BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 558
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 24, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 558 (Cooley) - As Amended: April 17, 2013
[This bill is being heard for informational purposes. No vote
will be taken at this hearing.]
SUBJECT : Class size reduction
SUMMARY : Extends, until 2017-18, the funding deductions for
exceeding kindergarten through grade 3 (K-3) Class Size
Reduction (CSR) program required teacher to pupil ratios.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Specifies that for the 2014-15 fiscal year (FY), the amounts
deducted for which the school district would otherwise be
eligible for shall be according to the following:
a) 7% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 20.5 but less than 21.
b) 15% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 21 but less than 21.5.
c) 20% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 21.5 but less than 21.9.
d) 100% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 21.9.
2)Specifies that for the FY 2015-16, the amounts deducted for
which the school district would otherwise be eligible for
shall be according to the following:
a) 10% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 20.5 but less than 21.
b) 25% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 21 but less than 21.5.
c) 40% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 21.5 but less than 21.9.
d) 100% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 21.9.
3)Specifies that for the FY 2016-17, the amounts deducted for
which the school district would otherwise be eligible for
shall be according to the following:
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a) 15% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 20.5 but less than 21.
b) 35% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 21 but less than 21.5.
c) 60% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 21.5 but less than 21.9.
d) 100% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 21.9.
4)Specifies that for the FY 2017-18, the amounts deducted for
which the school district would otherwise be eligible for
shall be according to the following:
a) 20% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 20.5 but less than 21.
b) 40% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 21 but less than 21.5.
c) 80% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 21.5 but less than 21.9.
d) 100% if the annual average enrollment is greater than or
equal to 21.9.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the K-3 CSR program to provide funding to school
districts to reduce class size in kindergarten through grade 3
to not more than 20 pupils per certificated teacher.
2)Establishes the following two options under which a school
district may apply for CSR funding:
a) Option One: A school district shall provide a reduced
class size for all pupils in each classroom for the full
regular school day in each grade level for which funding is
claimed. In order to qualify for funding, each class in
CSR shall be maintained with an annual average class size
of not more than 20 pupils for the instructional time that
qualifies the class for funding. Nothing prohibits the
class size from exceeding 20 pupils on any particular day,
provided that the average class size for the school year
does not exceed 20.
b) Option Two: A school district shall provide a reduced
class size for all pupils in each classroom for at least
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one-half of the instructional minutes offered per day in
each grade level for which funding is claimed. School
districts selecting this option shall primarily devote
those instructional minutes to the subject areas of reading
and mathematics.
3)Establishes penalty in the form of reduction in payments for
each class that the school district fails to maintain required
pupil-to-teacher ratios.
4)Establishes specified penalties in the form of reduction in
payments for each class that the school district fails to
maintain required pupil-to-teacher ratios, capped at 30%, for
the 2008-09 through 2013-14 school years only.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Background . SB 1777 (O'Connell), Chapter 163,
Statutes 1996, enacted the CSR program, which provides incentive
funding of $1,071 per pupil to districts that reduce their
kindergarten, first, second, or third grade classes to an
average ratio of 20 pupils per certificated teacher. A class
can exceed 20 pupils for any particular day, as long as the
average class size for the school year does not exceed 20.44.
The CSR program requires reducing grade 1 and grade 2 class
sizes before reducing grade 3 or kindergarten class sizes. In
2007-08, only 14 districts did not participate in this program.
The state budget provided $1.8 billion for this purpose in FY
2008-09. Due to budget reductions and districts withdrawing
from the program, the Governor allocated $1.27 billion in FY
2012-13.
CSR has been the subject of a number of bills attempting to
provide flexibility in the areas of grades eligible for
participation, required ratios, and penalties for failing to
maintain the ratio.
