BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                            Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair


          AB 2033 (Salas) - Agricultural Career Technical Education
          
          Amended: August 4, 2014         Policy Vote: Education 6-0
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: No
          Hearing Date: August 11, 2014                                
          Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez                       
          
          This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.


          Bill Summary: AB 2033 provides a continuous appropriation of  
          $4,134,000 each year, beginning in 2015-16, for the Agricultural  
          Career Technical Education Incentive Program.

          Fiscal Impact: 
              Continuous appropriation: The bill appropriates $4,134,000  
              (General Fund) for the Agricultural Career Technical  
              Education Incentive Program each year, outside of the annual  
              Budget process.

          Background: In 2013, the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF)  
          was enacted. The LCFF replaces almost all sources of state  
          funding, including most categorical programs, and uses new  
          methods to allocate these resources and future allocations to  
          school districts, charter schools, and county offices of  
          education. The LCFF allows local educational agencies (LEAs)  
          much greater flexibility to spend the funds than under the prior  
          system. This formula is designed to provide districts and  
          charter schools with the bulk of their resources in unrestricted  
          funding to support the basic educational program for all  
          students, plus supplemental funding, based on the enrollment of  
          educationally disadvantaged students (low-income students,  
          English learners, and foster youth), provided to increase or  
          improve services to these high-needs students. 

          The LCFF includes new requirements for local planning and  
          accountability, including the creation of a local control  
          accountability plan (LCAP) for each COE, school district and  
          charter school, which focus on improving student outcomes in  
          state educational priorities and ensuring engagement of parents,  
          students, teachers, school employees, and the public in the  
          local process. The LCAP must include locally determined goals,  








          AB 2033 (Salas)
          Page 1


          actions, services, and expenditures of LCFF funds for each  
          school year in support of the state educational priorities that  
          are specified in statute, as well as any additional local  
          priorities.  
           
          The Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Program  
          provides local educational agencies 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. (Education Code � 52460)

          The 2014 Budget Act provides $4,134,000 (Prop 98 General Fund)  
          to the Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive  
          Program, as categorical funding.

          Proposed Law: This bill provides a continuous appropriation of  
          $4,134,000, beginning in 2015-16, for the Agricultural Career  
          Technical Education Incentive Program. This bill requires a  
          participating school district to demonstrate how the expenditure  
          of grant funds will be consistent with its LCAP.

          Staff Comments: This bill creates a continuous appropriation for  
          a particular state categorical program, removing its funding  
          determination from the annual Budget process. Earmarking $4.1  
          million in funds for the Agricultural Career Technical Education  
          Incentive Program creates cost pressure on future Prop 98 funds  
          that could otherwise be used for other educational purposes.

          This bill requires a participating school district to  
          "demonstrate" to the Superintendent of Public Instruction "how  
          the expenditure of grant funds will be consistent with its  
          LCAP." Career technical education programs are already required  
          to be addressed in a school district's LCAP, so the requirement  
          to demonstrate consistency is unlikely to result in costs to the  
          school district.