BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 660
AUTHOR: Hancock
AMENDED: April 24, 2013
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: May 1, 2013
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lenin Del Castillo
SUBJECT : Career Technical Education block grant funding.
SUMMARY
This bill preserves funding provided in the annual budget for
the following career technical education (CTE) programs:
Regional Occupational Centers and Programs (ROCPs),
Partnership Academies, Specialized Secondary Programs, and
the Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive
program. This bill also establishes an accountability system
for these CTE programs based upon the current criteria
currently used to assess the effectiveness of programs
receiving federal Carl Perkins funds.
BACKGROUND
Existing law establishes the following career technical
education (CTE) programs for public schools:
1) Regional Occupational Centers and Programs . Existing
law establishes various career technical education (CTE)
programs for public schools including Regional
Occupational Centers and Programs (ROCPs) that allow
students from multiple schools or districts to
participate in career technical training programs
regardless of the geographical location of their
residence in a county or region. Existing law
authorizes the following types of ROCPs operational
models: (Education Code � 52300 et seq.)
a) County ROCP: Existing law authorizes county
superintendents, with the consent of the State
Board of Education (SBE) to establish and maintain
a ROCP to provide education and training in career
technical courses. (Education Code � 52301(a))
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b) Joint Powers Agency ROCP: Existing law
authorizes two or more school districts to form a
joint powers agency (JPA) for the purpose of
establishing and maintaining a ROCP for students
who are enrolled in those districts. (Education
Code � 52301(a)(2))
c) Single District ROCP: Existing law authorizes
certain very large districts, who do not wish to be
part of a county ROCP, to apply to the State Board
Education through their county superintendent for
permission to establish and maintain a ROCP for
students enrolled in the district. The county
superintendent may supervise the establishment of
the ROCP. (Education Code � 52301(b))
2) Partnership Academies . The Partnership Academy model is
a three-year program, for grades ten through twelve,
structured as a school-within-a-school and incorporates
(1) rigorous integrated academics with a career focus;
(2) business partnerships that provide support through
curriculum resources, classroom speakers, field trips,
mentors, and internships; and
(3) teachers who work as a team in preparing students
for careers and postsecondary education. (Education Code
� 54690 et seq.)
3) Specialized Secondary Programs . A specialized secondary
program is a four-year grant program that provides
opportunities for students to obtain advanced
instruction, in addition to core course work, and skills
in technology appropriate to the curriculum.
Comprehensive high schools may use the grant funds for
programs that provide students with advanced learning
opportunities in a variety of subjects, including but
not limited to English-language arts, mathematics,
science, history and social science, foreign language,
and the visual performing arts. The acquisition of
technology skills and the use of technology as a tool
for instruction and learning are also emphasized in
these programs. Frequently, specialized secondary
programs are established as a smaller learning community
or a school-within-a-school. (Education Code � 58800 et
seq.)
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4) Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive
Program . 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)
ANALYSIS
This bill:
1) Requires the State Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI) beginning in 2013-14, and each year thereafter, to
apportion funds appropriated for ROCPs, specialized
secondary program grants, partnership academies, and
agricultural career technical education to each county
office of education (COE) based on the same relative
proportion that local educational agencies within that
particular county received funding for those programs in
2012-13. Each COE would be required to allocate the
funds to ROCPs and LEAs in the same relative proportion
of the total funds that these entities received in
2012-13.
2) For the 2014-15 fiscal year and each fiscal year
thereafter, requires the allocation made to each
Regional Occupational Centers and Programs (ROCP) and
local educational agencies (LEAs) be adjusted annually
for increases in costs of living, as specified.
