CSBA sponsoring 2018 bills to increase LCFF funding, bolster college attendance

legislative

CSBA has signed on as a co-sponsor of three K-12 education bills — two of which are authored by former governing board members.

Assembly Bill 2808

AB 2808, authored by former Torrance Unified School District board member Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance), would identify anticipated growth in the Proposition 98 guarantee and direct it toward the Local Control Funding Formula with the intent of moving California toward the national average of $12,526 in per-pupil funding. This same mechanism was employed when LCFF was first adopted in 2013.

“CSBA is very excited to co-sponsor this bill, and we certainly appreciate Assemblymember Muratsuchi’s leadership on bringing a much-needed increase to LCFF targets,” said CSBA President Mike Walsh. “This bill is an important step in moving California toward the national average in per-pupil funding and aligns with CSBA’s ultimate goal of full and fair funding for education.”

AB 2808 would not change the actual formula itself, but would substantially adjust the base grant targets upward to $11,799 for average daily attendance in kindergarten and grades 1-3, $11,975 for grades 4-6, $12,332 for grades 7 and 8 and $14,289 for grades 9-12. Utilizing the Legislative Analyst Office’s fiscal projections, barring a recession and assuming the only new investment in K-12 funding is provided by the Proposition 98 guarantee, the new funding target is anticipated to be reached in five to seven years.

In addition to CSBA’s sponsored disaster relief legislation for local educational agencies affected by the 2017 wildfires (AB 2228, Wood, D-Healdsburg), introduced in the March California School News, CSBA is sponsoring three additional 2018 bills.

Two hundred school district and county board members urged “aye” votes for AB 2808 in more than 100 meetings with California Senators and Assemblymembers and their staff at the Capitol during CSBA’s Legislative Action Day, held on March 13. AB 2808 is aligned with CSBA’s Full and Fair Funding efforts, calling on the Legislature to raise school funding in California to the national average by 2020 and to the average of the top 10 states by 2025.

More information — including a report on education funding in California and sample resolution language — is available at www.csba.org/FullandFairFunding.

Assembly Bill 1951

AB 1951, authored by Assembly Education Committee Chair Patrick O’Donnell (D-Long Beach) and co-sponsored by CSBA, is also known as the Pathways to College Act. The bill endeavors to bolster college attendance by providing greater access to college entrance exams for many students who may not otherwise take the tests on their own. The bill would grant LEAs the flexibility to administer an approved alternative assessment (i.e., the SAT or ACT) for 11th-grade students in place of the Smarter Balanced Summative Test in English language arts and mathematics, if that alternate test is approved by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Several California school districts have already begun administering college entrance exams to 11th-grade pupils free of charge — and offering these tests during the school day removes a barrier to college attendance for many students who may not have access to them.

Assembly Bill 3149

AB 3149 by former Santa Barbara USD trustee Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) aims to bring much-needed relief to school districts as the teacher shortage persists, and in situations where a teacher’s leave runs longer than expected. Current law states that permitted substitute teachers may serve for no more than 30 days for any one teacher during the school year, which can have a negative impact on the quality and continuity of instruction for students in situations where teachers have long absences and new substitutes are cycled through a classroom.

Co-sponsored by CSBA, AB 3149 would allow a substitute to serve in the classroom until the teacher of record returns to work, and would also allow a one-year renewal of either the Provisional Intern Permit or the Short Term Staff Permit when a teacher’s leave extends into the following school year. Demand for these permit holders is supported by recent data from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing that shows the volume of PIPs and STSPs has risen from 162 and 686 in 2011–12 to 1,279 and 2,777 in 2015–16, respectively.

For more information on CSBA’s sponsored bills and other key 2018 legislation, visit www.csba.org/legislativenews.

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