Until the enactment of SB 311 (Sher), Chapter 910, Statutes of
2004, any class that failed to maintain the required ratio of 20
pupils per teacher was subject to a penalty in the form of loss
of funding for the whole class. SB 311, which sunset on July 1,
2009, allowed slight increases in class size without losing all
funding. SB 1112 (Scott), Chapter 515, Statutes of 2008,
extended the sunset of SB 311 to July 1, 2014. SBX3 4
(Ducheny), Chapter 12, Statutes of the 2009-10 Third
Extraordinary Session, as part of the FY 2009-10 budget
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adjustments, further reduced the penalties for not meeting
required pupil-to-teachers ratios and capped the penalties at a
30% reduction for the 2008-09 through the 2011-12 school years
in order to provide districts with additional flexibilities
during a budget crisis. SB 70, Chapter 7, Statutes of 2011
extended the reduced penalties to FY 2013-14.
This bill proposes to phase out the reduced penalties over four
additional years rather than requiring average class sizes to be
restored to the SB 1777 level beginning in 2014-15, which would
cause districts to lose all funding for each class that does not
meet the 20 to 1 ratio. The following charts show the
differences between the reductions in SB 311 (pre-flexibility),
SBX3 4, and this bill.
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Effectiveness of CSR . Research has been mixed on whether CSR
alone has strong impact on pupil achievement, although it is
widely accepted that CSR in combination with other factors,
including teacher quality, parental involvement, and good
leadership, is beneficial. There is no magic number for the
optimum class size; successful pilot programs in other states,
including Tennessee and Wisconsin, decreased class sizes to
between 15 to17. Prior to implementing CSR, average class size
in elementary schools was 29 in California. The CDE reports
that in 2007-08, average class sizes were 20.3 for kindergarten,
19.4 for first grade, 19.3 for second grade, and 19.8 for third
grade. In a survey of school districts on categorical
flexibility, the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) reported
that in 2010-11, the average class sizes of kindergarten through
third grade increased to 25. Anecdotally, some districts have
increased K-3 class sizes to 30.
CSR is costly to implement. According to School Services of
California, CSR funding (pre-flexibility) represented only 80%
of the total costs to implement the program. The 2208-09 budget
agreement to allow increases in class sizes while imposing
incremental penalties give districts the ability to reduce
teaching staff without losing all CSR funding. Since the
initial implementation of CSR, there has been movement to
establish more flexibility in the CSR program. Some proposals
advocate for establishing class size based on the Academic
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Performance Index, or by requiring schools in lower deciles to
maintain class size of 20 while allowing schools in higher
deciles to have larger class sizes. Other proposals have called
for establishing districtwide averages (versus schoolwide
averages). Arguing that most districts are no longer meeting
the program's central policy of reducing K-3 class sizes to 20
or fewer students, the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) has
long suggested offering flexibility by incorporating CSR in an
academic and instructional improvement block grant and more
recently, incorporating CSR in the 2008-09 through 2014-15
categorical program flexibility.
FY 2013-14 Budget . The Governor's proposed FY 2013-14 budget
includes a new formula and methodology for K-12 funding called
the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The LCFF would
replace revenue limit funding and most categorical program
funding with a uniform per-pupil rate based on K-3, 4-6, 7-8,
and 9-12 grade spans, augmented by supplemental funding based on
additional needs of students, such as English learners or
students from low income families. The LCFF proposes to fold
CSR into the formula as a supplemental grant of 11.23 percent or
$712 per average daily attendance if districts maintain K-3
class sizes at 24 or lower, unless the district and teachers'
union agree to larger class sizes through collective bargaining.
The Governor's proposal specifies that the annual average class
size for K-3 shall not be subject to waiver by the State Board
of Education.
Committee considerations . With the SB 311 reduced penalties and
the SBX3 4 flexibility provisions both sunsetting in 2014 and
the Governor proposing a revised class size reduction program
based on a class size of 24, the Committee may wish to take this
opportunity to consider the future of the class size reduction
program. Is the optimum class size at 20, 24, or somewhere in
between? Should districts be penalized but not lose all funds
if a school's average class size exceeds the specified class
size ratio(s)? Should penalties go back to the original
construct of the program of loss of full funding for any class
that exceeds 20 (or 24) to 1? Without statutory action, K-3 CSR
will revert back to the 20 to 1 requirement and districts will
lose full funding for each class that exceeds the ratio in
2014-15. If districts are unable to reduce class sizes to that
level by then, districts may withdraw participation from the CSR
program. This bill gives districts four additional years to
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phase back to the 20 to 1 level.