3) Allows LEAs that operate career technical education
(CTE) programs to form a Regional Career Technical
Education Collaborative (RCTEC).
a) Two or more entities within the RCTEC, as
specified, may enter into an agreement to use the
funding received from ROCPs, specialized secondary
programs, partnership academies, and agricultural
career technical education to share in the cost of
developing and maintaining a CTE program based upon
curricula aligned with California Career Technical
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Education Standards and Common Core State
Standards.
b) The funds subject to an agreement may be
expended only to ensure the development and
maintenance of a high-quality CTE program.
c) In the absence of an agreement, the funds
appropriated for ROCPs, specialized secondary
program grants, partnership academies, and
agricultural career technical education may only be
expended for the purposes of the programs for which
they were appropriated.
4) Requires, as a condition of receiving funds, the
governing board of each ROCP, in collaboration with
individuals representing school districts within each
region, partnership academies, agricultural vocational
education programs, and other career technical programs
to develop a plan for establishing a sequence of courses
by July 1, 2015, as specified, and certify to the State
Department of Education (SDE) by September 1, 2016, that
the sequence of courses has been developed.
5) Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to
incorporate into the accountability measures for the
four programs a uniform accountability metric based on
any career ready standards adopted pursuant to the
federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act and
program quality indicators in the California State Plan
for Career Technical Education, including, but not
limited to:
a) Leadership at all levels.
b) High quality curriculum and instruction aligned with
state standards.
c) Career exploration and guidance.
d) Pupil support and leadership development.
e) Industry partnerships and advisory committees.
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f) System alignment and coherence, including
postsecondary
Education institution involvement.
g) After school, extended day, and out-of-school
opportunities.
h) Reflection of labor market demands and provision of
current
equipment.
i) Skilled faculty and professional development.
j) Career technical education outreach and
communication.
aa) Data-based pupil evaluation, accountability, and
continuous
improvement.
1) Requires the accountability measures to include the
rates at which pupils complete a course of study or
sequence of career technical education courses,
including:
a) The number of pupils completing high school.
b) The number of pupils earning an
industry-recognized certification or
licensure or other measures of technical skill
attainment.
c) The number of pupils completing career
technical education
courses and completing a career technical education
program of study, consisting of a sequence of two
or more career technical courses.
d) The number of pupils employed and the types of
businesses in
which they are employed.
e) The number of pupils enrolled in postsecondary
education or
apprenticeship programs, or serving in the Armed
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Forces.
2) Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI)
to develop an evaluation instrument to evaluate the
programs within each Regional Career Technical Education
Collaborative (RCTEC) commencing with the 2015-16 school
year and annually thereafter, as specified.
a) The evaluation shall be based on the uniform
metric as specified
above and may be based on the existing evaluation
instrument described in the California County
Superintendents Educational Services Association
Course of Study document.
b) The SPI shall collaborate with stakeholders,
as specified.
c) The completed evaluation instrument shall be
reviewed by an
independent local review council, as specified, and
submitted to the State Department of Education for
review.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Categorical program flexibility . SB 4, Chapter 12,
Statutes of 2009, which was extended by SB 70, Chapter
7, Statutes of 2011, authorize local educational
agencies through the 2014-15 fiscal year, to use funding
for approximately 40 categorical programs for any
educational purpose to the extent permitted by federal
laws. Regional occupational centers and programs
(ROCPs) and specialized secondary programs are among the
categorical programs impacted. These measures also deem
local educational agencies (LEAs) to be in compliance
with program and funding requirements related to the 40
categorical programs, and require LEA governing boards
to make flexible expenditure decisions in a regularly
scheduled public meeting. The flexibility granted under
SB 4 and SB 70 came as a result of funding the
categorical programs approximately 20 percent lower for
the 2008-09 through the 2014-15 fiscal years, as well as
reductions to school district and county office of
education revenue limits. (Education Code � 42605)
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The Legislature stopped short of including all
categorical programs within the "Tier 3" flexibility
(reduction and flex), and decided that certain programs,
including Partnership Academies and Agricultural Career
Technical Education, were of such high priority that no
flexibility or limited flexibility would be provided.
