LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 64, as amended, Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review. Budget
Act of 2009.
(1) Existing law requires a revenue limit to be calculated for
each county superintendent of schools, adjusted for various factors,
and reduced, as specified. Existing law reduces the revenue limit for
each county superintendent of schools for the 2008-09 fiscal year by
a deficit factor of 7.839%.
This bill would increase the deficit factor for each county
superintendent of schools for the 2008-09 fiscal year to 11.183%.

(2) The Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 requires the
State Allocation Board to require school districts applying for
funds under that act to deposit, into a specified account for ongoing
and major maintenance of school buildings, an amount equal to or
greater than 3% of the total general fund expenditures of the
applicant school district. Existing law, for the 2008-09 to the
2012-13 fiscal years, inclusive, reduces that deposit requirement to
an amount equal to or greater than 1% of the total general fund
expenditures of the applicant school district.
This bill would exempt a school district that maintains its
facilities in good repair, as defined, from this 1% requirement.

(3) Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools to
determine a revenue limit for each school district in the county and
requires the amount of the revenue limit to be adjusted for various
factors. Existing law reduces the revenue limit for each school
district for the 2008-09 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 7.844%
and for the 2009-10 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 13.094%.

This bill would instead reduce the revenue limit for each school
district for the 2008-09 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 11.187%
and for the 2009-10 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 17.048%. The
bill would set forth a mechanism by which basic aid school districts
would assume categorical funding reductions proportionate to the
revenue limit reductions implemented for nonbasic aid school
districts.
(4) Existing law establishes various categorical education
programs and appropriates the funding for those programs in the
annual Budget Act. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public
Instruction, for the 2008-09 to 2012-13 fiscal years, inclusive, to
apportion from the amount provided in the annual Budget Act for
specified categorical education programs an amount based on the same
relative proportion that the local educational agency received in the
2008-09 fiscal year for those programs and authorizes school
districts, for those fiscal years, to use these funds, with specified
exceptions, for any educational purpose, to the extent permitted by
federal law. Existing law, for those fiscal years, deems local
educational agencies that use the authority to use these categorical
education program funds for any educational purpose to be in
compliance with the program and funding requirements of those
categorical education programs, including requirements related to
average daily attendance accounting.
This bill would base the amount to be received from certain
categorical education program budget items to be based on the same
relative proportion that the recipient received in the 2007-08 fiscal
year for those programs, instead of the 2008-09 fiscal year. The
bill would require, for the 2008-09 to 2012-13 fiscal years,
inclusive, and for certain calculations that use average daily
attendance, that the average daily attendance for specified programs
be the same amount used in those calculations for the 2007-08 fiscal
year. The bill would declare that changes to these calculations in
the California State Lottery Act, an initiative measure, further the
purposes of that act, and therefore may be made by an act enacted by
a 2/3 vote of both houses of the Legislature.
Existing law requires a school district that receives funding on
behalf of a charter school to continue to distribute those funds to
those charter schools based on the amounts distributed in the 2008-09
fiscal year and to adjust those amounts, as specified.
This bill would clarify that a school district that receives
funding on behalf of a charter school is prohibited from redirecting
that funding for another purpose, except as specified, and would
require the school district to continue to distribute those funds to
those charter schools based on the relative proportion that the
school district distributed in the 2007-08 fiscal year. The bill
would require the Superintendent to apportion from the amount
appropriated for the charter school categorical block grant in
accordance with the per pupil methodology prescribed by a specified
provision of law.
Existing law, as a condition of receiving the categorical
education program funds that may be used for any educational purpose,
requires school districts and county offices of education, at a
regularly scheduled, open, public hearing, to take testimony from the
public, discuss, and approve or disapprove the proposed use of
funding. Existing law, as a condition of transferring those funds to
their general funds, requires school districts and county offices of
education, at a regularly scheduled, open, public hearing, to take
testimony from the public, discuss, and approve or disapprove each
transfer and the proposed use of funding, and to report to the State
Department of Education, in the existing annual Standardized
Accounting System reporting process, the amounts transferred by using
the appropriate program code for which the funds were expended. The
department is required to collect and provide this information to the
appropriate legislative policy and budget committees and the
Department of Finance by February 28, 2010.
This bill would delete the meeting requirement that is a condition
of transferring categorical education program funds to the general
fund of a school district or county office of education. The bill
would add to the requirement that is a condition of the receipt of
categorical education program funds that may be used for any
educational purpose, that the governing board make explicit the
purposes for which the funds would be used. The bill would require a
local educational agency to report expenditures by using the
appropriate function codes of the Standardized Accounting System
reporting process to indicate the activities for which these funds
were expended. The bill would require the department to collect and
provide this information to the appropriate legislative policy and
budget committees and the Department of Finance by April 15, 2010,
and annually thereafter, until 2014.
(5) Existing law sets forth the minimum requirements for the
professional clear multiple or single subject teacher credential.
Among those requirements is the completion of a program of beginning
teacher induction. This requirement is contingent on the availability
of funds in the annual Budget Act to provide statewide access to
eligible beginning teachers.
This bill would remove the contingency of this requirement on the
availability of funds.
(6) Existing law requires the categorical block grant for charter
schools for the 2007-08 school year to be $500 per unit of charter
school average daily attendance, as determined at the 2nd principal
apportionment for the 2007-08 fiscal year, to be adjusted for
cost-of-living each fiscal year thereafter, and to be supplemented,
as specified, for economic impact aid-eligible pupils.
This bill would appropriate $8,267,000 from the General Fund to
the State Department of Education for the charter school categorical
block grant for the purpose of funding the economic impact aid
supplement for the 2008-09 fiscal year.
(7) The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires a local
educational agency to identify an elementary or secondary school that
fails, for 2 consecutive years, to make adequate yearly progress, as
defined by the state, for program improvement. The act requires a
school that continues to fail to make adequate yearly progress after
being identified for program improvement to take additional
corrective action or meet specified restructuring requirements. The
Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999 requires the State
Department of Education to identify local educational agencies that
are in danger of being identified for program improvement pursuant to
the No Child Left Behind Act, and to notify those local educational
agencies, in writing, of that status. The department also is required
to provide those agencies with research-based criteria to conduct a
voluntary self-assessment.
This bill, for the 2008-09 to 2012-13 fiscal years, inclusive,
would prohibit a school, school district, county office of education,
or charter school that has been identified for program improvement
or corrective action under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of
2001 from being required to implement program requirements set forth
in the Mathematics and Reading Professional Development Program or
the Administrator Training Program. The bill would prohibit the State
Department of Education and the State Board of Education from
prohibiting these schools, school districts, county offices of
education, and charter schools from utilizing certain categorical
program flexibility provisions of law.
(8) Existing law establishes the Class Size Reduction Program
under which a participating school district or county office of
education reduces class size to 20 pupils per class in kindergarten
and grades 1 to 3, inclusive. Existing law provides that a local
educational agency is eligible to receive program funding only if it
was participating in the program as of December 10, 2008 and only for
the grade level or levels for which it had applied to receive
funding as of that date.
This bill would provide instead that, for the 2008-09, 2009-10,
2010-11 and 2011-12 fiscal years, that a local educational agency is
eligible to receive program funding for the same number of classes
for which it had applied to receive program funding as of January 1,
2009, and only for the number of classes reported on the 2008-09
operations application.
(9) Existing law establishes the Instructional Materials Funding
Realignment Program that requires the State Department of Education
to apportion funds to school districts and requires the governing
board of a school district to use that funding to ensure that each
pupil is provided with a standards-aligned textbook or basic
instructional materials by the beginning of the first school term
that commences no later than 24-months after those materials were
adopted by the State Board of Education, except as specified.
Existing law exempts, until July 1, 2010, school districts from the
24-month requirement.
This bill would provide that the State Department of Education and
the State Board of Education are prohibited from prohibiting a
school, school district, county office of education, or charter
school that has been identified for program improvement or corrective
action under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 from
implementing the exemption.
(10) The Budget Act of 2008 appropriates General Funds to the
State Department of Education for implementation of the High Priority
Schools Grant Program.
This bill would reduce that appropriation by $107,909,000.

