BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 339|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 339
Author: Bonilla (D)
Amended: 7/6/11 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 6-2, 6/29/11
AYES: Lowenthal, Alquist, Hancock, Liu, Price, Simitian
NOES: Blakeslee, Huff
NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner, Vargas, Vacancy
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 6-1, 8/15/11
AYES: Kehoe, Alquist, Lieu, Pavley, Price, Steinberg
NOES: Walters
NO VOTE RECORDED: Emmerson, Runner
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 52-27, 5/31/11 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Instructional materials: social content
reviews: fees
SOURCE : Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom
Torlakson
DIGEST : This bill reestablishes provisions of the
Education Code that recently sunset relating to the social
content review of instructional materials conducted at the
request of publishers. Sunsets on January 1, 2017.
ANALYSIS : Existing law requires instructional materials,
in addition to meeting the requirements of the content
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standards, curriculum frameworks, and evaluation criteria,
to also be approved for social content, for example:
1. Provides that instruction in social sciences shall
include the early history of California and a study of
the role and contributions of both men and women, black
Americans, American Indians, Mexicans, Asians, Pacific
Island people, and other ethnic groups to the economic,
political, and social development of California and the
United States with particular emphasis on portraying the
role of these groups in contemporary society.
2. Requires instructional materials used in schools to
accurately portray the contributions of both men and
women in all types of roles, including professional,
vocational, and executive role and the role and
contributions of Native Americans, African Americans,
Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans,
and members of other ethnic and cultural groups to the
total development of California and the United States,
as well as the role and contributions of the
entrepreneur and labor in the total development of
California and the United States.
3. States that the governing board of a school district
shall require, when appropriate to the comprehension of
pupils, that textbooks for social science, history or
civics classes contain the Declaration of Independence
and the United States Constitution when adopting
instructional materials for use in the schools.
4. Prohibits school districts from adopting instructional
materials that contain any matter reflecting adversely
upon persons because of their race, color, creed,
national origin, ancestry, sex, handicap, or occupation
or any sectarian or denominational doctrine or
propaganda contrary to law.
5. Provides that all instructional materials adopted by any
governing board for use in the schools shall be, to the
satisfaction of the governing board, accurate,
objective, and current and suited to the needs and
comprehension of pupils at their respective grade
levels.
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6. Authorizes, in the event that, after the good faith
acquisition of instructional materials by a governing
board, the instructional materials are found to be in
violation of provisions pertaining to instructional
materials and the governing board is unable to acquire
other instructional materials which meet requirements in
time for them to be used when the acquired materials
were planned to be used, the governing board may use the
acquired materials but only for that academic year.
This bill reestablishes provisions of the education code
that recently sunset relating to the social content review
of instructional materials conducted at the request of
publishers. More specifically, this bill:
1. Requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to adopt
regulations to govern the social content reviews
conducted at the request of a publisher or manufacturer
of instructional materials outside the primary
instructional material adoption processes. (This
requirement sunset as of January 1, 2011.)
2. Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to
do the following:
A. Conduct, or contract for, social content review of
instructional materials, as defined, outside the
primary adoption process, provided that the publisher
pays a fee assessed by the CDE.
B. Assess a fee on a publisher or manufacturer that
does not exceed the reasonable costs to the
department to conduct a social content review
pursuant to this statute.
C. Provide notice to publishers and manufacturers of
the establishment of the fee.
(These requirements sunset as of January 1, 2011.)
3. Remains in effect until January 1, 2017, unless a later
enacted statute, enacted prior to January 1, 2017,
deletes or extends that date.
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Comments
Until the beginning of this year, the CDE was authorized to
conduct social content reviews for state-adopted
instructional materials, and also conducted reviews for
non-adopted instructional materials, such as supplemental
materials. The publisher or manufacturer requesting the
review would be charged a fee for the out-of-cycle social
content review. The CDE contends that the social content
review of non-SBE-adopted instructional materials is a
service offered to school districts to ensure all
instructional materials comply with social content
requirements.
Social content review and fee assessment . Generally, the
Legislature has provided for the sunset of statutes that
typically allow for the imposition of fees in order to
provide periodic review of the necessity and efficacy of
the fee.
Instructional Material (IM) adoption process . Statute,
prior to its suspension, requires the SBE to adopt basic IM
in the core academic content areas (English language arts,
mathematics, history/social science, and science) every six
years for use in grades K-8. It also established a
schedule for the adoption of IM in other subjects. Statute
also required the SBE to adopt statewide academically
rigorous content standards in the core curriculum areas.
These content standards are implemented through the
curriculum frameworks, as adopted by SBE. The adopted IM
must be consistent with the criteria and standards of
quality prescribed in the adopted curriculum frameworks.
The development of curriculum frameworks is a multi-year
process. Also, the governing board of each school district
maintaining one or more high schools is authorized to adopt
IM for use in the high schools (grades 9-12) under its
control.
Related Legislation
SB 302 (Yee), 2011-12 Session, also reinstates the
California Education Code Section relating to social
content reviews of instructional materials with a sunset on
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January 1, 2017. (In Assembly Appropriations Committee)
AB 250 (Brownley), 2011-12 Session, attempts to revise the
IM adoption process, including the role of the Curriculum
Development and Supplemental Materials Commission. (In
Senate Appropriations Committee)
SB 140 (Lowenthal), 2011-12 Session, establishes a
streamlined process for the state-level adoption of
instructional materials that are aligned with the Common
Core Academic Content standards, and expands the authority
of local school boards to adopt instructional materials to
include K-8 schools. (In Assembly Appropriations
Committee)
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
Social content reviews Potentially significant
costs, fully Fees*
reimbursed by fees
* Publisher fees submitted with instructional materials
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/17/11)
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson (source)
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
the CDE indicates that without this measure, they will not
be able to charge fees to support the process necessary to
conduct review of instructional materials outside the
primary adoption process. Therefore, local districts will
have to conduct their own review of instructional materials
for out-of-social content. This result places a burden on
those local districts and allows the possibility of
inconsistencies in social content reviews from district to
district.
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ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 52-27, 5/31/11
AYES: Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, Block,
Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan,
Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos, Carter, Cedillo,
Chesbro, Davis, Dickinson, Eng, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes,
Furutani, Galgiani, Gatto, Gordon, Hall, Hayashi, Roger
Hern�ndez, Hill, Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Lara, Bonnie
Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Pan, Perea, V.
Manuel P�rez, Portantino, Skinner, Solorio, Swanson,
Torres, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. P�rez
NOES: Achadjian, Bill Berryhill, Conway, Cook, Donnelly,
Fletcher, Beth Gaines, Garrick, Grove, Hagman, Halderman,
Harkey, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Logue, Mansoor, Miller,
Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Norby, Olsen, Silva, Smyth,
Valadao, Wagner
NO VOTE RECORDED: Gorell
CPM:mw 8/17/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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