Under the Dome: Education bills’ status

Summer recess for the state Legislature—assuming there is one, given the budget impasse at press time—is scheduled to end August 19. The legislative recess is an opportune time for school board members and administrators to cultivate their relationships with their legislators and staff and to inform them on education issues. This recap, including the committees where the bills remained at press time, can help.

CSBA sponsored or co-sponsored bills:

AB 925 (Hancock, D-Berkeley) School accountability: Proficiency

As amended on June 26, this bill would request the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing to research the meaning of the term “proficiency” in California and other states and to recommend a definition for the Legislature, the state Board of Education, and the superintendent of public instruction as the term applies to the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The state board would be required to consider adopting the definition of “proficiency” recommended by CRESST.

Senate Appropriations Committee

AB 1281 (Soto, D-Pomona) Charter schools

This bill would require charter school petitioners to provide a description of how the school intends to serve students with disabilities and a description of the qualifications and planned professional development of school administrators and teachers for serving these special student populations.

Senate Appropriations Committee

AB 1379 (Brownley, D-Santa Monica) High schools: Requirements for graduation

This bill would augment the current California High School Exit Exam by using a multiple-measures approach to determine if a student should be given a high school diploma.

Senate Appropriations Committee

AJR 23 (Hancock, D-Berkeley) No Child Left Behind Act: Reauthorization

This measure would ask Congress to amend NCLB to give states more flexibility in implementation of the law and in the identification of schools in need of improvement. The goal is to target resources and interventions toward those schools and school districts that are most in need, to permit measures of adequate yearly progress to accommodate a range of accountability models, and to respect parental choice. The bill would also call for full funding of requirements tied to NCLB.

Up for second reading in the Senate

SB 1003 (Romero, D-Los Angeles) Instructional materials

This bill would require the state Board of Education to adopt elementary-level instructional materials recommended by a school district or county office of education unless it finds the instructional materials lack certain specified criteria.

Assembly Appropriations Committee

SJR 3 (Aanestad, R-Grass Valley) Federal Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000: Extension

This bill calls upon Congress to reauthorize and fund the federal Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000.

Passed and now in effect

Other bills of interest:

AB 1403 (Arambula, D-Fresno) Local educational agencies: Administration

This bill would establish the Central Valley District Improvement Pilot Program, authorizing a Central Valley county superintendent of schools to assume additional responsibilities for overseeing academic success. This bill would mandate that school districts in Fresno and Tulare counties participate if selected by the county superintendent.

Up for second reading in the Senate

CSBA position: Oppose.

Note: As of press time, AB 1403 passed out of the Senate Education Committee on a 6-2 vote and will be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee. School board members and administrators are encouraged to contact their local legislators to stop AB 1403 from passing out of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

AB 1591 (Ma, D-San Francisco) The Corporation Tax Law: Allocation and apportionment

This bill would allow corporations that have employees, sales or property outside of California (as well as within California) to elect to use an alternative formula for determining the amount of taxes owed to California. The Franchise Tax Board estimates that the bill would result in general fund revenue losses of $550 million in 2007-08, $1.3 billion in 2008-09 and $1.95 billion in 2009-10. This bill would reduce school funding by hundreds of millions of dollars by reducing total revenue to the state general fund.

Assembly Revenue and Tax Committee

CSBA position: Oppose

Related link:

Find updates on CSBA’s positions on current legislation @ www.csba.org/gr

The Assembly adopted a state budget as this issue of California School News was going to press.
For the latest budget news from an education perspective, log on to www.csba.org