BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1518
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1518 (Eggman)
As Amended May 23, 2014
Majority vote
VETERANS AFFAIRS 9-0 EDUCATION 7-0
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|Ayes:|Quirk-Silva, Ch�vez, |Ayes:|Buchanan, Olsen, Ch�vez, |
| |Medina, Brown, Eggman, | |Gonzalez, Nazarian, |
| |Fox, Grove, Muratsuchi, | |Weber, Williams |
| |Salas | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Gatto, Bigelow, | | |
| |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian | | |
| |Calderon, Campos, | | |
| |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez, | | |
| |Holden, Jones, Linder, | | |
| |Pan, Quirk, | | |
| |Ridley-Thomas, Wagner, | | |
| |Weber | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Codifies authority for the existing California
National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program, and requires certain
geographic areas be served subject to funding, as specified.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the Adjutant General of the California National Guard
(Adjutant General) to conduct a civilian youth opportunities
program pursuant to Title 32 of the United States Code
Section 509 and subject to the availability of funding.
2)Directs that the program shall be known as "National Guard
Youth ChalleNGe Program," (Program).
3)Mandates that the Program shall consist of at least a 22-week
residential program and a 12-month post-residential mentoring
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period.
4)Requires the Program to serve at risk teens in areas of the
state, including, but not limited to, the San Joaquin Valley
and Northern California.
5)States that the Program shall be subject to all of the
following:
a) The Program shall seek to improve life skills and
employment potential of participants by providing
military-based leadership development, promoting fellowship
and community service, developing life-coping skills and
job skills, improving physical fitness, providing health
and hygiene training, and assisting participants to receive
a high school diploma or its equivalent.
b) The Adjutant General may accept federal funding to
implement the Program. The Adjutant General may appoint a
director and other service members and employees, permanent
or temporary, to operate the Program.
c) The Military Department shall enter into a memorandum of
agreement with an appropriate school district or a county
office of education for the purpose of providing
educational services for students enrolled in the Program.
The school district or county office of education with
which the department contracts shall be responsible for
ensuring compliance with any applicable requirements
imposed by the Education Code.
i) Mandates that a new Program, except for the
California Cadet Corps, may only be established as if
funds are appropriated for that purpose.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Annual General Fund cost of about $1.5 million, assuming a
program similar in size to the existing programs (about 750
students). Federal funding would account for about $4.5
million for the balance of the program. The educational
component of the program is supported by local school
districts and/or the County Office of Education via existing
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K-12 average daily attendance.
2)Current law specifies a new program may only be established if
funds are appropriated for this purpose. This bill is keyed
non-fiscal [by the Legislative Counsel].
3)The Assembly has added this project to the 2014-15 budget
bill. The Senate has not.
COMMENTS : This bill codifies in state law the requirement that
the Adjutant General conduct a Program in California subject to
funding. There are two existing Programs already being
conducted in California, the Grizzly Youth ChalleNGe Academy,
located near San Luis Obispo and the Sunburst Youth ChalleNGe
Academy located in Los Alamitos, California. These programs
serve students from all over California, but National Guard
staff state that many parents and students prefer not to be
extremely distant from one another.
This bill would require that Programs serve students in all
areas of the state but also specifically in the San Joaquin
Valley and Northern California. As stated above, the two
existing programs are located roughly in the central coast and
southern regions of California.
The Program is a national program. The program, an intensive
residential and mentoring program for high school dropouts ages
16 to 18 currently operates in 27 states and Puerto Rico. The
Program is authorized and funded through the Department of
Defense, with management and oversight from the National Guard
Bureau. The federal Program provides federal matching funds at
75% of the program cost to the implementing state.
Program participants, called cadets, are housed together, often
on a National Guard base or at a training center, for the first
22 weeks of the Program. During these weeks, the program
immerses cadets in a quasi-military environment in which they
focus on discipline, academic excellence, teamwork, physical
fitness, leadership, and service to the community.
The program encourages cadets to obtain a General Educational
Development (GED) and to seek further education and training or
employment during the one-year post-residential phase of the
program. Individuals ages 16 to 18 who have dropped out or been
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expelled from high school and are United States citizens or
legal residents, un- or under-employed, drug free, physically
and mentally capable of participating in the program, and have
either no police record or a police record limited to juvenile
status offenses are eligible to apply for admission to a program
in their state of residence.
A report released by the California Department of Education in
2009 shows that over a lifetime, high school dropouts have
increased dependence on public assistance, lower earnings,
poorer health, and higher rates of unemployment, mortality,
criminal behavior, and incarceration. According to the
California Research Project, all these factors generate
substantial economic losses to the nation, state, and local
communities.
A 2009 National Labor Market study reported that California has
714,000 dropouts between the ages of 16 to 24 and is ranked the
6th worst in the nation. This crisis gained presidential
attention in March of 2009 when President Barack Obama stated,
"My budget invests in developing new efforts to give dropouts
who want to return to school the help they need to graduate; and
new ways to put those young men and women who have left school
back on a pathway to graduation."
According to the author:
The high school dropout rate in San Joaquin County is
15.4%, exceeding the statewide average of 13.1%. There
is a strong correlation between dropout rates and
violent crime, and San Joaquin County also leads the
state's other counties in youth and young adult
homicides, with a per capita rate nearly three times
California's overall rate.
In 2012, the RAND Corporation published, A Cost-Benefit Analysis
of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program. RAND determined
the Program is extremely cost effective, with a return on
investment of $2.66 for every dollar spent.
The two existing Programs are limited to graduating 750 to 800
students annually. As a result, these Programs must turn down
more than 800 otherwise qualified candidates out of the more
than 1,600 who apply each year. There is thus documented demand
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for the Programs far in excess of existing capacity.
With more than 100,000 California high school students dropping
out each year, adding a third Program would continue the
investment of serving California's high risk youth population.
Analysis Prepared by : John J. Spangler / V.A. / (916)
319-3550
FN:
0003598