BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2617
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Date of Hearing: May 9, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2617 (Blumenfield) - As Amended: April 23, 2012
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI), on or before May 31, 2012, and in cooperation with the
State Board of Education and the Legislative Analyst Office, to
examine the adequacy of funding for dropout recovery programs in
the state. Further requires the SPI to publish a report with
recommendations. Specifically, this bill:
Requires the SPI to review successful dropout recovery programs
in other states and include the following:
1)An inventory of existing dropout recovery programs.
2)The effectiveness of these programs.
3)The funding streams used for purposes of these programs.
4)The types of services that these programs provide.
FISCAL EFFECT
GF costs likely between $250,000 and $450,000 to the SPI to
complete a report to determine the adequacy of funding for
dropout programs in the state. The requirements of this bill
would likely necessitate the SPI to contract out to complete
this report. For example, this measure requires the report to
include information on the effectiveness of dropout recovery
programs. In order to meet this requirement, outcome measures
would need to be developed and field research would likely need
to be conducted.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the California Dropout Research Project
AB 2617
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report: The Economic Losses of High School Dropouts in
California (Belfield and Levin, August 2007), California
experiences $46.4 billion in total economic losses from each
cohort of 120,000 20- year-olds who never complete high
school. This is the equivalent of 2.9% of the annual state
gross product. The authors state that the average high school
graduate earns $290,000 more over a lifetime than a high
school dropout and pays $100,000 more in federal, state, and
local taxes. Likewise, more the two-thirds of high school
dropouts will use food stamps during their working lifetime
and a high school graduate is 68% less likely to be on any
welfare program.
According to the author, "Students who drop out of high school
do so at great cost to themselves and to the community. A
number of states have developed funding models to encourage
schools to recover students who have dropped out. California
has worked to prevent dropouts, but has not made significant
efforts to reengage actual dropouts. By incentivizing dropout
recovery, California can provide schools and districts the
resources to recover out-of-school youth and bring substantial
growth to the state's economy and to the students'
communities. AB 2617 would take an important first step to
measure the effective of California's dropout recovery
programs, and bring focus to this underserved community."
2)Background . K-12 pupils have several alternative education
options available to them other than traditional public
schools, including independent study, continuation education,
community day schools, juvenile court schools, and dropout
recovery schools. Many of these alternative education options
have specified requirements that cause the pupil to attend one
of these programs. For example, pupils in the criminal
justice system are educated in a juvenile court school.
AB 180 (Carter), Chapter 669, Statutes of 2011, defines
"dropout recovery high school" as a high school offering
instruction in grades 9-12 in which 50% or more of its pupils
are designated as dropouts pursuant to the exit and withdrawal
codes developed by the State Department of Education (SDE),
and which provides instruction in partnership with any of the
following:
a) The federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA).
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b) Federally affiliated Youthbuild programs.
c) Federal job corps training or instruction provide
pursuant to a memorandum of understanding with the federal
provider.
d) The California Conservation Corp (CCC) or local
conservation corps certified by the CCC, as specified.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081