Legislative Update: Charter schools bill held in rules committee; Prop 30 extension polling well
Published: April 27, 20164/27/2016
Senate Bill 1434 Charter schools — SB 1434 (Glazer, D-Orinda), a bill that would expand the powers of the State Board of Education over charter schools issues and create a costly new state-level grievance process, remains in the Senate Rules Committee and was not heard prior to the April 22 deadline for policy committees to hear fiscal bills. The author will not be moving the bill. It is possible that the sponsors of the bill, the California Charter Schools Association, may attempt to find another bill to amend all or parts of SB 1434 into during the 2016 session.
Detailed information was shared with members about this bill when it was introduced in February. CSBA members followed up by sharing numerous concerns about the local governance implications of the bill with legislators, including in meetings held at the Capitol during
Legislative Action Day on March 15.
Proposition 30/ School Facilities Bond Measures – The Public Policy Institute of California has released
new polling data on 2016 ballot measures, including the proposed extension of the income tax portion of Proposition 30, and the proposed $9 billion school facilities bond. PPIC’s numbers indicate that 60 percent of likely voters believe that current funding levels for education are inadequate. As such, 62 percent of likely voters favor the proposed 12-year extension of the Proposition 30 tax provisions on those earning more than $250,000 per year, which would fund education and healthcare – this measure has not yet qualified for the ballot and is still gathering signatures. 63 percent of likely voters also favor the already qualified $9 billion school facilities bond, sponsored by the Coalition for Adequate School Housing and California Building Industry Association, which would devote $7 billion to K-12 new facilities construction and modernization.
There have been concerns that the inclusion of the facilities bond on the same ballot would hurt the chances of a Proposition 30 extension winning voter approval – PPIC’s numbers indicate that those fears are not materializing. CSBA’s Delegate Assembly will be adopting positions on these and other ballot measures at its May meeting.
Senate Bill 1249 School finance/ reserve cap – SB 1249 was authored by Sen. Bates (R-Laguna Niguel) as an outright repeal of the provisions in budget trailer bill Senate Bill 858 from 2014, which created the school district reserve cap. CSBA testified in support of the bill, which failed to pass the Senate Education Committee on April 20 and will not advance in 2016. More significantly, the CSBA-sponsored
Senate Bill 799 (Hill & Glazer), which would fix the reserve cap, remains an active bill and is in the Assembly Rules Committee – it can be heard by the Legislature in 2016.
Assembly Bill 2517 Voting age – AB 2517 (Thurmond, D-Richmond), a bill which would allow California’s 121 charter cities to propose amending their charter to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in school board member elections, remains in the Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting. After a lengthy discussion with members of the Committee, the author has withdrawn the bill. It is unlikely to be heard again before the May 6 deadline for policy committees to report non-fiscal bills to the floor. CSBA opposes the bill on several grounds – in particular, it has the potential to alter the electorate for an entire school district even if the district only partially crosses boundaries with a charter city that exercises this option.
Assembly Constitutional Amendment 7 (Gonzalez, D-San Diego), which would lower the voting age for school district and community college board elections to 16 statewide, remains in the Assembly, but has not been referred to any policy committees. As an amendment to the state constitution, the measure would require a two-thirds vote in both houses to pass, and would then be sent to the statewide ballot for voter approval. CSBA has taken a “support if amended” position on this measure, and will seek amendments to expand the scope to apply to all statewide candidates and ballot measures, not just to school board elections.
Review a
list of all bills CSBA is tracking throughout the 2015-16 legislative session.