Dream Act sent to governor
Lawmakers also act on other ed bills
And they’re off! Bills flew through the senate and assembly chambers as lawmakers wrapped up as much business as possible before leaving for summer recess on Thursday afternoon. When they return on August 15th, the docket will still be full, but the fate of some key education bills is coming into sharper focus. Here’s where they stand.
Civil and Equal Rights
AB 130 and AB 131: California Dream Act of 2011
Assemblyman Gil Cedillo
The state senate passed and sent to Gov. Brown the first of two Dream Act bills by Assemblyman Cedillo allowing some undocumented college students to apply for private scholarships at California’s state colleges and universities.
None of this money comes from the state budget; it’s from private donors who establish scholarships administered through UC, Cal State and community colleges. To be eligible, students will have to meet the requirements for paying in-state tuition under AB 540, a 2001 law that applies to any student, citizen or not, who attended a California high school for at least three years and graduated or earned a GED.
The bill passed by a vote of 26 to 11 along party lines, with one exception. Republican State Senator Anthony Cannella voted with the majority. In a prepared statement, Cannella said, “Having an educated workforce will be critical to the future strength and health of our economy, and giving eligible high-school graduates the opportunity to apply for private scholarship funds – at no cost to California taxpayers – is consistent with this goal.”
It may also help that his district, which covers Merced, Monterey and Salinas, is more than 55 percent Latino. It also has more registered Democrats than Republicans.
Cedillo’s companion bill, AB 131, faces a tougher road. That one would let AB 540 students apply for state financial aid through the CalGrants program. AB 131 was placed on the senate appropriations committee suspense file and won’t be considered until late August.
Status: On the Governor’s desk. Gov. Brown hasn’t said whether he’ll sign AB 130, however, his spokesman says the Governor “continues to support the principles behind the Dream Act and will closely consider legislation that reaches his desk.”
SB 48: The FAIR (Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful) Education Act
Senator Mark Leno
Gov. Brown signed this landmark bill on Wednesday, July 13, making California the first state in the nation to include the accomplishments of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons in school textbooks and instructional materials.
“History should be honest,” said the Governor in a written statement. “This bill revises existing laws that prohibit discrimination in education and ensures that the important contributions of Americans from all backgrounds and walks of life are included in our history books. It represents an important step forward for our state.”
Status: Signed into law by Gov. Brown.
Charter Schools
AB 86: Charter School Authorizing Petitions
Assemblyman Tony Mendoza
Gives classified employees a voice in creating a new charter school or converting an existing public school to a charter school.
Under the current charter school law, petitions for new charter schools need enough signatures from parents or guardians to equal at least half the number of students expected to enroll in the school during its first year, or by at least half the number of teachers expected to be hired the first year.
Mendoza’s bill gives classified employees a voice in creating new charter schools by adding their signatures to those currently required from teachers and other certificated staff (excluding administrators), that equal at least one-half the number of all those employees that the charter expects to hire.
Status: Ordered to a third reading in the senate.
AB 360: Charter Schools
Assemblywoman Julia Brownley
This bill is intended to create more transparency in charter schools by requiring charter school board meetings to be open to the public under one of the state’s open-meeting laws – the Ralph M. Brown Act or the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, and it would require charter school governing boards to adopt conflict of interest policies.
Status: AB 360 passed the state senate on July 14 and is headed back to the assembly to address some amendments.
AB 440: Charter Schools Academic & Fiscal Accountability
Assemblywoman Julia Brownley
This bill and one in the state senate by Sen. Joe Simitian covered similar ground in setting rigorous academic standards that charter schools must meet as a condition for having their charters renewed. The legislators, along with the California Charter Schools Association, reached an agreement on accountability standards for renewal and wrote them into AB 440 and Simitian’s bill, SB 645 (see below). In addition, AB 440 would allow school boards to consider an operator’s history of managing charter schools and whether the school’s student population reflects the demographics of the local population when deciding whether to renew a charter. It also requires charter schools to hire the same high quality financial auditors as their school districts.
Status: Awaiting hearing in Senate appropriations committee.
SB 645: Charter School Renewals
Senator Joe Simitian
The agreement with Assemblywoman Brownley and the California Charter Schools Association amended SB 645. Now, in addition to containing the same academic accountability standards as AB 440, this bill also makes changes to the Charter School Facility Grant Program to provide assistance with facility rent and lease costs for charter schools, based on the percentage of pupils who are eligible for free and reduced-price meals.
