BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 275
AUTHOR: Hancock
AMENDED: April 25, 2011
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: May 4, 2011
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Daniel Alvarez
SUBJECT : Career Technical Education block grant funding.
SUMMARY
This bill creates a career technical education block grant
program, beginning in 2013-14, that contains funding
dedicated for (a) Regional Occupational Centers and Programs
(ROCPs), (b) partnership academies, (c) specialized secondary
programs, and (d) agricultural career technical education
incentive programs. Allows for limited flexibility of 10
percent between programs, provides for a regional process for
administrative collaboration, and requires the California
Department of Education to develop program quality
accountability measures, as specified.
BACKGROUND
Existing law establishes and funds categorical programs that
focus resources and /or compliance requirements on specific
classes of students or schools, or specific uses of funds,
identified by the Legislature as priorities.
Regional Occupational Centers and Programs
Existing law establishes various career technical education
(CTE) programs for public schools including Regional
Occupational Centers and Programs that allow students from
multiple schools or districts to participate in career
technical training programs regardless of the geographical
location of their residence in a county or region. Existing
law authorizes the following types of ROCPs operational
models: (Education Code � 52300 et. seq.)
County ROCP: Existing law authorizes county
superintendents, with the consent of the State Board of
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Education (SBE) to establish and maintain a ROCP to
provide education and training in career technical
courses.
(EC � 52301(a))
Joint Powers Agency ROCP: Existing law authorizes two
or more school districts to form a joint powers agency
(JPA) for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a
ROCP for students who are enrolled in those districts.
(EC � 52301(a)(2))
Single District ROCP: Existing law authorizes certain
very large districts, who do not wish to be part of a
county ROCP, to apply to the SBE through their county
superintendent for permission to establish and maintain
a ROCP for students enrolled in the district. The
county superintendent may supervise the establishment of
the ROCP. ( EC � 52301(b))
Partnership Academies
The Partnership Academy model is a three-year program, for
grades ten through twelve, structured as a
school-within-a-school and incorporates (1) rigorous
integrated academics with a career focus; (2) business
partnerships that provide support through curriculum
resources, classroom speakers, field trips, mentors, and
internships; and (3) teachers who work as a team in preparing
students for careers and postsecondary education. (EC � 54690
et. seq.)
Specialized Secondary Programs
Specialized Secondary Programs is a four-year grant program
to provide opportunities for students to obtain advanced
instruction, in addition to core course work, and skills in
technology appropriate to the curriculum. California
comprehensive high schools may use the grant funds for
programs that provide students with advanced learning
opportunities in a variety of subjects, including but not
limited to English-language arts, mathematics, science,
history and social science, foreign language, and the visual
performing arts. The acquisition of technology skills and the
use of technology as a tool for instruction and learning are
also emphasized in these programs. Frequently, specialized
secondary programs are established as a smaller learning
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community or a school-within-a-school. (EC � 58800 et. seq.)
Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Program
The Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive program
provides local educational agencies (LEAs) with funds to
improve the quality of their agricultural vocational
education programs. The goal is to maintain a high-quality,
comprehensive agricultural vocational program in California's
public school system to ensure a constant source of
employable, trained, and skilled individuals. (EC � 52460)
ANALYSIS
This bill:
1) Requires the State Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI) beginning in 2013-14, and each year thereafter, to
apportion funds appropriated for (a) regional
occupational centers and programs (ROCPs), (b)
specialized secondary program grants, (c) partnership
academies, and (d) agricultural career technical
education incentive program to each county office of
education (COE) based on the same relative proportion
that LEAs within that particular county received funding
for these programs in 2007-08.
2) Requires each COE to allocate to the funding ROCPs,
school districts, and COEs a proportion of the total
funds based on the proportion that these entities
received in 2007-08.
3) Requires, as a condition of receiving funds, the
governing board of each ROCP, in collaboration with
individuals representing school districts within each
region, partnership academies, agricultural vocational
education programs, and other career technical programs
to develop a plan for establishing a sequence of
courses, as specified, and certify to the California
Department of Education (CDE) that the sequence of
courses has been developed.
4) Specifies that funds allocated for ROCPs, specialized
secondary program grants, and partnership academies can
only be expended for the purposes of the programs for
which they were appropriated; except that up to 10
percent of the funds from each identified programs, upon
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agreement between the school district and the ROCP, may
be used to support any combination of the programs for
one year. This may be renewable annually with the
agreement of both boards.
5) Requires growth funding for ROCPs be allocated
exclusively for the purposes of equalization of an equal
funding allotment for each high school pupil in the
service delivery area served by the ROCP. After
equalization, growth funds would be distributed in a
manner to maintain equal per pupil funding levels.
6) Specifies that as a condition of receiving funds
consistent with this bill, programs that receive funding
shall collect and report data as required by the CDE to
prepare and update specified accountability measures.
7) Requires the SPI to align the accountability measures
for the four programs into a uniform accountability
metric based on any career ready standards adopted
pursuant to the federal Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (ESEA) and 11 program quality indicators
in the California State Plan for Career Technical
Education, including, but not limited to:
a) High quality curriculum and instruction aligned with
state standards.
b) System alignment and coherence, including
postsecondary
education.
c) Reflection of labor market demands, and provision of
current
equipment.
d) Skilled faculty and professional development.
e) Data-based pupil evaluation, accountability, and
continuous
improvement.
f) Pupil support and leadership development.
g) Industry partnerships and advisory committees.