(11) This bill would reappropriate to the State Department of
Education for the 2008-09 fiscal year prescribed amounts or the
unexpended balance of specified appropriations made in specified
prior Budget Acts to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
for juvenile education.
(12) The Budget Act of 2008 appropriates from the General Fund
$2,995,520,000 for the support of the University of California,
$2,910,596,000 for the support of California State University, and
$3,649,230,000 to the Board of Governors of the California Community
Colleges.
This bill would reduce those appropriations, as specified.

(13) Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school
district to establish a district deferred maintenance fund for
specified maintenance purposes. The State Allocation Board is
required to apportion from the State School Deferred Maintenance
Fund, to school district an amount equal to $1 for each $1 of local
funds up to a specified maximum. To be eligible to receive the state
matching funds a school district is required to deposit in its
district deferred maintenance fund a specified amount. Existing law
authorizes the State Allocation Board to reserve funds in the State
School Deferred Maintenance Fund for apportionments to school
districts in instances of extreme hardship, as defined.
This bill would suspend for the 2008-09 to 2012-13 fiscal years,
inclusive, the requirement that a school district deposit the
required amount in its district deferred maintenance fund and also
suspend the board's authority to reserve funds for apportionments to
school districts in instances of extreme hardship.
(14) Existing law, for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 fiscal years,
authorizes the governing board of a school district or county office
of education to use up to 100 percent of the balances, as of June 30,
2008, of restricted accounts in its general fund or cafeteria fund
with certain exclusion, including, among others restricted reserves
committed for capital outlay, and excluding balances in specified
categorical education programs, including, among others the Targeted
Instructional Improvement Grant Program, the Instructional Materials
Program, and the California High School Exit Exam Intensive
Intervention Program. Existing law requires a governing board that
elects to use balances in restricted accounts to report to the
Superintendent regarding the programs and amounts of restricted
balances used and requires the Superintendent to report statewide
information and information for each school district and county
office of education to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee by
October 31, 2009.
This bill would exclude the use of the ending balance in the
cafeteria fund and the balances in the English Learner Acquisition
and Development Pilot Program and child development programs, but
would authorize the use of balances in the Targeted Instructional
Improvement Grant Program, the Instructional Materials Program, and
the California High School Exit Exam Intensive Intervention Program
and restricted reserves committed for capital outlay. The bill would
change the deadline of the date by which the Superintendent is
required to report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee to April
15, 2010.
(15) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact
statutory changes relating to the Budget Act of 2009.

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Comments/questions on SB 64 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review): Budget Act of 2009.