Under the Dome: Governor completes action on education bills 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed 910 bills in 2006 and vetoed 262, including numerous education bills. The following bills that CSBA had a position on were signed by the governor.

AB 385 (Lieber) School districts: Parcel taxes—exemptions
This bill allows local governments, including school districts, to exempt persons receiving Supplemental Security Income for a disability, regardless of their age, from paying qualified special taxes, such as parcel taxes.
CSBA Position: Support

AB 1758 (Umberg) High Priority Schools Grant Program
This bill addresses two provisions of the High Priority Schools Grant Program (HPSGP), establishing (1) exit criteria for schools implementing the program and (2) funding rates for participating schools that are assigned School Assistance and Intervention Teams. This bill also appropriates $4.1 million in federal funds for school districts to provide assistance to their schools that have been identified for Program Improvement under the No Child Left Behind Act.
CSBA Position: Support

AB 2254 (Goldberg) Low-performing schools: Grant programs
This bill aligns state and federal accountability programs—HPSGP and Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program and NCLB and Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program—by consolidating language and applying the same timelines and procedures for schools that are state-monitored or subject to corrective action. The bill also phases out II/USP.
CSBA Position: Support

AB 2448 (Hancock) Regional Occupational Centers and Programs: Administration
This bill makes changes to the requirements for Regional Occupational Centers and Programs, including limiting the number of adults that they can serve. The bill also implements several recommendations from a 2005 Legislative Analyst’s Office report on improving high schools, such as refocusing ROCP services to high school students and ensuring the courses are part of occupational course sequences.
CSBA opposed this bill because the state Department of Education is currently reviewing the newly reauthorized Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 to determine what changes will be needed in both the state’s plan and state statute. Until this process has been completed, CSBA believes it is inappropriate to tie the hands of local districts to state mandates that may exceed the federal mandate that is providing the funding.

AB 2684 (Montanez) Pupils: Insurance for athletic teams
This bill requires school districts to provide information on state or locally sponsored no- or low-cost health insurance programs to students who participate in athletics or are members of the school band or cheer squads. This information could be included in notices they already send to students. Current law requires all students who participate in such activities to have insurance coverage prior to their participation in these extracurricular activities. Schools typically offer insurance coverage through brokers to meet this requirement for students who are not already covered.
CSBA Position: Support

AB 2722 (Canciamilla) Instructional materials: Adoption
This bill prohibits the state Board of Education from adopting instructional materials in language arts or mathematics for the same grade level in successive years. This addresses a structural problem that exists in the current state-level adoption process, when materials for the same grade level for English language arts and mathematics are adopted back-to-back. While the separation won’t occur for the upcoming adoptions, it will affect textbook adoptions beginning in 2013-14.
CSBA Position: Support

AB 2871 (Huff) Pupil records: Inspection and reproduction
This bill requires that copies of all school records be provided within five business days of a request by a parent or their legal representative, instead of the current five calendar days.
CSBA Position: Support

AB 2951 (Goldberg) Capital facilities fees
This bill changes the way in which capital facilities fees are assessed by public utilities on government agency customers, including school districts and county offices of education. The bill also defines capital facilities fees in a manner that would allow certain facilities costs to be unilaterally imposed on local education and other government agencies.
CSBA opposed this bill because, unlike private-sector investor-owned utilities, which are subject to regulation by the Public Utilities Commission, there is no third-party oversight body to monitor the rate-setting process of municipal utilities and no formal process for public agency customers to challenge fees imposed. Specifically, the new changes in Government Code Section 54999.7(a) exempt electricity and gas utilities from (1) setting rates based on “the same objective criteria and methodology applicable to comparable nonpublic users” and (2) charging fees that do not exceed the reasonable cost of providing service. Any protection provided in current law is destroyed by the redefinition of the term “capital facilities fee.” Schools should not be provided any less protection than other customers simply because they receive electricity or gas from a municipal utility.

SB 368 (Escutia) English language tutoring
This bill extends the Community Based English Tutoring (CBET) program and adds certain requirements for school districts that receive funds, including that a local plan be developed and approved by the governing board. The CBET program was authorized for 10 years by Proposition 227 to provide free or subsidized programs of adult English language instruction to parents and other members of the community who pledge to provide personal English language tutoring to English learners.
CSBA Position: Support

SB 562 (Torlakson) Physical education: California Interscholastic Federation
This bill extends the sunset of the statute governing the California Interscholastic Federation to Jan. 1, 2012. CIF is charged with overseeing and regulating interscholastic athletics among the state’s high schools.
CSBA Position: Support

SB 933 (Machado) Teacher credentialing: District interns
This bill reinstates a pilot program that authorizes the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to issue district intern credentials to participating teachers to provide instruction to pupils with disabilities in special education classes. The program was inadvertently ended in 2004.
CSBA Position: Support

SB 1292 (Scott) Teachers: Limited-English-proficient pupils
This bill enables individuals holding a designated subject credential or services credential with a special class authorization to obtain an authorization to teach English learners by completing professional development in methods of specifically designed content instruction to teach English to limited-English-proficient students. This applies to teachers in adult education programs, regional occupational programs and career and technical education instructors.
CSBA Position: Support

SB 1303 (Runner) Pupils: concurrent enrollment: High school, community college
This bill deletes the requirement that seven different criteria must be met in order to exempt a student from the cap on the number who may attend community colleges and provides, instead, that only one of the criteria needs to be met.
CSBA Position: Support

