teachers in
high-poverty schools transfer to other schools.
2) Requires the State Department of Education (SDE) to
administer a program providing grants to full-time,
credentialed teachers in accordance with all of the
following:
a) Commencing with the 2017-18 school
year, and each school year thereafter, a full-time,
credentialed teacher who has completed his or her
first school year of teaching as of the end of that
school year shall receive a grant of one thousand
dollars ($1,000) during the next school year.
b) Commencing with the 2018-19 school
year, and each school year thereafter, a full-time,
credentialed teacher who has completed two school
years of full-time teaching as of the end of that
school year shall receive a grant of one thousand
dollars ($1,000) during the next school year.
c) Commencing with the 2019-20 school
year, and each school year thereafter, a full-time,
credentialed teacher who has completed three school
years of full-time teaching as of the end of that
school year shall receive a grant of two thousand five
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hundred dollars ($2,500) during the next school year.
d) Commencing with the 2020-21 school
year, and each school year thereafter, a full-time,
credentialed teacher who has completed four school
years of full-time teaching as of the end of that
school year shall receive a grant of two thousand five
hundred ($2,500) during the next school year.
e) Commencing with the 2021-22 school
year, and each school year thereafter, a full-time,
credentialed teacher who has completed five school
years of full-time teaching as of the end of that
school year shall receive a grant of five thousand
dollars ($5,000) during the next school year.
f) Commencing with the 2022-23 school
year, and each school year thereafter, a full-time,
credentialed teacher who has completed six or more
school years of full-time teaching as of the end of
that school year shall receive a grant of five
thousand dollars ($5,000) during the next school year.
3) Provides that a qualifying teacher may receive multiple
grants in multiple years, but no teacher shall receive more
than one grant in a school year.
4) Defines a credentialed teacher as a full-time teacher
credentialed pursuant to Sections 80021 to 80025,
inclusive, of Chapter 1 of Division 8 of Title 5 of the
California Code of Regulations, if he or she serves as the
teacher of record in a California public elementary or
secondary school for a classroom for at least one school
day during the taxable year in which the credit is claimed.
Credentialed teacher shall not include a teacher who
solely possess a 30-day substitute teaching permit, as
specified, or a teacher whose sole public school employment
as a teacher of record during the school year occurred at a
charter school.
5) Defines full-time as a minimum of 35 hours worked per week.
STAFF COMMENTS
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1) Need for the bill. According to the author's office, "the
state's teacher shortage has become so severe that in
Sacramento County, two school districts are offering
bonuses for new instructors. In Merced County, three
school districts are offering $5,000 bonuses to new
teachers. Similar bonuses are being offered by school
districts in Kern County and Monterey County. However,
most school districts do not have the resources to provide
these types of bonuses to attract full-time, credentialed
teachers to their respective schools."
2) Learning Policy Institute Report. The Learning Policy
Institute (LPI) recently released a report, "Addressing
California's Emerging Teacher Shortage: An Analysis of
Sources and Solutions." In this report, the LPI included
the following summary: "After many years of teacher
layoffs in California, school districts around the state
are hiring again. With the influx of new K-12 funding,
districts are looking to lower student-teacher ratios and
reinstate classes and programs that were reduced or
eliminated during the Great Recession. However, mounting
evidence indicates that teacher supply has not kept pace
with the increased demand." The report included the
following findings:
a) Enrollment in educator preparation programs has
dropped by more than 70 percent over the last decade.
b) In 2014-15, provisional and short-term permits
nearly tripled from the number issued two years
earlier, growing from about 850 to more than 2,400.
c) The number of teachers hired on substandard
permits and credentials nearly doubled in the last two
years, to more than 7,700 comprising a third of all
the new credentials issued in 2014-15.
d) Estimated teacher hires for the 2015-16 school
year increased by 25 percent from the previous year
while enrollment in the University of California and
the California State University teacher education
programs increased by only about 3.8 percent.