Arguments in support . The California Teachers Association (CTA)
states, "Both teachers and parents support class size reduction
programs. More than 70 percent of voters believe reducing class
sizes is a very effective way to improve California's public
schools. In a statewide April 2011 survey completed by the
Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), 59 percent of
those who responded said they were very concerned that class
sizes have increased as a result of decreased funding. CTA
remains strongly committed to the state's historic Class Size
Reduction program, which has been the single most significant
public school reform in the last decade."
Related legislation . There are a number of bills introduced
this year extending flexibility or withdrawing specified
programs from categorical flexibility.
AB 88 (Buchanan), pending in this Committee, would implement the
Governor's Local Control Funding Formula.
AB 200 (Hagman), pending in this Committee, changes the method
of allocating funds for specified categorical programs and
requires local education agencies to provide reports on the
expenditure of those funds at each schoolsite, as specified.
AB 470 (Mullin), pending in this Committee, removes the Teacher
Credentialing Block Grant from Tier 3 flexibility, makes changes
to the California Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment
Program, and specifies that $321,000 shall be apportioned for
specified strategies to reduce school crime and violence.
AB 1152 (Ammiano), pending in this Committee, removes the
California School Age Families Education Program (Cal-SAFE) from
Tier 3 and prohibits the program from being included in any
education financing proposal that would eliminate categorical
programs.
AB 1186 (Bonilla), pending in this Committee, extends Tier 3
flexibility through 2019-20, provided the recipient LEA spends
at least 7% of the funds on either professional development
related to the implementation of the common core curriculum or
implementation of science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM) programs in grades 7 through 12.
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AB 1214 (Muratsuchi), pending in this Committee, requires the
annual budget to provide an annual appropriation from the
General Fund directly to the Southern California Regional
Occupational Center (SCROC) for purposes of providing career
technical education services.
SB 223 (Liu), pending in the Senate Appropriations Committee,
extends categorical flexibility in exchange for the recipient
LEA agreeing to specified accountability preconditions.
Previous related legislation . AB 2272 (Block and Fletcher),
introduced in 2010, revises the funding deductions for exceeding
K-3 CSR to allow for larger classes without losing CSR funding.
The bill was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee
suspense file.
SB 1112 (Scott), Chapter 515, Statutes of 2008, extended by five
years, the CSR penalty reductions specified in SB 311.
SB 311 (Sher), Chapter 910, Statutes of 2004, establishes a
deduction schedule that the State Controller would be required
to follow if a school district failed to maintain the maximum
pupil-to-teacher ratio in the CSR program.
The 2003 versions of AB 42 (Daucher) allows, for the 2003-04,
2004-05 and 2005-06 school year, a school district to determine
average class size on a schoolsite basis in the same manner as
certain small school districts and requires the school district
to select the grade level or levels at a schoolsite to be
reduced and to give priority to reducing class size in the
selected grade level or levels before reducing class size in
other grade levels at the schoolsite. The bill was gutted and
amended into a different subject area in 2004.
AB 1129 (Goldberg), introduced in 2003, specifies the conditions
by which an individual schoolsite may qualify for the CSR
program based on the annual Academic Performance Index decile
ranking. The bill was held in the Assembly Education Committee.
The post-February 3, 2003 versions of SBX1 10 (Sher) establishes
a Class Size Reduction Flexibility Alternative program to allow
schools to meet their K-3 class size reduction targets with a
schoolwide average of 20 pupils per teacher, provided that no
participating classroom exceeds 22 pupils per teacher and that
instruction is provided by fully and properly credentialed
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teachers. The bill was later amended to include the same
provisions in AB 42 (Daucher). The bill failed passage in the
Assembly Education Committee.
SB 556 (Sher), vetoed by Governor Gray Davis in 2003, contained
provisions similar to SB 311 (Sher).
SB 837 (Alarcon), introduced in 2003, authorizes a school
district participating in the program to increase the
permissible class size ratio to an average class size of 25
pupils per each class if the teacher assigned to the class holds
a valid teaching credential and is not serving pursuant to a
waiver, emergency permit, preintern certificate, or an intern
certificate or credential. The bill failed in the Senate
Education Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
California Teachers Association
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087