UndertheDome: Status of CSBA-sponsored bills

Few new bills have been introduced so far this year, and most two-year bills from last year have died in appropriations committees due to the budget crisis. Some CSBA-sponsored bills are still pending, and new ones are in the process of being introduced.

The following is an update of CSBA’s sponsored or co-sponsored bills as of mid-February.

AB 100 (Mullin, D-South San Francisco) Education facilities: Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2008
This bill would express legislative intent to enact a Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2008, to be operative only if approved by voters in the November general election. The act would authorize more than $9 billion of state general obligation bonds to aid school districts, county superintendents of schools, county boards of education, state community colleges, the University of California and the California State University system in constructing and modernizing education facilities.

Status: Passed out of the Assembly Floor on a 44-29 vote; now pending in the Senate

AB 925 (Hancock, D-Berkeley) School accountability: Proficiency
This bill would request the University of California to conduct a study to research the meaning of the term “proficiency” in California and other states and recommend a definition of that term to the Legislature, the state Board of Education and the superintendent of public instruction for purposes of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and the state Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999. The SBE would be required to consider adopting the definition of proficiency recommended by the University of California by July 1, 2009, and to report the accountability data to the U.S. Department of Education by Jan. 1, 2010.

Status: Senate Appropriations Committee

AB 1872 (Coto, D-San Jose) Special education: Autism spectrum disorders: Clearinghouse
This bill would establish the California Autism Spectrum Disorders Clearinghouse within the state Department of Education to provide evidence-based information and practices regarding the education of pupils with autism spectrum disorders.

Status: Assembly Education Committee

AB 1885 (Nava, D-Santa Barbara) Pupil Instruction: Intensive instruction and services
Existing law specifies funding for eligible pupils who have failed one or both parts of the California High School Exit Exam by the end of grade 12 to receive intensive instruction to help them pass the CAHSEE for up to two years beyond 12th grade. This bill would specify that eligible pupils who are enrolled in those intensive instruction programs shall not be counted as dropouts for purposes of specified data collection requirements.

Status: Assembly Education Committee

SB 1003 (Romero, D-Los Angeles) Instructional materials
This bill would require the state Board of Education to annually solicit, during the period when it is reviewing submitted instructional materials for adoption, recommendations from school districts regarding the adoption of standards-aligned instructional materials. The SBE would be required to adopt instructional materials recommended by a school district or county office of education unless it makes written factual findings that the instructional materials lack certain specified criteria.

Status: Assembly Appropriations Committee

The following are sponsored or co-sponsored bills that have failed to meet legislative deadlines, and are considered dead for the year. These bills fell victim to the state’s budget crisis and were held in the appropriations committees due to cost.

AB 366 (Wolk, D-Davis) School finance: Declining enrollment
This bill would have expressed the intent of the Legislature to revise the existing calculation of average daily attendance related to school districts experiencing a decline in enrollment. CSBA will continue to work with a broad coalition of education groups, legislative staff and the administration to develop a formula that will provide greater protection for declining enrollment districts.

AB 694 (Wolk, D-Davis) Home-to-school transportation: Funding
This bill would have increased the transportation allowance of each eligible school district or county office of education under a specified formula using funds appropriated in the Budget Act of 2007 or other statute and in the annual Budget Act or other legislation enacted in each fiscal year thereafter. This bill would have equalized and provided increased funding for home-to-school transportation, subject to an appropriation in the Budget Act or other legislation.

AB 835 (Krekorian, D-Burbank) School districts: Declining enrollment
This bill would have provided additional relief for declining enrollment districts, beyond the one-year adjustment provided in current law, by providing for a multiyear phase-out of funding for districts that experience consecutive years of declining enrollment. CSBA will continue to work with a broad coalition of education groups, legislative staff and the administration to develop a formula that will provide greater protection for declining enrollment districts.

AB 1609 (Leno, D-San Francisco) Charter schools
This bill would have authorized school district governing boards to deny a charter petition if the proposed charter fails to address one or more of the legislative objectives for charters listed in Education Code Section 47601 (one of which is to “increase learning opportunities for all pupils”). Further, it would have restricted the ability of the state Board of Education to authorize statewide benefit charter schools.

The status of other CSBA-sponsored or co-sponsored bills or joint resolutions is:

• AB 1281 (Soto, D-Pomona) Charter schools: Vetoed 2007
• AB 1379 (Brownley, D-Santa Monica) High schools: requirements for graduation: Vetoed 2007
• AJR 23 (Hancock, D-Berkeley) No Child Left Behind Act of 2001: Status: Chapter No. 125, Statutes of 2007
• SJR 3 (Aanestad, R-Grass Valley) Federal Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000: Chapter No. 97, Statutes of 2007

Related link: Find updates on CSBA’s positions on current legislation @ www.csba.org/LegislationAndLegal.aspx