SB 1324 (Lowenthal) School buildings: Relocatable buildings
This bill extends the sunset date on the use of owned or leased relocatable buildings as a school building if approved by the Department of Housing and Community Development until Sept. 30, 2015, if certain conditions are met. The bill requires that the relocatable building now be anchored to the ground to resist earthquake and wind loads and that the school district has certified compliance to the Department of General Services.
CSBA Position: Support

SB 1442 (Escutia) Schools: Examination fees
This bill extends the sunset date to January 2013 on the program that awards grants to students to cover the costs of advanced placement exams and expands it to include the cost of International Baccalaureate exams.
CSBA Position: Support

SB 1655 (Scott) Teachers: Voluntary transfers
This bill prohibits a superintendent from transferring a teacher who requests to be transferred to a school ranked in deciles 1-3 on the Academic Performance Index if the principal of the school refuses to accept the transfer. This bill also prohibits the governing board of a school district from adopting a policy or regulation, or entering into a collective bargaining agreement, that gives priority to a teacher who requests a transfer to another school over the qualified applicants to the school.
CSBA opposed this bill because it infringes on local control and ties the hands of school district decision-making as it relates to the hiring and placement of teachers. Hampering the process even more, this bill would strip authority away from a superintendent by prohibiting superintendents from placing a teacher who volunteers to teach at a high priority school without the consent of the site administrator. While principals should be involved in the assignment and hiring of teachers at their school, they should not have carte blanche veto power over the superintendent. This measure puts too much control in the hands of principals and restricts the control that the district office has over district functions.

SB 1710 (Ackerman) California American Indian Education Center Program
This bill makes several changes to the California Indian Education Center Program. Specifically, the bill changes the prescribed reporting duties of the centers, limits administrative costs that can be claimed by the CDE to 7 percent and extends the sunset on the program to Jan. 1, 2012.
CSBA Position: Support

SB 1814 (Torlakson) CEQA: Schools
This bill allows for a comprehensive approach to completing California Environmental Quality Act requirements by incorporating an analysis with a city’s master plan. Many school districts have to pay exorbitant costs for completing an Environmental Impact Report. In addition, many EIRs are completed by the city government at the same time as the school district. Therefore, many districts are paying for a report that has already been completed by another government agency.
CSBA Position: Support

Vetoed bills
The governor vetoed the following bills:

AB 1076 (Horton, Jerome) Curriculum: Social science
CSBA Position: Support

AB 1778 (Lieber) Pupil records: Release of information—military recruiters
CSBA Position: Support

AB 1857 (Garcia) Teacher credentialing: Internship programs
CSBA Position: Support

AB 1950 (Lieu) Instruction: Economics
CSBA Position: Support

AB 2115 (Hancock) Instruction: The California Career Technical Education Coordinating Council
CSBA Position: Support

AB 2148 (McCarthy) School facilities: Supplemental funding—project management assistance
CSBA Position: Support

AB 2531 (Mullin) Education finance
CSBA Position: Support

AB 2937 (Pavley) Pupils: High school exit examination
CSBA Position: Support

AB 2975 (Hancock) Public schools: State and federal accountability
CSBA Position: Support

SB 1193 (Bowen) Pupil attendance: Precinct board membership
CSBA Position: Support

SB 1533 (Scott) Paraprofessional teachers
CSBA Position: Support

SB 1575 (Dunn) Curriculum: Human rights—unconstitutional deportation
CSBA Position: Support if amended to defer any changes to a review by the Curriculum Commission

SB 1674 (Murray) Public schools: Meal reimbursement
CSBA Position: Support

SB 1680 (Perata) School finance: Attendance and enrollment
CSBA Position: Support

SB 1769 (Escutia) Instructional materials
CSBA Position: Support

CSBA-sponsored bills
Four CSBA-sponsored or co-sponsored bills passed the Legislature but received mixed reviews from the governor.

AB 2513 (Pavley) Pupils: autism: training and information
This bill requires the state superintendent of public instruction to convene an advisory committee to help public and nonpublic schools, including charter schools, serve the educational needs of students with autism.
Status: Signed by the governor

AB 2954 (Liu) School districts: charter school petitions
This bill would have allowed the governing board of a school district to deny a charter school petition if the board adopted a formal finding that the charter would have a negative fiscal impact on the school district where it is located. The bill would have also authorized the governing board of a school district to require that a charter petition describe the method by which the charter school would provide free and reduced-price meals to eligible students.
Status: Vetoed because the governor believed “in essence, this bill would grant school districts the authority to punish charter petitioners because of problems caused by their own fiscal management issues or their unwillingness to make tough decisions, or both.”

SB 696 (Escutia) Instructional materials
This bill would have reinstituted the split for instructional materials funding that allowed a district to use up to 30 percent of its funding on materials that were not on the state Board of Education’s adopted list but which were aligned to state academic content standards and legally and socially compliant.
Status: Vetoed because the governor believed “California’s current standards-aligned textbook adoption process ensures that classroom curriculum is rigorous and research-based.”

SB 1446 (Perata) Charter schools: funding
This bill addresses issues related to the impact of charter schools on districts experiencing declining enrollment. Beginning in 2007-08, districts will be allowed to base their adjustments to the declining enrollment formula on the net loss in average daily attendance to charter schools; districts lack this protection under the current formula when students move back and forth.
Status: Signed by the governor

Related link:
For more information on these bills, go to www.csba.org/gr/index.cfm