CALENDAR CLOSES IN ON KEY ED BILLS, INCLUDING TRANSIT MONEY PROTECTION

By Kimberly Beltran, SI&A Cabinet Report  | http://bit.ly/NGlRWb

Monday, June 04, 2012  ::  A legislative attempt to secure school transportation funding in future years failed to muster support out of a key committee – a fate it shares with a slew of other education bills that did not meet a key May deadline.

Long Beach Democratic Assemblyman Warren Furutani’s AB 1448 would have, beginning this school year, prohibited the Legislature from reducing funding for home-to-school transportation below the amount budgeted in 2011.

Furutani’s bill died quietly in the Assembly’s Appropriations Committee earlier this month. May is a busy month for lawmakers looking to keep their legislative ideas alive before attention turns to the budget and summer recess.

It should be noted that legislative ideas can be resurrected. With the backing of leadership, legislation thought to be dead can be simply amended into an existing bill that has met the deadlines and is ready to be taken up – an option that frequently plays out during the final days of session, the so-called ‘gut and amend’ process.

Furutani authored AB 1448 in the wake of almost $330 million in mid-year cuts to schools in January. Some $248 million of that was for home-to-school transportation.

But following a storm of protest from numerous district officials – who argued the cut would hit low-income and rural students hardest – legislative leaders and Gov. Jerry Brown agreed in February to find the money elsewhere.

Instead, they applied an across-the-board reduction to revenue limits and protected the home-to-school program for one year.

Furutani’s bill would have set a minimum funding level for the transportation program and made its protection permanent.

Other key education bills that failed to meet May deadlines:

SB 1491, by Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Chino, would have required the state to pay for part of the financing costs incurred by school districts forced to take out loans when funding owed by the state is deferred.

SB 1109, by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima, would have required the California Department of Education to develop an English Learner Master Plan to support services assisting local educational agencies with establishing and sustaining programs for English learner students.

SB 958, by Sen. Michael Rubio, D-Bakersfield, would have required the state to develop guidelines for a “well-equipped classroom” that reflect the materials and physical environment required for a classroom to be in alignment with the common core standards.

AB 2116, by Assemblyman Ricardo Lara, D-South Gate, would have required the CDE to contract for a multiyear study of current and new content standards to inform the public about the extent to which newly-adopted common core state standards are being effectively implemented.

AB 2032, by Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia, would have required charter schools to expand upon the description of expulsion/suspension policies – required to be included in their charters – to specify a list of acts that would warrant suspension or expulsion.

AB 1746 by Assemblyman Das Williams of Santa Barbara would have restricted the sale of electrolyte replacement beverages (or sports drinks) such as Gatorade, in middle- and junior high schools.