BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 421
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Date of Hearing: August 21, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 421 (Hernandez) - As Amended: August 5, 2013
Policy Committee: Education Vote:7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill establishes a grant program, to the extent federal
funding is available, to cover the costs of Advanced Placement
(AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) examination fees, or
both, for eligible economically disadvantaged high school
pupils. Specifically, this bill:
1)Defines an eligible economically disadvantaged (ED) pupil as
from a family whose annual household income is below 200% of
the federal poverty level, or a pupil who is eligible for the
federal free/reduced price meal program.
2)Requires the State Department of Education (SDE) to administer
this program and authorizes a school district to apply to SDE
for funding based on the number of ED pupils in the district
enrolled in AP courses who will take the exams, as specified.
Requires grants to pay for AP/IB exam fees, or both.
3)Authorizes an ED pupil enrolled in an AP or IB course to apply
to the district to receive a grant that will cover his or her
exam fee. Further requires the pupil to pay five dollars of
the exam fee.
4)Prohibits grants provided to pupils under this program from
supplanting fee waivers available to low-income pupils who
take AP or IB exams. Further requires priority be given to
allocating AP exam fees if insufficient funding is allocated
for the grant program to cover all school district
applications, as specified.
5)Authorizes SDE to enter into a contract with an AP or IB exam
provider to facilitate the reimbursement under this program.
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Further exempts SDE from public contract requirements.
FISCAL EFFECT
GF/98 cost pressure, likely between $5 million and $10 million,
to establish an AP/IB fee reimbursement program. This bill
requires federal funding to be used to implement the program;
however, if federal funding is not allocated for this purpose,
there will likely GF/98 cost pressure to backfill to continue
providing exam fee reimbursement to ED pupils. The 2013 Budget
Act allocated a total of $11.9 million in federal funding for
this program.
COMMENTS
1)Background . AP programs, established over 40 years ago by the
College Board, provide incentives for public comprehensive
high schools to provide access to rigorous, college-level
courses for students. These programs allow pupils to pursue
college-level work while still in secondary school, and
receive college credit, advanced academic standing, or both.
At the end of the course, students may opt to sit for the
course-related exam, or may take the exam without having
completed the related course. For a score of 3 or higher (out
of 5) on an AP exam, most colleges and universities will award
college credit for an entry-level course in that discipline,
though policies vary from institution to institution.
IB programs provide pupils with a full diploma program in a
liberal arts course of study which includes a critical
thinking class, a minimum of 150 hours of participation in
extracurricular activities and community services, and a
research paper or 4,000 words. Students also must pass
rigorous examinations in seven curricula areas. In 2009-10,
the last year information was available, grant funding was
provided to 56 schools that received grants in the previous
year.
2)Purpose . The AP/IB test reimbursement program, administered
by SDE, removed the financial barriers that prevent many
low-income students in comprehensive high schools from taking
the AP and IB course test. Funding supported the payment of
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AP/IB test fees for eligible students. This program sunsetted
on January 1, 2013 and is no longer operative.
Prior to the enactment of the Local Control Funding Formula
(LCFF), the annual budget act allocated both state and federal
funding for the AP/IB test fee reimbursement program. The
2013 Budget Act only allocates federal funding for this
program due to the program funding consolidation under LCFF.
The author cites a UCLA study published in 2000 stated that
there were 'unequal opportunities for successful participation
in AP courses in many California high schools.' According to
this study, high schools serving predominately low-income
African American and Latino students typically offered limited
AP courses-sometimes these schools offered no AP courses to
students. The author further argues providing fee relief to
ED pupils will increase access and diversity to AP and IB
examinations.
3)Need for the bill ? The 2013 Budget Act allocates $11.9
million in federal funding and requires it to be "used for AP
examination fee reimbursement, IB tests, for low-income pupils
as specified under the conditions of the federal grant
application through which these funds are authorized."
Therefore, absent any legislation, SDE will allocate the $11.9
million according to the state's federal application. The
state's 2013 application has been submitted and SDE is
awaiting approval.
The budget act is an annual document and as such, any federal
funding the state receives for AP or IB examination fee
reimbursement will be allocated and distributed according to
budget bill language. Also, given the LCFF consolidated a
number of categorical programs, the committee may wish to
consider the need to establish an AP/IB assessment
reimbursement program.
4)LCFF , enacted as part of the 2013 Budget [AB 97 (Budget
Committee), Chapter 47, Statutes of 2013], established a new
funding formula for K-12 education to be phased in over seven
years. The formula consists of three major components: (a)
base grant (general purpose funding), (b) supplemental grant
(funding for English learner (EL) and poor/needy pupils), and
(c) a concentration grant (additional funding for those LEAs
with a high number of EL and poor/needy pupils).
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The LCFF is intended to provide LEAs with maximum flexibility
and as such, there are minimal expenditure requirements tied
to the funding LEAs receive. Therefore, the LCFF
consolidated the funding for the majority of the state's
categorical programs, including those under categorical
flexibility (i.e., the AP/IB fee reimbursement programs). The
rationale for this program consolidation was to allow LEAs to
make their own decisions based on their pupils' needs
regarding which programs to continue. For example, if a
school district wants to provide financial assistance to low
income pupils taking AP or IB exams, it can do so with funding
it receives from LCFF and in any manner it sees fit. Under
LCFF, LEAs are no longer tied to program requirements in
exchange for funding they receive.
This bill establishes a fee reimbursement program for AP and
IB exams, pending the receipt of federal funding.
The 2013 Budget Act allocated $2.13 billion GF/98 to LEAs to
begin implementing the LCFF.
5)Previous related legislation . SB 532 (Hernandez), Chapter
238, Statutes of 2011, required the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to annually update the information on the AP and
the IB program availability on SDE's Internet website, as
specified.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081