BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
798 (DeSaulnier)
Hearing Date: 05/11/2009 Amended: 04/29/2009
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 9-0
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 798 would increase the daily rates and
maximum grant amounts for federally funded 21st Century
Community Learning Center programs and would reduce the
percentage of funding that may be awarded to programs serving
high school pupils.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
21st Century Directs future funding
Federal
ASES Pressure to
absorb more General*
slots
*Counts toward meeting the Proposition 98 minimum funding
guarantee
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to
the Suspense File.
21st Century Community Learning Centers are federally funded
programs that provide academic enrichment and support to
disadvantaged pupils either before or after school. The 2009-10
Budget Act includes $129.4 million for this program. Under
current law, 50 percent of grants are awarded to grantees
serving elementary or middle school pupils and 50 percent are
awarded to grantees serving high school pupils. Per pupil rates
for serving elementary and middle school pupils is $7.50 per day
for after school programs and $5 per day for before school
programs (there is no daily rate for high school pupils). Total
grant awards for the after school component are capped at
$112,500 for elementary school programs and $150,000 for middle
school programs. Grants for the before school component are
capped at $37,500 for elementary school programs and $49,000 for
middle school programs. Grants for high school programs are
capped at $250,000.
This bill would modify the principle funding rates and caps for
21st Century Learning Centers by raising both the daily rates
and total grant awards, as shown below:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
| Current Law | SB 798 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
| |Before School |After School |Before |After School |
| | | |School | |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------|
| |Daily |Total |Daily |Total |Daily |Total |Daily |Total |
|-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------|
|Elementary |$5 |$37,500 |$7.5 |$112,500 |$7 |$52,500 |$10 |$150,000 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Middle |$5 |$49,000 |$7.5 |$150,000 |$7 |$68,600 |$10 |$200,000 |
|-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------|
|High |NA |$250,000 |NA |$250,000 |NA |$250,000 |NA |$250,000 |
|School | | | | | | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 2
SB 798 (DeSaulnier)
This bill would also increase funding rates for intersession
programs from $7.50 to pupil to either $20 or $10 per pupil
depending on the number of hours provided. Before school 3-hour
programs would receive $7 per pupil.
The other major component of this bill is to shift funding away
from high schools. Currently, 50 percent of grants are awarded
to programs that serve high school pupils. This bill would
lower that percentage to 35 percent. The bill would also make
other miscellaneous changes to the program.
The bill states that changes to the program daily per pupil
rates and total grant award caps would take effect only when
sufficient federal funds are available to ensure that the
cumulative number of pupils that can be served at the new rates
is equal to or greater than the number of pupils that can be
served under the rates applied in the 2008-09 fiscal year.
Given the large increases in the rates (ranging from a 33
percent increase to 267 percent depending on the category), it
is likely that this bill would require an increase in federal
funding of approximately 40 percent to take effect. This bill
would use this future increase in federal funding to increase
rates rather than provide services to more students. Indeed, in
the event there is a gradual increase in students served after
the 2008-09 year due to relatively modest annual increases in
federal funding, this bill may actually result in a reduction of
service from the most recent year(s) prior to the year in which
this bill takes effect.
This bill would direct increases in federal funding toward large
rate increases rather than more funding more before and after
school slots. Given that there are currently far more
applicants for grants that can currently be served, this bill
may have the unintended effect of putting pressure on the
General Fund program (the After School Education and Safety
program).