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1) Requires accountability measures to also include, but
necessarily be limited to:
a) The number of pupils completing high school.
b) The number of pupils earning an
industry-recognized certification or
licensure or other measures of technical skill
attainment.
c) The number of pupils completing career
technical education
courses and completing a career technical education
program of study, consisting of a sequence of two
or more career technical courses.
d) The number of pupils employed and the types of
businesses in
which they are employed.
e) The number of pupils enrolled in postsecondary
education or
apprenticeship programs, or serving in the Armed
Forces.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Categorical program funding reductions and flexibility
given to assist school districts and provide greater
local decision-making . SB 4 (Chapter 12, 2009) and
extended by SB 70 (Chapter 7, 2011), authorizes local
educational agencies (LEAs) through the 2014-15 fiscal
year, to use funding for approximately 40 categorical
programs (totaling $4.5 billion statewide) for any
educational purpose to the extent permitted by federal
laws. Regional occupational centers and programs
(ROCPs) and specialized secondary programs, were part of
the 40 categorical programs impacted. These measures
also deem LEAs to be in compliance with program and
funding requirements related to the 40 categorical
programs, and requires LEA governing boards to make
flexible expenditure decisions in a regularly scheduled
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public meeting. The flexibility granted under SB 4 and
SB 70 came as a result of funding the categorical
programs approximately 20 percent lower for the 2008-09
through the 2014-15 fiscal years, as well as reductions
to school district and county office of education
revenue limits (the basic general purpose money
allocated to districts. (EC � 42605)
The Legislature stopped short of including all
categorical programs within the "Tier 3" flexibility
(reduction and flex), and decided that certain programs,
including partnership academies and agricultural career
technical education, were of such high priority that no
flexibility or limited flexibility would be provided.
2) Need for the bill . Currently ROCPs are subject to
flexibility (described above) and as such are subject to
the possibility of funds shifted to non-career technical
education purposes. Partnership academies and
agricultural career technical education were reduced by
20 percent (however, not available for flexibility
purposes). The Legislative Analyst has suggested both
of these programs be shifted to flexibility in the
absence of a block grant approach. SB 275 would stop
the erosion of funding for these particular programs,
while providing consistency in sequence requirements
across the programs.
3) Categorical block grant approaches proposed or used in
the past.
Funding flexible block grant, as described above
under Comment
#1, through fiscal year 2014-15, converts
restricted categorical funds into discretionary or
unrestricted funding. However this approach, among
other things, suffers from its lack of connection
to the state's programmatic priorities, and may
place protected subpopulations at risk.
Grouped or clustered block grant, where funds
allocated for
categorical programs focus on a similar pupil
subpopulation or similar activities are grouped
together to create one larger grant. Revenue is
consolidated and some flexibility is given on the
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expenditure side, but the flexibility is focused
(or linked) to expenditure on programs within the
grouping. This approach maintains a flavor of
legislative spending priorities, but does not
provide a level of flexibility that likely allows
an LEA to truly create educational programs that
match the need of local student populations. This
approach was utilized under AB 825 (Chapter 871,
Statutes of 2004).
True categorical block grants, are similar to the
grouped approach,
but an LEA would be allowed to expend funds in a
true block grant on a very broadly determined set
of activities.
1) SB 275 is a quasi-grouped block grant approach , grouping
four categorical programs into a career technical
education cluster. Funding would be allocated to each
program and then through a local collaborative process
up to 10 percent of any one programs' funding could be
used to support any combination of the four programs,
but only for one-year at a time.
The limitations of SB 275 - funding between programs can
only be up to 10 percent and then only at one year at a
time intervals may make for a less than meaningful
approach toward block grant - basically not truly
testing the opportunity of expanding or contracting
programs based on a match with student populations. And
even with a modest 10 percent flexibility between and
among programs the one-year time limit does not permit
even good programs to flourish.
A major strength of SB 275 lays with the requirement to
insure a quality sequence of courses among the four
categorical programs slated for the grouped block grant,
and reporting to the state information on accountability
measures based on career ready standards and outcome
measures, as specified.
However, staff recommends an amendment that directs up
to 25 percent of the funds from each identified programs
upon agreement between the school district and the ROCP,
may be used to support any combination of the programs
for no less than a three year period.
Many programs within the SB 275 block grant are
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multi-year programs in high schools, and the proposed
amendment would provide greater funding opportunities
for growing quality programs, and allow enough time
within a cohort of high school pupils to complete at
least one-cycle of funding, and permit the collection of
data to permit the augmented programs to garner
information to make a qualitative programmatic changes
if necessary.
2) Start date of this measure is not consistent with sunset
of categorical flexibility. Notwithstanding the merit
of increasing the accountability and consistency in the
sequence of course requirements, the current overall
categorical flexibility provisions (described in Comment
#1) of which ROCPs and specialized secondary programs
are part of, have just recently been extended until the
end of the 2014-15 school year. The implementation of
the "grouping" flexibility found within this measure is
schedule to begin in
2013-14.
In addition, note that SB 275 would take two programs -
partnership academies and agricultural vocational
education - currently not available under the
flexibility provisions of SB 4 / SB 70, and permit up to
10 percent of the funding for these programs to be spent
on the other programs identified in the bill.
If the Committee chooses to pass this bill, could that
encourage other groups to petition to be excluded from
categorical flexibility in order to preserve funding for
specific programs or ensure that programs continue to
operate as they did prior to 2008-09?
Staff recommends an amendment to commence the proposed
block grant approach of this measure with the 2015-16
fiscal year.
SUPPORT
California Association of Leaders for Career Preparation
California Association of Regional Occupational Centers and
Programs
California Business Education Association
North Orange County ROP
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OPPOSITION
None on file.