BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1349
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 29, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 1349 (Torlakson) - As Amended: April 22, 2009
SUBJECT : After School Education and Safety Program Act of 2002
SUMMARY : Creates three changes in statute, one of which is
required to be approved as a voter initiative, related to the
system for funding the After School Education and Safety Program
(ASES) enacted by Proposition 49 (Prop 49). Specifically, this
bill
1)Authorizes a reduction in the continuous appropriation of
funds provided for ASES that is in the same percentage as the
reduction made to the Proposition 98 (Prop 98) minimum
guarantee or level of funding provided under Prop 98 in any
year (i.e., the percentage difference between the Test 2 level
and the lower funded level).
2)Exempts the state from incurring an obligation to provide a
maintenance factor for a reduction in the continuous
appropriation of ASES funds that is made under 1) above.
3)Authorizes the Legislature to provide cost of living
adjustments (COLA) to the maximum total direct grant amount
and per pupil rates, upon which ASES funding is based, in the
annual budget act.
4)Finds and declares that 2) and 3) above further the purposes
of Prop 49, and requires that 1) above be approved as a voter
initiative before becoming effective.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes, through Prop 49, the ASES program to provide
local after school education and enrichment programs; these
programs are created through partnerships between schools and
local community resources in order to provide literacy,
academic enrichment and safe constructive alternatives for
students in kindergarten through ninth grade.
2)Provides a continuous appropriation, not to exceed $550
million, for ASES that is the greater of the:
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a) Appropriation for the last fiscal year.
b) Sum of the appropriation for fiscal year 2003-04 plus
the amount by which non-guaranteed General Fund
appropriations for the current fiscal year exceed the sum
of the amount of the state's non-guaranteed General Fund
appropriations for 2003-04 plus $1.5 billion.
3)Requires, in a fiscal year in which Prop 98 is determined
under Test 3, that the ASES continuous appropriation be
reduced proportional to the amount that fiscal year's Prop 98
appropriations are less than those appropriations in the prior
year.
4)Requires that any funds continuously appropriated for the
purposes of ASES be available for encumbrance for one year
after those funds become available, and that the unapportioned
balance of those funds revert to the Prop 98 reversion account
two years following the last date of that availability period.
5)Requires that all funds provided be expended for the purposes
of ASES and be used to supplement, not supplant, services in
the program.
6)Scores an appropriation for the purposes of ASES toward Prop
98, except that any portion of the continuous appropriation
made for ASES which is in excess of the amount appropriated in
the prior fiscal year not be appropriated until the funding
obligation under Prop 98 has been met for that year, and that
this excess is appropriated in addition to what is required
for, and not considered part of what is necessary to meet, the
obligation under Prop 98.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : ASES is the result of the 2002 voter approved
initiative, Prop 49, which expanded and renamed the existing
Before and After School Learning and Safe Neighborhood
Partnership Program. ASES funds the establishment of local after
school education and enrichment programs for students in
kindergarten through grade 9. The federally funded 21st Century
after school programs provide after school services to high
school students. ASES programs are created through partnerships
between schools and local community resources to provide
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literacy, academic enrichment and safe constructive alternatives
for students in kindergarten through ninth grade. ASES has two
main goals: keeping students safe after school and improving
student academic outcomes. There are approximately 4,000
existing ASES program sites throughout the state.
The after school component of the After School Education and
Safety (ASES) program is calculated based on $7.50 per day, per
student. The maximum grant for elementary schools in one school
year is $112,500 for elementary schools and $150,000 for middle
schools. The before school component is calculated based on $5
per day, per student. The statutory maximum supplemental grant
for one school year is $37,500 for elementary schools and
$49,000 for middle schools. Elementary schools with enrollments
exceeding 600 students and middle schools with enrollments
exceeding 900 students are eligible for additional large school
funding augmentations of $113 per student. Each program is
required to provide a match equal to not less than one-third of
the total grant. Facilities may count towards 25 percent of the
local contribution.
The increased funding provided for the program under Prop 49 is
designed to: 1) maintain existing before and after school
program funding, and 2) provide eligibility to all elementary
and middle schools that submit quality applications. In
addition to continuing the provision of existing programs, ASES
added the following components: local law enforcement must be
included as part of the local collaborative; computer; training,
fine arts and physical fitness may be included as enrichment
activities; and programs may be in locations other than school
sites.
Pursuant to Prop 49, some of the implementing statutory
provisions are prohibited from being amended by the Legislature
without being approved by voter initiative, while there are
other provisions for which the Legislature is allowed to make
amendments that "further the purpose" of Prop 49 - these
amendments may require either a 2/3 or a majority vote,
depending on the section of Prop 49 being amended.
Prop 49 requires, once specified conditions were met, the state
to annually appropriate an amount up to $550 million for ASES.
The conditions triggering the annual appropriation were met in
the 2006-07 fiscal year, and the $550 million is now annually
appropriated as a continuous appropriation, which no longer
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requires review and approval during the annual budget process.
The amount of additional funding provided pursuant to Prop 49 is
added to the Prop 98 base. However, statute does require in a
fiscal year in which Prop 98 is determined under Test 3, that
the ASES continuous appropriation be reduced proportional to the
amount that fiscal year's Prop 98 appropriations are less than
those appropriations in the prior year; in other words, ASES
funding is reduced only in a Test 3 year when the actual level
of Prop 98 funding is lower than it was in the previous year.
On the other hand, a reduction in Prop 98 funding made for any
other reason (e.g., suspension of Prop 98) or simply a Test 3
reduction in Prop 98 funding relative to the Test 2 guarantee
for that year do not result in a reduction of the continuous
appropriation under current law. This bill proposes to
authorize reductions in funding for ASES in these other
circumstances where current law allows no reduction. This bill
also authorizes, rather than requires, a reduction in the
continuous appropriation under the set of circumstances that
lead to a reduction under current law.
The Governor's Budget for 2008-09 proposed to suspend Prop 98
and reduce the ASES Program by $59.6 million; the Governor's
proposal included a ballot initiative to amend Prop 49 to
achieve these savings. This proposal was not implemented. The
administration had stated that the proposed reduction was
expected to have minimal impact, because a number of recent
grant awardees have not implemented the program or have not had
the enrollment levels initially anticipated; in other words
there were expected surpluses in the ASES program. In fact,
those surpluses materialized; in 2008-09 budget actions, the
Legislature reverted what was earlier this year estimated to be
$178 million in ASES funding that was surplus from the 2007-08
appropriation.
In 2008, the Legislature made a substantive proposal with
respect to ASES funding in AB 1526 (Assembly Committee on the
Budget), a trailer bill to the annual Budget Act. The
Legislative intent of this bill was to provide budgeting
flexibility with respect to funding provided for ASES. Rather
than being funded by a fixed continuous appropriation provided
outside of the control of the Legislature and the Governor, this
proposal would have included funding for ASES in the annual
budget process; thus the Legislature and the Governor could
reduce or expand funding for ASES as needed by the program and
as overall budget circumstances require or allow. For example,
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in the current year when a continuing surplus was expected to
exist in ASES funding, the state budget was in crisis and the
state was facing a considerable cash flow crisis, the
Legislature could have easily generated savings by reducing the
ASES continuous appropriation to the level of actual need,
without having any impact on the provision of after school
services.
This bill does not eliminate the continuous appropriation for
ASES, but does move to expand the Legislature's flexibility in
providing funding for after school programs and for
simultaneously responding to the overall budget condition of the
state. According to the author, "AB 1349, if signed by the
Governor and approved by the voters, would allow the Legislature
to lower Prop 49's appropriation in a budget year when Prop 98
is not funded at a Test 2 guarantee level. In a Test 3 year,
Prop 49 could be lowered equal to the percentage that Prop 98
falls short of a Test 2 calculation. In the following budget
year, the Prop 49 guarantee would return back to $550 million,
unless Prop 98 is again determined in Test 3 and the Legislature
chooses to lower Prop 49 again. No maintenance factor for Prop
49 specifically would be incurred, except as part of the
maintenance factor for Prop 98 overall." Quite simply this bill
allows the Legislature to make reductions in funding for ASES in
any bad year to the same extent that the Legislature is also
reducing overall Prop 98 funding for kindergarten through grade
14 education.
This bill also provides authority for the Legislature to provide
a COLA adjustment to the to the maximum total direct grant
amount and per pupil rates, upon which ASES funding is based.
This COLA proposal generates a number of concerns:
1)A COLA provided to the program for the maximum total direct
grant amount and per pupil rates would either place
significant cost pressure on the budget with respect to
requests to expand funding for the program, or would result in
fewer grants and fewer students served within the continuous
appropriation that is fixed at an amount not to exceed $550
million.
2)To the extent that any cost pressure is placed on the
Legislature to provide this COLA, the result of this proposal
is to tie the hands of the Legislature - a result that is
completely inconsistent with the intent of the overall bill,
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to provide additional Legislative flexibility to make
reductions in funding for this program in lean times.
3)To the extent that it is argued that this cost pressure would
not work to tie the hands of the Legislature, and that the
proposal is simply to grant authority to the Legislature to
provide funding increases if costs in the program increase in
future years, then it should be noted that this authority is
already held by the Legislature, which through either
statutory or budget action could simply increase the maximum
total direct grant amount or the per pupil rates for ASES.
Thus the proposal to authorize a COLA in this case, if not
intended to create pressure for funding increases, is simply
declaratory of existing authority and unnecessary.
Committee amendments: Committee staff recommends the following
amendments:
1)Delete the provision that authorizes the Legislature to
provide cost of living adjustments (COLA) to the maximum total
direct grant amount and per pupil rates, upon which ASES
funding is based, in the annual budget act.
Related legislation: AB 364 (Torlakson), pending in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee, establishes the California After
School Teacher Pipeline pilot program. AB 983 (Skinner),
pending in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, authorizes the
ASES program to operate on weekends.
Previous legislation: AB 1526 (Assembly Committee on the
Budget), vetoed in 2008, would have placed an initiative on the
statewide ballot to allow budgetary flexibility related to the
expenditure of Prop 98 funding, as it pertains to ASES. The
bill would have repealed the continuous appropriation authority
for ASES, thus allowing appropriation decisions to be made
annually in the Budget Act; it would have also removed the
statutorily-established minimum appropriation level of $550
million for the program, and allowed ASES statutes to be amended
by a majority vote of the Legislature. SB 638 (Torlakson),
Chapter 380, Statutes of 2006, makes substantive policy and
fiscal changes to ASES by changing the program funding from a
reimbursement program to a direct grant program, increases grant
levels, establishes new priorities associated with academic
improvement, and makes numerous related changes for the purpose
of implementing Prop 49. Proposition 49 (2002) establishes ASES
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to provide local after school education and enrichment programs,
and provides a continuous appropriation, not to exceed $550
million, to support the program. Proposition 98 (1988) creates
a minimum funding guarantee for K-14 education. Proposition 111
(1990) amends Prop 98 and allows the calculation of the minimum
funding guarantee to use an alternative definition of cost of
living; the resulting calculation is generally referred to as
"Test 3".
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
After School All-Stars Los Angeles
California Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs
California Federation of Teachers
Central Valley Afterschool Foundation
Fight Crime Invest in Kids California
LA's Best
Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center
Woodcraft Rangers
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087