Under the Dome: 2012 session wrap-up
Both CSBA-sponsored bills pass; online tracking system enhanced for easier use
Published: October 22, 2012
Gov. Jerry Brown signed both of CSBA’s sponsored bills, AB 2278 and AB 2279, authored by Assembly Member Sandré Swanson, D-Oakland. These bills will help school districts that have received emergency loans from the state to have a smoother and shorter transition back to full local control, and create an advisory evaluation of those districts’ state-appointed administrators.
The governor signed a number of bills to better address the issue of pupil suspension and expulsion at the local level. The legislation provides flexibility within some of the current zero-tolerance provisions regarding suspension and expulsion (AB 2537 and SB 1088) and provides clarification regarding alternative methods to address student issues rather than suspending or expelling the student (AB 1729).
“This issue, obviously, is not going away. I think we’re going to see a continuation of the discussion in the Legislature on suspensions and expulsions,” CSBA Executive Director Vernon M. Billy said during the association’s Back-to-School Webcast last month.
Assistant Executive Director for Governmental Relations Dennis Meyers agreed, and pointed out how the suspension and expulsion bills illustrate the way CSBA influences legislation.
“If you look at the evolution of our positions on all these bills, most of them were ‘oppose,’ or ‘oppose unless amended’—those kind of harsh, negative reactions” initially, Meyers explained during the webcast. Often, however, as CSBA researched and advocated on the proposals, “we were able to remove our opposition because legislators and sponsors of these bills would take a step back and modify their approach to lessen the impact, to not take away authority from governing boards. … Hopefully we can have some more positive things we can work on in 2013.”
Other highlighted bills: Common Core, teacher evaluations
The governor also signed legislation to examine the issues of English learners, including the reclassification of English learners (SB 1108) and defining and tracking students who are “long-term English learners” and those “at risk of becoming long-term English learners” (AB 2193). Further legislation (AB 1719) provides for the adoption of supplemental materials for English learners that are aligned to the Common Core State Standards and incorporate the revised English language development standards.
Brown also signed legislation to begin establishing instructional programs and adopting instructional materials that are aligned to the Common Core. SB 1200 authorizes the State Board of Education to adopt the Common Core college and career readiness standards and authorizes the review and modification of current standards for eighth-grade mathematics. Further legislation (AB 1246) will make revisions to the instructional materials adoption process for grades K-8, and authorizes use of instructional materials in K-8 that are not on the state-adopted list, provided that they are aligned to the state-adopted standards and a majority of teachers are involved in the review of materials.
AB 5 (Fuentes), which was defeated in the Legislature, would have required districts to adopt a best-practices teacher evaluation system that would be implemented through bargaining. CSBA opposed the measure because it would have expanded the scope of bargaining, required union agreement on standards for student achievement and teacher evaluation criteria, and imposed a costly unfunded mandate. Assembly Member Fuentes dropped AB 5 because there was not enough time to address the problems identified by CSBA and the large coalition of opponents.
Bills signed into law or vetoed
Of the hundreds of bills that CSBA tracked in 2012, the governor signed into law 31 that CSBA supported. CSBA was neutral on six other bills that Brown signed and was opposed to three bills that ultimately became law.
The governor vetoed 10 bills that CSBA supported. Brown also vetoed two education-related bills that CSBA was neutral on and one that it opposed.
CSBA’s online bill search options improved
CSBA has enhanced its online bill search for greater ease of use. This system makes it easy to identify CSBA's position on bills, view letters that CSBA has sent to legislators or contact CSBA lobbyists working on a bill. Various links take readers to:
- Databases of all current-session bills on which CSBA has a position
- CSBA-sponsored legislation
- Bills referenced in the latest California School News “Under the Dome” roundup (like this story)
Other links break down bills by the eight Policy Platform areas identified by CSBA’s Delegate Assembly:
- Conditions of Children
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Diversity of Students/Children
- Facilities
- Funding and Finance
- Governance and Structure
- Professional Standards
- Program and Fiscal Accountability
Readers can also look up any current-session bills by simply typing the bill number into the search function on CSBA’s online bill search page. The Winter issue of California Schools magazine will include information on each state legislator’s vote on key education issues.
Easylinks: