BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 189
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Date of Hearing: May 4, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 189 (Eng) - As Amended: April 7, 2011
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:8-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill modifies the existing public hearing and reporting
requirements local education agencies (LEAs) must adhere to in
order to participate in categorical flexibility in the following
manner:
1)Requires LEAs to hold the regularly scheduled public hearing
prior to and independent of a meeting where the school
district or the governing board of the county office of
education (COEs) adopts a budget.
2)Requires the district and COE governing board, if it intends
to close a program, to identify in the hearing agenda notice
the program or programs it proposes to close.
3)Requires the existing reporting information to be collected
and provided in a manner that displays the linkage between an
LEA's categorical program allocation and the LEA's expenditure
of these funds.
4)Authorizes the governing board of a school district to charge
a fee for a class in English and citizenship until July 1,
2015.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)GF/98 costs, likely between $175,000 and $250,000, to school
districts to report categorical program information, as
specified. Currently, districts are reporting minimal
information on how they are spending their categorical flex
funds. This bill requires school districts to report more
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detailed information.
2)Increased GF administrative costs, likely less than $75,000,
to SDE to report fiscal information, as specified.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . As part of the February 2009 budget package, SB 4 X3
(Ducheny), Third Extraordinary Session, Chapter 12, Statutes
of 2009, provided LEAs with unprecedented fiscal and policy
flexibility related to over 40 categorical programs between
the 2008-09 fiscal year (FY) to the 2012-13 FY. Specifically,
any LEA that received funding for specified categorical
programs in the 2008-09 FY is authorized to use this funding
for any other educational purpose until the 2012-13 FY. The
LEA may choose to continue operating the categorical program
that it received funding for or redirect it for any other
educational purpose it deems appropriate. SB 70 (Committee on
Budget and Fiscal Review), Chapter 7, Statutes of 2011,
extended this flexibility until the 2014-15 FY.
According to the Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) report
entitled, Update on School District Finance in California:
Year-Two Survey (February 2011), "Compared to 2009-10, a
higher percentage of districts in 2010-11 are either diverting
funding from flexed categorical programs or discontinuing them
altogether." Supporters of this measure argue school
districts are eliminating categorical programs without fully
vetting these decisions and their consequences in a public
forum. Likewise, reporting information on how and where
districts are expending categorical program flexed funds is
non-existent. This bill modifies the existing public hearing
and reporting requirements LEAs must adhere to in order to
participate in categorical flexibility.
2)Existing law , as a condition of receiving categorical
flexibility funds, requires LEAs (at a regularly scheduled
public hearing) to take testimony from the public, discuss,
approve, or disapprove the proposed use of funding and make
explicit for each of the categorical program budget items the
purposes for which the funds will be used. Several
categorical program advocates report that districts are
meeting this requirement at their governing board meetings
when they adopt a final budget. Essentially, school districts
contend are meeting the letter of the law when they adopt
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their budget, which includes final decisions on which
categorical programs are funded, etc. Education advocates
argue the existing requirement for discussion at a public
hearing is meant for the public to testify and provide input,
which allows governing board members to weigh the pros, cons,
and consequences of budgetary decisions regarding categorical
flexibility funds. This measure proposes to clarify the
public hearing requirement in SB 4 X3 to ensure school
districts do not use the governing board meeting where they
adopt the final budget as satisfaction of this requirement.
Statute also requires an LEA to report expenditure of
categorical program funds to indicate the activities for which
these funds are expended. Furthermore, SDE is required to
collect and provide this information to the Department of
Finance and the Legislature by April 15, 2010 and annually
thereafter.
Current law prohibits school districts from charging a fee for
an adult education class in English and citizenship. This
bill authorizes districts, until 2015, to charge a fee for
these classes. This time period coincides with the
categorical flexibility.
3)LAO report on categorical flexibility . The LAO report, Update
on School District Finance in California: Year-Two Survey
(February 2011), states: "More districts are discontinuing
flexed �categorical] programs in 2010-11 compared to 2009-10.
For example, about one-third of districts reported
discontinuing the High School Class Size Reduction program in
2009-10. By comparison, almost half of districts discontinued
the program in 2010-11." The LAO also reports a larger
percentage of school districts are discontinuing the
Community-Based English Tutoring program, which primarily
teaches immigrant parents to learn English. The report,
however, does state: "Despite these eliminations, only a small
percentage of districts are eliminating programs for at-risk
students, though the number of districts eliminating them is
on the rise."
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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