Status: Amended in the assembly and sent back to the Assembly appropriations committee.
Community College
AB 108: Community College Fee Hike
Assembly Budget Committee
Community College students could get a reprieve from new fee hikes under this legislation. Fees are currently due to increase from $36 per unit to $46 per unit at the start of the fall 2011 term.
This bill would allow that increase only if the state’s General Fund revenue forecast for the 2011-12 fiscal year are less than $ 87,452,500,000. If the fee hike is necessary, it would start with the winter term, rather than the fall term.
Status: AB 108 passed the state senate on July 14, and has been sent to Gov. Brown.
AB 743: Community College Common Assessments
Assemblyman Marty Block
Each of California’s 112 community colleges uses a slightly different version of the student placement tests for math and English, and each school has its own cut-off score, the grade below which students are placed in remedial courses.
Block’s bill would require the Community College Board of Governors to establish a common assessment system.
Status: AB 743 is on the Senate appropriations committee suspense file and will be considered in August after lawmakers have completed work on all other bills.
Foster Youth
SB 578: Partial Credit for Foster Youth
Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod
Education is often disrupted for foster youth because they’re frequently moved from home to home. Sen. McLeod’s legislation helps foster youth stay on track for high school graduation by requiring schools to grant partial credit for courses a foster child was taking in one school before being moved to a different school.
Status: Scheduled for a hearing before the Assembly appropriations committee on August 17.
AB 194: Public postsecondary education: priority enrollment: foster youth
Assemblyman Jim Beall, Jr.
This bill would require the California State University and each community college district, and requests the University of California, grant priority registration for classes to foster youth and former foster youth.
Status: Placed on the Senate appropriations committee suspense file to be considered after lawmakers have completed work on all other bills.
AB 709: Foster Children: School Placement
Assemblywoman Julia Brownley
It’s not unusual for foster youth change homes and schools many times during their childhood. Brownley’s bill would require new school to immediately enroll foster children even if they’re missing their immunization records.
Status: AB 709 has been ordered to a third reading in the state senate.
Health and Safety
AJR 10: School Based Health Centers
Assemblywoman Julia Brownley
This resolution would declare the Legislature’s support for the school-based health center program, asking Congress to appropriate funds for the program under the 2010 federal health care reform law. The resolution also declares the Legislature’s support for including these centers in the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act. School based health centers provide health, dental and psychological services targeting the 1.5 million California students without health insurance. Research shows the centers improve academic performance and success by boosting attendance rates.
Status: Awaiting vote on Senate Floor.
SB 614: Whooping Cough Immunization Grace Period
Senator Christine Kehoe
Kehoe’s bill gives California school districts a 30-day grace period from a new state law that prohibits them from enrolling any student in grades 7 through 12 who hasn’t been vaccinated against whooping cough.
Status: SB 614 passed the senate by a vote of 38-0. It’s an urgency bill, which means it will take effect immediately if the Governor signs it.
SB 161: Emergency medical assistance: administration of epilepsy medication.
Senator Bob Huff
Since school nurses are becoming a vanishing breed due to budget cuts, this bill would allow teachers or other school personnel to receive medical training to administer a specific drug prescribed to some children with epilepsy.
It’s become a sensitive issue because the medication is a rectal suppository, and school employees are concerned they can be held legally liable if something happens to the child. Supporters counter that this particular medication must be administered immediately when a child has a seizure and there’s no time to call a parent to come to the school.
Status: Amended and sent back to the Assembly appropriations committee.
Standards and Assessment
SB 740: Pupil Assessment
Senator Loni Hancock
One of the more controversial education bills this session, SB 740 would eliminate second-grade STAR testing. Hancock points to research warning that high-stakes achievement tests are inappropriate for preschool and early elementary school children, and recommends diagnostic testing instead.
Opponents say that waiting until the end of third grade to learn whether students are working below grade level is too late.
Status: Scheduled for a vote in the Assembly appropriations committee on August 17.
SB 547: Public School Performance Accountability
Senator Darrell Steinberg
SB 547 would reduce the emphasis on the California Standards Test by limiting the exams to no more than 40 percent of a high school’s overall ranking, and a minimum of 40 percent for middle and elementary schools.
