BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
1354 (Hancock)
Hearing Date: 05/27/2010 Amended: 04/21/2010
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 7-1
_________________________________________________________________
____
BILL SUMMARY: SB 1354 would entitle California Partnership
Academies (CPAs) that have been operational for three or more or
more years to an annual cost of living adjustment (COLA)
commencing in the 2011-12 fiscal year; would update the criteria
for student participation in a CPA; and would require career
technical education courses offered at a partnership academy to
be part of an occupational course sequence.
_________________________________________________________________
____
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
CPA No/minor costs General*
*Counts toward meeting the Proposition 98 minimum funding
guarantee
_________________________________________________________________
____
STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Under current law, school districts are authorized to operate
California Partnership Academies (CPAs) that serve as a school
within a school for pupils in grades 10 through 12 for the
purposes of integrating academic and career technical education
for pupils deemed at risk of dropping out of school. CPAs
provide occupational training in areas such as electronics,
computer technology, finance, agribusiness, graphic arts and
printing, international business, and space. Programs partner
with a business and students typically will work as an intern in
their occupational field of concentration after their junior
year.
The bill would make various changes relating to CPAs. Current
law defines pupils "at risk" for purposes of enrollment in a CPA
and allows for the enrollment of non at-risk pupils, as defined.
Non at-risk pupils are prohibited from constituting more than
half of a CPA's enrollment. This bill would alter the criteria
for identifying participants by deleting provisions for the
identification of non at-risk pupils and by modifying and adding
to the criteria by which at-risk pupils may be identified, as
follows:
Being absent from school for 20 percent or more of the
school year, whereas current law specifies "irregular
attendance."
Scoring below basic in mathematics or English language
arts pursuant to the STAR test.
Maintaining a grade point average of 2.2 or below.
Non at-risk pupils, though now undefined in statute, still could
not make up more than half of a CPA's enrollment.
Page 2
SB 1354 (Hancock)
The bill would also provide that CPAs provide assurance that
career technical education (CTE) courses offered as part of an
occupational course sequence are tied to local regional and
economic need, are focused on skills leading to high entry-level
wages or the possibility of significant wage increases over
time, offer certification wherever possible, and offer CTE
course that meet A-G requirements, where appropriate.
Further, the bill would apply a statutory COLA to CPAs beginning
in the 2011-12 fiscal year. Under current law, CPAs do not
receive a statutory COLA. Applying a COLA would increase state
costs, depending on the size of the COLA for a given fiscal
year. Due to the state's fiscal condition, CPA funding has been
reduced in recent budget agreements. Undeficited, annual
program costs are $23.5 million, but the Governor's Budget
proposes $18.8 million in funding for the 2010-11 fiscal year.
Each one percent of COLA applied to CPAs, then, would range in
annual cost from $188,000 to $235,000, depending on the base
level of funding to which the COLA is applied.
It is unlikely that other provisions of the bill would result in
new state costs, though some of the requirements related to
course offerings may increase local costs of program operation
to the extent that local CPAs are not meeting the new
requirements. To this end, the Department of Education
indicates that these requirements are already current practice.
Staff notes that there are multiple pots from which CPAs are
funded. In addition to the annual Budget Act, CPAs have been
funded through other statutes. AB 519 (2007) provided $12.5
million for the operation of CPAs focusing on green technologies
and industries over three years. $52 million was provided for
the purposes of SB 70 (Scott, 2007), which focuses on preparing
students for advanced vocational coursework at a 2-year or
4-year institution. Further SB 1133 (Torlakson, 2006)
appropriates $38 million annually through the 2013-14 fiscal
year for CPAs.
Author's amendments would delete the provision of a statutory
COLA to CPA programs.