2) Need for the bill . Currently ROCPs are subject to
flexibility (described above) and as such are subject to
the possibility of funds shifted to non-career technical
education purposes. Funding for partnership academies
and agricultural career technical education were reduced
by 20 percent but are not available for flexibility
purposes. SB 660 is intended to stop the erosion of
funding for these particular programs, while providing
consistency in sequence requirements across the various
career technical education programs.
3) Quasi-grouped block grant approach . SB 660 groups four
categorical programs into a career technical education
cluster. Funding would be allocated to each program and
then through a local collaborative process where any one
of the program's funds could be used to support any
combination of the other programs. The bill also
requires that a sequence of courses among the four
categorical programs slated for the grouped block grant
be developed, which could provide more meaning to the
completion of programs and result in better
opportunities for students. Additionally, by requiring
local educational agencies to report information on
various accountability measures, the state could receive
additional data to assess the effectiveness of these CTE
programs.
4) Governor's Local Control Funding Formula . As part of
the 2013-14 Governor's Budget, the Administration
proposes to restructure the existing
K-12 finance system and eliminate over 40 existing
programs while also repealing, what the Administration
determines are countless "discretionary" provisions of
statute, while implementing a new formula known as the
Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The LCFF would
consolidate the vast majority of state categorical
programs and revenue limit apportionments into a single
source of funding (12 categorical programs, including
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Special Education, Child Nutrition, Preschool, and After
School programs, would be excluded). The Local Control
Funding Formula (LCFF) proposal would also eliminate the
statutory and programmatic requirements for almost all
existing categorical programs - the programs would be
deemed "discretionary" and programs in any of these
areas would be dependent on local district discretion.
To the extent that the LCFF or a modified version of it
is adopted as part of the budget, the majority of
currently required categorical activities would be left
to local districts' discretion. Therefore, the programs
affected by this bill could be diluted, eliminated,
rendered obsolete or discretionary at the local level.
In addition, note that SB 660 would take two
programs-partnership academies and agricultural
vocational education, which currently are not available
under the flexibility provisions of SB 4 and SB 70, and
permit funding for these programs to be spent on the
other career technical education programs. If the
Committee chooses to pass this bill, could that
encourage other groups to petition other programs to be
excluded from categorical flexibility in order to
preserve funding or ensure that programs continue to
operate as they did prior to 2008-09?
SUPPORT
Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District
Antelope Valley Math, Science, Engineering and Technology
Consortium
Ayres Hotel & Suites Ontario Convention Center
Baldy View Regional Occupational Program
Butte County Regional Occupational Program
California Agricultural Teachers' Association
California Association of Regional Occupational Centers and
Programs (sponsor)
California Business Education Association
California Manufacturers and Technology Association
Capistrano-Laguna Beach Regional Occupational Program
Chaffey Joint Union High School District
Coastline Regional Occupational Program
Contra Costa County ROP
East San Gabriel Valley Regional Occupational Program and
Technical Center
Eden Area Regional Occupational Program
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Fallbrook Union High School
Fresno Regional Occupational Program
Gateway Unified School District
Glenn County Office of Education, Regional Occupational
Program
Imperial Valley Regional Occupational Program
Metropolitan Education District
Mission Trails Regional Occupational Program
Mission Valley ROP
Napa County Office of Education's Regional Occupational
Program
North Kern Vocational Training Center
North Orange County Regional Occupational Program
Raptor Pharmaceutical Inc.
R�colte Energy
Regional Occupational Centers/Programs
Regional Occupational Programs of Mendocino County Office of
Education
San Bernardino County District Advocates for Better Schools
San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Regional
Occupational Program
San Joaquin County Office of Education
Santa Clara County Regional Occupational Program
Shasta-Trinity ROP
Small School Districts' Association
Southeast Regional Occupational Program
Southern California Regional Occupational Center
Timeline Media Productions
Tri-Valley Regional Occupational Center/Program
Valley Regional Occupational Program
Virtual Enterprise Programs/Specialized Entrepreneurship
Programs
Yolo County Office of Education, Regional Occupational
Program and Career Technical Education
Letters from various individuals
OPPOSITION
None on file of the current version of the bill.