Legislature
California’s persistent housing crisis threatens the quality of TK-12 education, as high housing costs discourage potential educators from joining the profession and cause many to exit prematurely. The resulting staffing shortages and high attrition rates create instability in schools and undermine instruction and student support, particularly in high-need schools where turnover is the greatest.
Every county in California has school-owned land suitable for education workforce housing and, collectively own 10,900 properties on more than 150,000 acres of land, roughly half of which could support workforce housing. Crucially, 61 percent of these properties are located where entry-level teachers face housing affordability challenges, but regulations and red tape are preventing or slowing efforts to convert excess property.
“Too many teachers and school staff cannot afford to live near the schools where they work,” said Muratsuchi, chair of the Assembly Education Committee. “LEAs have a unique advantage in developing housing because they already own land in the communities they serve. AB 1021 makes it easier to use underutilized LEA land to build affordable housing for the education workforce.”
By easing administrative and bureaucratic hurdles, AB 1021 will help LEAs more readily construct housing to address the school staffing crisis and better serve California’s students. Specifically, AB 1021 would build upon landmark education workforce legislation AB 2295 (2022) to ensure that small and rural school districts and COEs can take advantage of this opportunity, provide TK-12 schools with the same California Environmental Quality Act exemptions already granted to affordable housing projects, incentivize the development of workforce housing close to transit stops and enhance existing affordability provisions in AB 2295.
“Good teachers and school support staff have an incredible impact on both the student experience and the post-scholastic outcomes for our children,” said CSBA President Dr. Bettye Lusk. “So, if we have the means to retain more high-quality employees — and change lives — by better utilizing assets we already control, it only makes sense for the state to facilitate this approach.”
One of CSBA’s priority policy areas, and a focal point of the upcoming Coast2Coast federal advocacy event in Washington, D.C. from April 28-30, received a significant boost when the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) Reauthorization Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 14.
The bill, HR 1383, provides critical revenue for LEAs with boundaries that include tax-exempt national forest land. Failure to renew the SRS would reduce the funding rural communities receive for schools and also cut payments to county governments for roads and other local programs.
Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-California), whose district covers most of the state’s northern interior, is sponsoring the bill, which would provide about $250 million a year for schools and infrastructure in more than 700 rural counties disproportionately located in Western states like California. While that number may seem modest compared to large, urban school district budgets, SRS provides a financial lifeline for some rural LEAs where even one staff position can have a meaningful impact on student experience and achievement. Funding is scheduled to run out in mid-March, which could result in programmatic cuts, deferred maintenance, service reductions and layoffs at schools.
CSBA has advocated for the SRS since its inception and aggressively pursued renewal every time it neared expiration, even proposing extending the period between renewals to provide greater transparency and stability for the funding of local schools. This advocacy has resulted in growing appreciation for the value of SRS, as evidenced by the bipartisan support it generated the last time it was introduced in Congress.
A Senate version of SRS was introduced in January by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), which is supported by an eclectic group of senators including Josh Hawley (R- Missouri), Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and other legislators who often find themselves on opposite sides of an issue. Yet, the critical debate on SRS will take place in the House, where the previous version of the bill collapsed under the weight of new funding rules established by Republican leadership that restrict the passage of bills that don’t have a defined revenue source in the federal budget to pay for them.
Dr. Bettye Lusk, president, CSBA
Attendees at Coast2Coast will have the opportunity to express their support for this issue directly to policymakers in Washington, D.C. A major obstacle for passage of the Secure Rural Schools Act is that its biggest beneficiaries typically live in the West, far removed the nation’s capital where they are not easily able to advocate in person for its renewal.