BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
378 (Romero)
Hearing Date: 05/28/2009 Amended: 04/22/2009
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 378 would expand eligibility for the Charter
School Facility Grant Program under specified conditions and
would require funds to be provided in advance of current year
expenses rather than as reimbursed for prior year expenses.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
CSFG expansion $28,500 $28,500
$28,500 General*
*Counts toward meeting the Proposition 98 minimum funding
guarantee
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
The Charter School Facilities Grant program (CSFG) was
established by SB 740 (O'Connell) of 2001, and provides
reimbursement for charter school facility lease costs, subject
to certain criteria. Charter schools may receive funding
through the program if: 1) the charter school operates in a
public school attendance area in which 70 percent of the pupils
are eligible for free or reduced priced meals, or 2) 70 percent
of the enrollment of the charter school is eligible for free or
reduced priced meals. Eligible schools may receive a maximum of
$750 per pupil, but no more than 75 percent of total
facility lease costs. These amounts are prorated to the extent
sufficient funds are not provided in the budget to fully fund
all eligible claims.
Chapter 271 of the Statutes of 2008 (SB 658, Romero), augmented
the intended funding of the program by phasing out the
Multi-track Year Round Education Program (MTYRE) and shifting
those funds into the CSFG over a five-year period. This would
effectively increase the funding for the program from $18
million in 2007-08 to over $115 million in the 2012-13 fiscal
year. Under current eligibility criteria, the program will be
unable to make use of all the funding.
This bill would modify the CSFG in several ways. For any year
in which funds remain after all schools meeting current
eligibility criteria have been funded, eligibility would be
expanded to charter schools with free and reduced price meals
threshold as low as 50 percent. If funds are still available,
funding would be extended for enrollment generated through
nonclassroom instruction (e.g., independent study).
In current law, the program is funded on a reimbursement basis.
This bill would provide instead that funding would be allocated
within 120 days of the start of the school year based on
enrollment estimates, though SDE may withhold as much as 50
percent of the
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SB 378 (Romero)
payment pending final documentation of costs incurred. Final
payments for eligible costs could be made no later than 60 days
after the start of the following fiscal year.
According to data provided by the Department of Education, this
bill would make charter schools with an average daily attendance
of over 38,000 pupils would be newly eligible for this program,
resulting in a potential cost of approximately $28.5 million.
Given that the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee will likely fall
at the May Revision, this is funding that would otherwise have
gone unspent.
Further, converting the program from a reimbursement model to a
forward funding model will require the program to effectively be
funded twice in the same fiscal year (once to reimburse prior
year costs and once to fund the estimated current year costs).
This will result in a further one-year reduction of funding for
other Proposition 98 programs.