BILL NUMBER: AB 532 VETOED DATE: 10/08/2011 To the Members of the California State Assembly: The State has recently embarked on the implementation of Common Core standards and a related assessment system which will become operational in 2014-15. This new system is expected to provide important and useful information about student achievement in math and English. This bill would require that similar tests be developed, administered and scored for students for whom English is not their primary language. These requirements would result in major new test development and administration costs which we can ill afford. The assessments required by this bill for just one language are estimated to cost as much as $50 million; the total costs for covering all 55 languages spoken by California students is unknown but obviously substantial. I am returning Assembly Bill 532 without my signature. Sincerely, Edmund G. Brown Jr.