It would also replace the Academic Performance Index (API), with a new system known as the Education Quality Index, or EQI, which would be based on graduation rates and how well schools prepare students for college and career success in addition to test scores. A committee headed by State Superintendent Tom Torlakson would develop other measures.
Status: Scheduled for a hearing in the Assembly appropriations committee on August 17.
AB 224: School Accountability: Academic Performance Index
Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla
This legislation would add some new measures to the state’s Academic Performance Index (API). Currently, 60 percent of a school’s API ranking comes from students’ scores on the California Standards Tests.
Bonilla’s bill would include other indicators of achievement including graduation rates and preparations for college.
Status: Re-referred to the Senate appropriations committee.
AB 86 – If I understand this correctly, if teachers vote to form a charter school, this also lets non-teachers such as accounting staff, HR staff, and others to the number that would be employed at the proposed charter school to vote on whether the charter school can go ahead. This would appear to mean that if the proposed charter school has 4 people in administration then at least 4 people in the existing district get to vote on whether they would like to risk losing their jobs to the new charter hires. Gee – I wonder how they would vote? I suppose this proves if you make something complex enough people’s eyes will glaze over and you can get it passed.
SB 740 (Eliminating 2nd grade star tests) I looked at Sen. Hancock’s web site (http://dist09.casen.govoffice.com/) and found no mention of this controversial bill in any of her many press releases. She represents a very liberal district including Berkeley and Oakland which might be happy with the bill but she seems totally uninterested in sharing her views and supporting “evidence” on this, unlike many other of her bills. That suggests to me that she doesn’t really have much to justify it to her constituents but is just trying to pay off some moneyed organization. If this passes we won’t know if kids can add or subtract until we’re testing to see if they can divide and multiply. But they won’t be able to divide or multiply if they can’t add or subtract. The CA tests serve as a benchmark for teachers to know if they are meeting the state standards. It is hard to know what to teach and what level of competency is expected and reachable unless you have some universal benchmark. The standards were set up by educators – teachers who volunteered to help determine what minimum amount kids need to know. Why some are against schools and teachers finding out if they are succeeding in teaching the basics is beyond me.
SB 547 & AB 224: As for the two changes to API, unless they eliminate STAR testing altogether or bury the STAR numbers where no one can find them, no one is going to look at the new EQI, certainly not the Feds who will still require measures of proficiency in key subjects. Realtors and parents will figure out where the real numbers are and publicize those.
(Ms. Baron – There is, as I write, a mistake in the description of Canella’s district – draft and final version were mixed up).
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Thanks, Kathryn, for this comprehensive update on pending education legislation. I hope Gov. Brown signs AB 130 since it gives undocumented students hope and a real chance to obtain a college education, without which their interest in learning in high school is dampened significantly.
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Michael,
Thank you for catching that mix-up on Sen. Cannella’s district. I found newer data and forgot to delete the old numbers when I changed it.
Regarding SB 740, Sen. Hancock does link to the bill on her website. It’s on her legislation page. TOP-Ed also wrote about it in detail here and here.
AB 86 is essentially an amendment to the current charter school law. Right now, there are two petition routes to start a new charter school or convert an existing school into a charter in the California Education Code, Section 47605-47608. One, “The petition has been signed by a number of parents or legal guardians that is equivalent to at least one-half of the number of pupils that the charter school estimates will enroll in the school for its first year of operation.” Two, “The petition has been signed by a number of teachers that is equivalent to at least one-half of the number of teachers that the charter school estimates will be employed at the school during its first year of operation.”
For a charter school conversion, the petition must be signed by at least one-half of the permanent status teacher currently employed at the public school to be converted.
AB 86 seeks to give classified employees a say in the charter school process by including them in the petition requirements currently limited to permanent teachers. Classified employees include teacher aides, noon aides, janitors and other support staff.
Administrators are not included in any of the petitions .
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Thanks Ms. Bacon for the clarifications and the news on all the ed bills.
As for AB 86, how wonderful that janitors now get to vote on whether the kids will get to go to a charter school. But what about the soccer and Little League teams that use the fields after hours, and the mailman, and Bob the plumber that comes when the bathrooms overflow? Don’t they get a voice in the decision too? I really like Bob. I think his opinions are worth considering.
