BILL ANALYSIS �
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 754
Author: Padilla (D)
Amended: 8/6/12
Vote: 21
PRIOR SENATE VOTES NOT RELEVANT
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 7-0, 8/23/12
AYES: Lowenthal, Alquist, Huff, Liu, Price, Simitian,
Vargas
NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner, Blakeslee, Hancock, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 75-0, 8/21/12 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : School funding: economic impact aid
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This is a new bill. As it left the Senate, it
dealt with the California English Language Development
Test. Those provisions were deleted in the Assembly. This
bill now requires a school district, as a condition of the
receipt of economic impact aid funds, to post in an easily
accessible location on its Internet Web site data related
to its economic impact aid funding and expenditures, as
specified.
ANALYSIS : Existing law provides economic impact aid
funding to school districts based on the number of
economically disadvantaged pupils and English learners
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enrolled in the school district.
Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to perform specified calculations to determine
the amount of economic impact aid a school district
receives for a fiscal year and further requires each school
district to expend these funds for specified programs and
activities.
This bill, as a condition of the receipt of economic impact
aid funds, require a school district to post in an easily
accessible location on its Internet Web site data related
to economic impact aid funding, for purposes of budget
transparency, including all of the following:
1. The amount of economic impact aid allocated to the
school district in that fiscal year.
2. The amount of economic impact aid used by the school
district for administrative costs in that fiscal year.
3. The amount of economic impact aid expended for
limited-English-proficient pupils in that fiscal year
and the prior fiscal year by the school district and by
each school within the district.
4. The amount of economic impact aid expended for state
compensatory education in that fiscal year and the prior
fiscal year by the school district and by each school
within the district.
5. The amount of unexpended economic impact aid and an
explanation of why these funds have not been expended.
Background
In the last 25 years the English Learner population has
doubled, a trend reaffirmed by the 2010 Census. California
educates 1.5 million English Learners which accounts for a
quarter of the K-12 population. In Kindergarten forty
percent of students are English Learners.
In 1976, Governor Brown signed the Bilingual-Bicultural
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Education Act which created a groundbreaking system to
improve English Learner education. The Act had a noble
goal of "?as effectively and efficiently as possible, to
develop in each child fluency in English."
Thirty-six years later, the failure of the current English
Learner system is clear. Today, English Learners have the
lowest graduation rate of any student demographic.
Thirty-one percent of English Learners who make it to 9th
grade drop out before graduation. While some English
Learners receive their high school diploma, only 13% of
English Learners will earn a bachelor's degree.
Empowering and informing parents about the fiscal decisions
of their child's school is important for creating
educational success for English Learners. When parents and
communities are informed they are able to hold their
schools accountable.
Currently, districts do not report school-level funding
figures, instead they use district averages. While many
districts do post their budgets online, they only list
funds in broad categories. The public does not have access
to specific, school level expenditures. Parents and
communities are largely unaware of how schools spend
English Learner funds because school districts are not
required to report or post them.
There have been several recent reports calling for more
transparency in the education funding. The Public Policy
Institute, the New America Foundation and researchers and
Stanford University have called for more transparent school
budgets. The Stanford 2008 report title "Reforming
California School Finance" was authored by State Board of
Education President Michael Kirst, California Supreme Court
Justice Goodwin Liu, and former California Secretary of
Education Alan Bersin. The report stated that the:
"? �education finance] system as a whole should be
simple, transparent, and easily understood by
legislators, school officials, and the public?"
The report asserts that transparency is needed in order for
Californians to support more revenues for schools because:
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"?.legislators cannot explain to their constituents (much
less defend) how education dollars are allocated; and the
public cannot understand how additional revenue for
education will affect their local schools."
Transparency is necessary to inform schools and empower
parents. When schools are informed and parents are
empowered, positive improvements can be made. For example,
in Coachella Valley Unified School District, the district
failed every single category during their last compliance
monitoring review. The review put sunshine onto the
problems and deficiencies in the districts programs and
expenditures.
Since then, under the leadership of a new Superintendent
and in partnership the Families Improving Schools Education
initiative, the district was able to work with parents and
the community to restructure their English Learner
programs.
The Coachella community established the
Parent-School-Community collaborative for Student Success,
and a Parent Engagement Taskforce between the district,
parents, and community partners. Through these efforts,
they have established a monitoring mechanism and are
supporting improvements to new and existing programs for
successful reclassification. Schools and parents can work
together to see that students receive the supports and
services they need to succeed.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/21/12)
ACLU
California Association for Bilingual Education
California Immigrant Policy Center
Californians Together
Education Trust West
Families in Schools
Los Angeles Unified School District
Mexican American Legal Defense Education Fund
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Public Advocates
Reading and Beyond
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author states, "Current law
lacks transparency in school budgets that would allow
policymakers, students, parents, teachers and communities
to understand how schools and districts provide services to
English Learners."
This bill requires as a condition of the receipt of EIA
funds, school districts to post in an easily accessible
location the information about EIA allocations and
expenditures at the school district and school site level.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 75-0, 08/21/12
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos,
Carter, Cedillo, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson,
Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani,
Beth Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Gorell,
Grove, Hagman, Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hill,
Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lara, Logue,
Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor, Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell,
Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Norby, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V.
Manuel P�rez, Portantino, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio,
Swanson, Torres, Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada,
John A. P�rez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Chesbro, Roger Hern�ndez, Hueso, Nielsen,
Valadao
RJG:m 8/25/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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