Legislative Update: Updated CSBA positions and new legislation on local bonds, lease-leaseback
Published: May 4, 2016
View a full, current list of bills from the 2015-16 legislative session with an impact on education.
Assembly Bill 2429 (Thurmond, D-Richmond) – CSBA plans to actively support a bill introduced by Assemblymember Tony Thurmond that would allow school districts to generate greater local revenue to meet facilities needs by amending current restrictions on bond values. Existing law places a limit on bonds issued by school districts from exceeding a certain percentage of the value of local taxable property – the current limits are 1.25 percent of taxable property value on bonds issued by school or community college districts and 2.5 percent for unified school districts. AB 2429 would amend existing law to raise those limits to 2 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
Assembly Bill 2316 (O’Donnell, D-Long Beach) – CSBA is closely tracking the progress of Assemblymember O’Donnell’s bill addressing lease-leaseback processes – the bill was amended on April 26, and is scheduled to be heard by the Assembly Education Committee this week. CSBA has not adopted an official position on the bill, but is working with the author and with stakeholders to provide input. The bill would make amendments to current law related to solicitation of bids, contract awards and general protections for contractors who perform work on a contract, which may be later found to be invalid (what is known as “disgorgement”).
Assembly Bill 2410 (Bonta, D-Oakland) – This bill would enact what is known as the Local Control School Readiness Act of 2016, requiring the CDE to develop pre-K learning development guidelines, focused on preparing 4- and 5-year-old children for kindergarten, based on current science that reflects how publicly funded programs can close the school readiness gap. As originally written, the bill would also authorize an LEA, in partnership with community-based organizations, to apply to the State Board of Education for a waiver from the department’s Desired Results Quality Improvement/ Developmental Profile System. The bill has since been amended to remove the waiver provisions, allowing the recently-adopted DRDP process to evolve and generate important data on early education.
With the amendments having been made, CSBA has changed its position on the bill from “Oppose Unless Amended” to “Neutral.”
Assembly Bill 1719 (Rodriguez, D-Pomona) – As originally written, AB 1719 would require LEAs to provide high school students (grades 9-12) with instruction in performing CPR and in the use of automated external defibrillators as part of the requirement for graduation. CSBA proposed amendments to eliminate the graduation requirement, to integrate CPR and AED into the course of study for grades 7 through 12 and to clarify that instruction in CPR is specific to what is known as “compression only” CPR (which does not involve mouth-to-mouth resuscitation).
With the amendments having been made, CSBA has changed its position from “Support if Amended” to “Support.”
Assembly Bill 2212 (Harper, R-Huntington Beach) – This bill was written to amend provisions of existing law regarding suspensions for acts of cyber-bullying to include creation or transmission of a video within the definition of an “electronic act.” As originally written, the bill created a specific definition as to the content of a video, stating the definition as “including, but not limited to, a video or image of two or more pupils fighting that is posted to the Internet.” CSBA proposed amendments to simply include a video in the definition of an electronic act without a narrowed definition.
With the amendments having been made, CSBA has changed its position from “Support if Amended” to “Support.”