Legislative Update from CCAE President Mike Wada
On Friday, May 27, AB 189 successfully passed out of Assembly Appropriations. To quote Edmundo Cuevas, who is the Legislative Director for Assemblyman Mike Eng, "I am writing to notify you that AB 189 passed out of the Assembly Committee on Appropriation Suspense File on a B-Roll Call. B Roll Call means it had Democratic members in support and Republican members in opposition. The amendments require the State Department of Education to establish a categorical flexibility account. I will get more details on the amendments next week."
For us, the important issue is that the separate public hearing requirement remains intact. In addition, fees could be charged for ESL and citizenship during flexibility. Remembering that there was a requirement for school districts to report to CDE how much they took from each categorical, Appropriations tweaked the process with what Edmundo described in order to avoid creating further costs for districts.
Bottom line is that AB 189 moves to the Assembly floor next week. We do not know what day or time the bill will come up for a vote. Our lobbyist, Craig Brown, is working in the background. The field now needs to contact their specific Assembly member to urge them to vote for AB 189. I have attached a sample letter that was done for the Appropriations committee. Select one or two elements to focus on for your letter. Do not delay. We need the support letters in Sacramento as soon as possible.
Adult education remains a hot topic in the Legislature. Sunshining what we do in Assembly Education, Assembly Appropriations, and now the full Assembly is educating policymakers as to how we impact California. We have picked up supporters from civil rights groups, business and industry, and teacher unions. We are a step away from moving over to the State Senate.
Sacramento , CA 95814
Regarding AB 18 (Brownley), CCAE took an “oppose unless amended” position earlier this month. The bill will go to the Assembly floor, probably this week. The letter below explains CCAE’s position, the rationale, and what CCAE requests.
It is important that you let your Assembly person know your feelings. If AB 189 passes, AB 18 would not only undo the effects but actually put us into a more precarious position.
May 31, 2011
Hon. Julia Brownley AB
State Assembly Assembly Floor
State Capitol
Dear Assembly Member Brownley:
The California Council for Adult Education (CCAE) has reviewed your AB 18, as amended on May 27, and must respectfully take a position of opposition to the bill unless it is amended to move adult education into the career technical education block grant.
AB 18 makes a number of changes to the school finance methodology including changing approximately 26 categorical programs to be to each school district in a discretionary fund in addition to the base revenue limit. The bill also establishes new block grants that are targeted for specific populations of students. The bill will take effect at the end of the current statutory period authorizing categorical flexibility.
CCAE has one requested amendment and several concerns. First, the bill currently allows programs like regional occupation programs/centers and partnership academies to stand alone because they are focused on career technical education. CCAE supports the focus on CTE and would urge you to amend AB 18 to include adult education program funding in this CTE block grant.
Like these other programs, adult education is targeted at the skills adults need to get jobs and to improve career opportunities. Adult education programs target poor adults whose primary language is not English. We provide ESL skills, Adult Basic Educaiton, graduation requirement and entry level CTE courses. In California
CCAE also has two key concerns that we would like to raise that are associated with the movement of these 26 categorical programs into a discretionary fund, First, the adult education apportionment of almost $650 million goes to fewer than 300 of the state’s 1000 school districts. Beyond that, there are only 62 adult programs that receive funding based on serving more than 1000 ADA ADA , with Los Angeles Unified School District receiving over 70,000 worth of ADA
Second, CCAE is concerned that the changes to school finance in AB 18 will make it more difficult to begin to restore programs and services to students that have been cut over the last several years. In it is current form, AB 18 will make very large sums of funding available for
collective bargaining. While CCAE supports collective bargaining, we are concerned that the discretionary revenues similar to revenue limits will push local boards into choosing salary increases for existing employees over the prioritization of program and service restorations. CCAE believes that program restoration, the rehiring of counselors, teacher librarians, classroom aids and adult education teachers should be the highest priority once Prop 98 funding increases. In this regard, the bill would result in billions of dollars in discretionary revenue that will differ widely between districts. CCAE does not believe this is the best approach to addressing the future of K-12 funding.
For these reasons, CCAE must respectfully oppose AB 18 unless it is amended. If you would like to discuss these issues further please contact me.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Frost
CCAE legislative Advocate
cc: Members of the Assembly
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