BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 923 (Pavley) - Educational Apprenticeships
Amended: April 9, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 8-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: April 28, 2014
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 923 establishes the Educational Apprenticeship
Innovation Prize (EdPrize), a competitive grant program awarding
funding to applicant school districts, county offices of
education (COEs), charter schools, and California community
colleges (CCCs) for purposes of promoting apprenticeships,
pre-apprenticeships, and career pathways.
Fiscal Impact:
Initial grants: Up to $2 million annually to fund the
maximum number of grants authorized in the bill: One
$750,000 grant per fiscal year; up to two $375,000 grants
per fiscal year; and up to four $125,000 grants per fiscal
year. This bill awards grants for a 5-year period; if the
first round of grants were fully awarded, the 5-year total
cost for those grants would be $10 million. The funding
source is unclear, and the bill allows for the use of state,
federal, and private funds.
Ongoing grants: Substantial ongoing costs, likely in the
millions to tens of millions of dollars. Every fiscal year,
to the extent funds are appropriated, the awarding committee
can grant $2 million in new awards, with a commitment to
giving those awardees an additional $8 million over the
subsequent 4 years. That funding is in addition to
continuing annual payments for 5-year awards granted in
previous years.
Program administration: Approximately $85,000 (General
Fund) in annual CDE costs to administer the program.
Background: 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
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training programs regardless of the geographical location of
their residence in a county or region. Existing law authorizes
the following types of ROCP operational models: county ROCP,
joint powers agency ROCP, and a single district ROCP.
(Education Code � 52301 et. seq.)
AB 86 (Committee on Budget), Ch. 48/2013, created the California
Career Pathways Trust and provided $250 million to school
districts, county superintendents, charter schools, and CCCs in
the form of one-time competitive grants. Grants are available
for K-14 career pathways programs that accomplish the following:
1) Fund specialists in work-based learning, as defined in
Section 51760.1 of the Education Code, to convene, connect,
measure, or broker efforts to establish or enhance a
locally defined career pathways program that connects
school districts, county superintendents of schools,
charter schools, and CCCs with business entities.
2) Establish regional collaborative relationships and
partnerships with business entities, community
organizations, and local institutions of postsecondary
education.
3) Develop and integrate standards-based academics with a
career-relevant, sequenced curriculum following
industry-themed pathways that are aligned to high-need,
high-growth, or emerging regional economic sectors.
4) Provide articulated pathways to postsecondary education
aligned with regional economies.
The Career Technical Education Pathways Program is established
in law until June 30, 2015, and requires the CCC Board of
Governors to assist economic and workforce regional development
centers and consortia, community colleges, including middle
schools, high schools, and ROCPs to improve linkages and CTE
pathways between high schools and CCCs. (EC � 88530 et. seq.)
Proposed Law: This bill enacts the Educational Apprenticeship
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Innovation Act, pursuant to which a competitive grant, known as
the EdPrize, would be awarded to applicant school districts,
COEs, charter schools, and CCCs for purposes of promoting
apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and career pathways among
local educational agencies, institutions of higher education,
and businesses of importance to local economies.
This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI) to convene a committee, with designated membership, to
establish criteria for awarding the EdPrize grants and
administer the program.
EdPrize grants are to be distributed over a 5-year period in the
following amounts: a) 1st place grant recipient: $750,000 per
fiscal year; b) up to two 2nd place grant recipients: $375,000
each, per fiscal year; c) up to four 3rd place grant recipients:
$125,000 each, per fiscal year. This bill requires the grants to
be used to support the instructional, material, labor,
regulatory, and administrative costs of the apprenticeship,
pre-apprenticeship, work-based learning, or educational pathway.
During the first fiscal year of allocation, the grants may be
used for planning purposes or to establish and formalize
partnerships among the applicant entities, local businesses, and
postsecondary educational institutions.
This bill specifies certain responsibilities of grant
recipients, including the formation of a committee to survey and
evaluate local skilled workforce needs, the employment of a
supervisor to evaluate business workforce needs and pupil
outcomes, and the submission of an annual report to the CDE, the
Senate Committee on Education, and the Assembly Committee on
Education annually during the lifetime of the grant.
This bill would make the Educational Apprenticeship Innovation
Act operative only in fiscal years for which funds have been
appropriated by the Legislature expressly for purposes of the
act, as provided.
Related Legislation: AB 86 (Committee on Budget) Ch. 48/2013,
established the California Career Pathways Trust and
appropriated $250 million in one-time competitive grants for its
purposes.
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SB 1070 (Steinberg), Ch. 433/2012, established the CTE Pathways
Program to improve linkages and career technical education
pathways between high schools and CCCs.
Staff Comments: This bill creates a new competitive grant
program within the CDE, to award 5-year EdPrize grants to
promote apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and career
pathways. The total cost of the bill largely depends on the
number of grants awarded and the number of years the program
continues; this bill does not contain a sunset date for the
grant program.
In order to implement this measure, the CDE would need to a.5
Education Programs Consultant position ($60,000) to establish
the grant program. Ostensibly, this could only occur after an
appropriation is made for the program. If that is the case,
grants will likely be made in the fiscal year following an
initial appropriation to the CDE, because the department will
need to convene the committee to determine evaluation criteria
and create the actual program, and then receive applications and
determine awardees. The CDE will need the .5 FTE ongoing to
administer the grant program, as well as approximately $25,000
in office support and travel expenses.
Once the program is established, this bill could incur
additional costs of up to $2 million in each fiscal year, to
fund the maximum number of grants authorized. Because this bill
specifies that grant amounts are annual over a 5-year period, it
is likely that in order to start the program, the SPI would
ensure a dedicated grant appropriation of $10 million to
fully-fund all 5 years of one round of awards issued. Otherwise,
there could be detrimental program effects for both grantees and
the department if there is unstable year-to-year funding for a
5-year grant.
Every fiscal year, to the extent funds are appropriated, the
awarding committee can grant $2 million in new awards, with a
commitment to giving those awardees their remaining $8 million
over the subsequent four years. So, annual costs will vary
depending on the number of cohorts of grantees active in any
given year. For example, if the full amount is awarded in
2016-17 and 2017-18, then in 2018-19 the CDE will pay out $4
million to existing grantees. That amount compounds with the
addition of new EdPrize grants.
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The funding source for this program is unknown. The bill allows
for the use of state (both General Fund and the Career Pathways
Trust Fund), federal, and private funds. Absent a clear funding
source, cost pressure is placed on the General Fund.