BILL ANALYSIS
SB 847
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Date of Hearing: August 30, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 847 (Steinberg) - As Amended: August 26, 2010
Policy Committee: Education Vote:9-0
Urgency: Yes State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill, as proposed to be amended , appropriates $1.2 billion
in federal Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act (ED Jobs
Act) funding to the Office of Planning and Research (OPR) in the
2010-11 fiscal year (FY) for distribution to local education
agencies (LEAs) for the purposes of rehiring, hiring, and
retaining public school employees. Specifically, this bill:
1)Appropriates $128,000 to OPR for the purpose of providing
oversight of ED Jobs Act funding.
2)Transfers $1.199 billion to the State Department of Education
(SDE) for distribution to LEAs (including charter schools) in
an amount equal to each LEA's proportion of its revenue limit
(general purpose) funding in the 2010-11 FY.
3)Requires SDE to calculate a preliminary allocation equal to
90% of the estimated final LEA allocation (based on each LEA's
proportion of its revenue limit for the 2009-10 FY). This
measure also requires SDE to distribute the ED Jobs Act funds
no later than 14 days following the effective date of this act
or notification to the state of a federal funding award,
whichever is later.
4)Appropriates $1.5 million to SDE for administrative purposes
related to the allocation of the ED Jobs Act funding.
5)Requires ED Jobs Act funds allocated pursuant to this measure
be used to retain existing employees, to recall or rehire
former employees, and to hire new employees, where those
employees provide school-level or educational and related
services.
6)Authorizes LEAs who have any remaining ED Jobs Act funds after
the 2010-11 FY to use these funds through September 30, 2010
SB 847
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for the purposes specified above.
FISCAL EFFECT
This bill distributes $1.2 billion in federal ED Jobs Act
funding to LEAs, as specified. Of this amount, $128,000 is
allocated to OPR to perform oversight duties regarding these
federal funds and $1.5 million is allocated to SDE for
administrative purposes, as specified.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . On August 10, 2010, President Obama signed the
federal Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act (ED Jobs
Act), which provides $16.1 billion in expanded Federal Medical
Assistance Percentage funding and $10 billion in education
funding to states. California's portion of the education
funding is $1.2 billion, which is estimated to support 16,500
education jobs in the state.
In order to receive the ED Jobs Act funds, the governor
submitted an application to the federal government on August
13, 2010. The application required states to meet a number of
requirements outlined by the United States Department of
Education (USDE), including distributing funds in a timely
manner for use in the 2010-11 school year; not requiring LEAs
to apply for the funding if they have received State Fiscal
Stabilization Funding (SFSF) under the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA); complying with maintenance of
effort (MOE) requirements, and utilizing no more than two
percent of funding for administrative purposes.
On August 27, 2010, USDE awarded California $1.2 billion in
federal ED Jobs Act funding. This bill appropriates this
funding to LEAs for their immediate use in the 2010-11 school
year, as specified.
2)Committee amendments - change in distribution formula . The
current version of the bill, as heard by the Assembly
Education Committee on Wednesday, August 25, 2010, distributes
the federal ED Jobs Act funds to LEAs on the basis of average
daily attendance. Essentially, LEAs would receive an equal
per pupil funding amount.
After the initial bill hearing, USDE informed the Department
of Finance this distribution formula was unacceptable because
the federal ED Jobs Act requires states to distribute their
funding to school districts based on the state's primary
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funding formula (i.e., Proposition 98) identified in its
federal SFSF application or a school districts' relative share
of federal Title I funds for poor and needy pupils.
California's approved application states the ED Jobs Act funds
will be distributed based on the state's primary funding
formula, as specified in its federal SFSF application. As a
result, this measure, as proposed to be amended, distributes
the federal ED Jobs Act funds to LEAs (including charter
schools) in an amount equal to each LEA's proportion of its
revenue limit (general purpose) funding in the 2010-11 FY.
3)Related legislation . AB 185 (Buchanan), pending in the Senate
Appropriations Committee, allocates a total of $483 million in
SFSF (phase two) funding authorized under ARRA to K-14
schools, the California State University (CSU), and the
University of California (UC). The following table details
this proposed appropriation:
--------------------------------------
| | Phase 2 SFSF |
| | Allocation |
|------------------+-------------------|
|K-12 schools | $271 million|
|------------------+-------------------|
|Community | $5 million|
|Colleges | |
|------------------+-------------------|
|CSU | $106 million|
|------------------+-------------------|
|UC | $106 million|
|------------------+-------------------|
|Total |$488 |
| |million |
--------------------------------------
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081