CSBA rolls out its legislative agenda for 2007

Fiscal and regulatory issues affecting school districts and county offices of education lead a lengthy list of legislative priorities that guide the work of CSBA’s Governmental Relations Department. The 2007 legislative agenda approved by CSBA’s Executive Committee in San Francisco Nov. 27 includes efforts to remedy the effects of declining enrollment, broaden the measures of eligibility for a high school diploma and better serve students with autism, as well as other issues.

Declining enrollment
Nearly half of the state’s public school districts are enrolling fewer students than they had in previous years. Small and rural districts have struggled with declining enrollment for years, and now the phenomenon is also affecting larger, urban districts as well. Meanwhile, unified districts face a related challenge driven by demography—many are experiencing a decline in their elementary populations at the same time their high school enrollment is rising. Services for high school students cost an estimated 20 percent to 27 percent more than those for elementary students, imposing an even greater financial hardship on those districts.

In the 2007-08 legislative session, CSBA will once again partner with the California Declining Enrollment Coalition to sponsor legislation that would help districts with this problem. Last year CSBA and CDEC co-sponsored Senate Bill 958, which would have modified current law by allowing districts to claim either the average daily attendance of the current year or an average of the three prior years, whichever is greater. In 2007, CSBA will reintroduce this measure and will continue to seek other means to provide general protection for declining enrollment districts, as well as to look at other legal factors that discriminate against or unfairly penalize declining enrollment districts. The Governmental Relations Department will be asking school districts for examples of the problems and potential solutions.

CAHSEE reform
Studies show that states with high-stakes exit exams have lower high school graduation rates and lower SAT scores. CSBA believes the California High School Exit Exam should be one of several measures used to determine eligibility for graduation, and it will back legislative efforts to develop and implement a multiple-measure approach.
California is one of only eight states that require passage of an exit exam as a condition of receiving a high school diploma, according to a recent report from Stanford University. Nineteen other states have exit exams, but they are used as only one of many indicators of student learning, such as locally developed performance tests, final course examinations, grade point averages and student portfolios.

Students with autism
In 2006, CSBA, the California Association of Suburban School Districts and the Association of California School Administrators successfully co-sponsored legislation establishing an advisory committee to develop recommendations on how schools can better serve students with autism. The committee’s report is due Nov. 1.

CSBA’s partnership with CASSD and ACSA will continue this year as the groups consider co-sponsoring additional legislation to provide training and information to help schools, districts and county offices address the needs of autistic children. Preschool programs for autistic children may also be included, as these programs have been shown to potentially reduce education costs farther down the road.

Other issues
Additional topics on CSBA’s state legislative agenda for 2007 include:

• allowing local governing boards to deny charter petitions based on a negative impact the proposed charter would have on other students in the district
• continuing to pursue teacher tenure reform
• exploring ways to address the State Teachers Retirement System’s unfunded liability
• developing a school facilities bond for 2008
• investigating models for reform of the state’s voter initiative process
• redefining “proficient” for the purposes of the federal No Child Left Behind Act

NCLB’s reauthorization process will dominate Governmental Relations activities at the federal level. CSBA has initiated phase 2 of its Fix NCLB campaign and is working closely with other education associations to influence the debate in Washington, D.C. Planning is also under way for participation in the National School Boards Association’s Federal Relations Network conference in Washington Jan. 28-30 and for CSBA’s own Federal Issues Council trip to the nation’s capital March 11-14.