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3) Learning Policy Institute recommendations. The LPI report
offered several policy recommendations for consideration.
These recommendations include the reinstatement of the
California Center on Teaching Careers Cal Teach and the
establishment of incentives to attract diverse, talented
individuals to teach in high-need locations and fields.
This can be accomplished through programs that provide
funding for candidates who prepare and teach in such
schools and subject areas, e.g. the Assumption Program of
Loans for Education. The report also recommends the
creation of more innovative pipelines into teaching, such
as high school career pathways or teacher preparation
models that encourage and support young people and others
to go into teaching in their own communities.
4) Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) assessment. As part of
its Proposition 98 Education Analysis for the 2016-17
Governor's Budget released in February 2016, the LAO
includes a section on teacher workforce trends in which it
examines evidence for teacher shortages in specific areas,
identifies and assesses past policy responses to these
shortages, and raises issues for the Legislature to
consider going forward in terms of new policy responses.
In the report, the LAO indicates that the statewide teacher
market will help alleviate existing shortages over time and
that the shortages may decrease without direct state
action. However, the LAO notes there are perennial
staffing difficulties in specific areas, such as special
education, math, and science, for which they encourage the
Legislature to address with narrowly tailored policies
rather than with broad statewide policies. Specifically,
they recommend the Legislature "consider outreach to
re-engage former teachers or recruit out-of-state teachers.
Both of these strategies are among the most cost-effective
for increasing the supply of teachers within California in
the short-term. If the state were to spend one-time funds
on outreach, we encourage it to focus specifically on
recruiting individuals who are trained to teach in
perennial shortage areas. Outreach can attract viable
teachers much faster and at a lower cost than many other
shortage policies."
The Legislative Analyst Office's report also indicates that
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targeted, ongoing salary increases are the most effective
type of financial incentive for attracting highly qualified
teachers and keeping them in their jobs. "For example,
research finds that providing ongoing salary increases
targeted to shortage subjects in hard-to-staff schools have
helped districts retain higher qualified teachers.
Targeted, ongoing salary increases tend to be more
effective than targeted, one-time salary increases, as
bonuses provide no incentive to remain teaching in a
shortage area after the bonus has been paid."
5) Will it work? While this bill provides ongoing grants as
fiscal incentives to help attract and retain teachers in
the profession, it does not target any particular type of
school or shortage area. Rather, the grant program would
be based on the number of school years of completion for a
credentialed teacher with the amount of each grant
increasing to up to $5,000 per year (if the teacher has
completed five or more years of service). The grants are
technically not salary increases, but they can be viewed as
ongoing stipends and as a result, could provide some
financial incentive for prospective candidates and existing
teachers. However, the Committee may wish to consider
whether the grants should be targeted at perennial shortage
areas such as special education, math, and science.
6) Funding? This bill requires the State Department of
Education to administer the grant program but makes no
clear provision as to the source of funds for this purpose.
Is there an expectation that the Legislature and Governor
would appropriate funding for this purpose in the budget?
The cost to implement the program would be significant.
Assuming there are 295,000 public school teachers statewide
that meet the number of years of service necessary to
receive the minimum grant of $1,000 each, the bill's annual
cost would be a minimum of two hundred ninety-five million
dollars ($295,000,000).
7) Additional intent language. The grants proposed by this
bill would be paid to eligible teachers directly from the
state, and not transferred to school districts. As a
result, if a state General Fund appropriation is made for
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this purpose, it would likely be outside of the Proposition
98 minimum guarantee. As such, at the request of the
author, staff recommends that the bill be amended to add
additional intent language specifying that the grants
described in the bill shall not be considered Proposition
98 General Fund revenues appropriated to school districts.
8) Technical amendments. The bill's definition of
credentialed teacher references "the taxable year in which
the credit is claimed." As this provision deals with a
prior version of the bill, staff recommends a conforming
amendment to delete it.
SUPPORT
None received.
OPPOSITION
None received.
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