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The Dream act is unfair to U.S . students. Think about this. !~
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The dream act is unfair to U.S. students, And should not be allowed. Think about ,It should never pass. !!!
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First of all, what part of ILLEGAL (Not “Undocumented”) was NOT understood?
Second, if anybody from the education board and politicians (BOTH PARTIES) had any integrity at all and didn’t have such hatred and disdain for either their fellow or their own USA citizens, the very first thing on the chopping block would be to cut off ALL services to ILLEGAL ALIENS (whom the TREASONOUS MSM (Mainstream Media), politicians, churches and educators insist on calling the “Undocumented”) immediately.
They would have also called for the end to BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP of those born to ILLEGAL ALIENS decades ago!
But then again, what do any of these people really care? Let’s force the CITIZENS to pay for ILLEGAL ALIENS and their offspring! Let’s make sure the CITIZENS have NO REPRESENTATION and NO way to vote on this at all.
(Also: NEVER MIND OUR Massive BUDGET DEFICITS, services cut for Citizens, and closing parks, etc, etc).
Let’s keep the borders as wide-open sieves and let’s make sure we do NOT enforce our immigration laws and keep the magnets in place to bring in even more illegal aliens (NOT the “Undocumented”).
Let’s also keep NAPOLITANO (of both HOMELAND INSECURITY and TSA) completely off the hook for NOT securing our borders or enforcing our immigration laws but instead looks for TERRORISTS in adult-baby diapers and down our pants and CHERTOFF’s Rapiscan strip-search machines.
NAU (N. AMERICAN UNION) : The plan to merge Canada, the USA and Mexico together.
SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership)-follows NAU plan
RECONQUISTA-AZTLAN agenda to reclaim the former Mexican territory ranging from the state of CA to CO-TX is being actively taught in our SCHOOLS! Through LA RAZA, MEChA and other Chicano studies.
This is being piggybacked onto the NAU-SPP to ensure this gets through. The E.U. (European Union) was first and we’re next with the NAU-SPP. This is part of an upcoming GLOBAL GOVERNMENT Plan to erase the planet’s nations’ borders and set them up in blocs.
This is why ILLEGAL ALIENS and their offspring are treated like such sacred cows!
INTEGRITY AND LOYALTY TO THIS NATION AND LEGAL CITIZENS does NOT EXIST! They only have hatred of this nation and citizens. This is made crystal clear by our own: Politicians, the education system, the corporations, the corrupted church system, the MAINSTREAM MEDIA, the economists, etc.
INTEGRITY AND LOYALTY: If it existed at all, they would NOT force the LEGAL CITIZENS of this nation to pay for people who are NOT supposed to be here! This is TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION! I strongly RESENT being forced into a situation that should NOT exist at all!
JUSTICE: What about the LEGAL CITIZENS forced to pay for all this? What about OUR justice? Oops, forgot. That’s only for ILLEGAL ALIENS and their offspring. The actual citizens are only less than dirt and scum, so that’s okay.
FALSE ACCUSATIONS of: Racism, Xenophobism, nativism. That’s odd. There’s NO such accusations directed at MEXICO. MEXICO certainly does enforce its own immigration laws and secures its borders. I’ve even heard about their TREN DE LA MUERTE.
Most other nations of this planet also have immigration policies (except for Europe) whose TREASONOUS leaders who also treat their own citizens as nothing but garbage and nobody’s accusing these other nations of Racism, Xenophobism, nativism, etc.
Finally: RECOGNIZE THIS: NO nation can survive the traitors, rot and corruption from within(which is on a massive scale in this nation) and BOTH POLITICAL PARTIES are 2 Wings on the same bird who faithfully serve their GLOBALIST Banksters, the Fed Reserve and Corporations. The sooner this is recognized, the better and stop being diverted by BREAD-CIRCUS tactics and get busy and tackle the corruption (which also includes our education system).
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Okay, I have to ask are you SERIOUS Rosan? I’m used to seeing opposing viewpoints at this blog, but rarely do I see vitriol like yours. So many of your arguments are false or easily disproved that I wonder if you aren’t really a fellow immigrants’ rights supporter serving up slow-pitch softballs for sane folks to hit out of the park?
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