BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
1396 (Lowenthal)
Hearing Date: 05/27/2010 Amended: 04/28/2010
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 1396 would establish the Maximum Categorical
Education Flexibility Pilot Program and authorize the
Superintendent of Public Instruction to select three school
districts to participate and utilize their categorical funding
for any purpose related to improving pupil academic achievement
and academic instruction from the 2011-12 through the 2013-14
fiscal years.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Shift from categorical to Millions, depending on
General*
general purpose use participant districts
Reporting $50 to $100, depending on
General*
report specifications
SPI workload Likely minor
General
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
SB 4 of the 3rd Extraordinary Session of 2009 (SBx3 4), reduced
funding for many K-12 categorical funding programs and provided
significant new flexibility for school districts to manage their
local budgets during the difficult fiscal climate. From the
2008-09 through the 2012-13 fiscal years, SBx3 4 allows
districts to utilize the funding for over 40 categorical
programs (Tier 3) for any educational purpose so long as there
was no conflict with federal law.
This bill would, for the 2011-12, 2012-13, and 2013-14 fiscal
years, allow three districts to apply to the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (SPI) to participate in a pilot program that
would provide the districts with a block grant that would
include funding for Home-to-school transportation, Foster Youth
programs, Economic Impact Aid, AVID, Adults in Correctional
Facilities, Partnership Academies, Child Development, Child
Nutrition, summer school, Child Nutrition Programs, Child
Nutrition Programs, Year-round school, K-3 Class Size Reduction
in addition to all of the Tier 3 programs.
In order to be eligible, school districts would need to develop
a plan in conjunction with parents and teachers to accelerate
pupils' progress, and have the plan approved at public board
meeting. The plan would need to include a local evaluation
component, and the district would need to:
Demonstrate a pattern of stability between management
and bargaining units.
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SB 1396 (Lowenthal)
Ensure community support for the plan.
Demonstrate that one-half of all parents and teachers
support the plan.
Develop a complex, coherent, and standards-based plan
for English language learners, as specified.
Participants would be required to demonstrate accelerated pupil
progress, a narrowing of the achievement gap, fiscal solvency,
positive growth on the Academic Performance Index, and
improvements in the graduation rate, college entrance rate, and
in the number of pupils who enter technical school.
The participating districts would be required to produce an
evaluative annual report, and the Legislative Analyst's Office
(LAO) would be required to prepare an interim report and a final
evaluation that that identifies success and failures of the
pilot program, including recommendations regarding improving the
program and whether or not the program should be continued.
The combined total of the programs included in the block grant
(aside from those already in Tier 3) is over $3.5 billion, as of
the Governor's January budget proposal. It's unknown at this
time how much categorical funding will be shifted from the
intended purposes of the programs, but the figure is likely to
be in the millions depending on which districts participate.
New costs from the bill would arise from the evaluation, perhaps
$50,000 to $100,000, though the evaluation is vaguely described.
Staff notes that the LAO has indicated an unwillingness to
prepare the final report, as the LAO does not believe meaningful
conclusions could be drawn from a pilot of only three districts.
There may also be some minor administrative costs for the
Department for reviewing applications, though this would not
likely be a significant cost unless there are a large number of
applicants. Staff notes that the bill does not appear to
provide the SPI with criteria for choosing among qualified
applicants should more than three districts apply.
As proposed to be amended:
The bill would require diversity in geography and size
for districts chosen to participate in the pilot.
The bill would require participating districts to
provide for the report.
The bill would specify that the required reports would
identify the weighting of per pupil expenditures spent on
low socio-economic, limited English proficient, and special
education pupils, as specified.