The Senate Education Committee this morning heard and passed with a 6-1 vote Assembly Bill 751 (O’Donnell, D-Long Beach), the CSBA co-sponsored bill which would allow local education agencies to administer an alternate assessment (i.e. SAT or ACT) in place of the Smarter Balanced test during the school day.
Two other CSBA co-sponsored bills were passed by the Senate Education Committee last week: AB 428 (Medina, O’Donnell et al), which, among other things, would equalize base special education funding rates (pursuant to AB 602) to the 95th percentile, and AB 39 (Muratsuchi), which would increase the Local Control Funding Formula base grant targets equivalent to the national average in per-pupil funding.
The Assembly Education Committee holds its first hearing of the month at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 19.
Click here to view all 2019–20 bills with CSBA Positions
Additional bills of note (updated 2:45 p.m., Wednesday, June 19):
AB 48 (O’Donnell, D-Long Beach), the Kindergarten-Community Colleges Public Education Facilities Bond Acts of 2020 and 2022, which would place a $13 billion school facilities bond on the March 2020 ballot and an additional bond of as-yet-undefined value on the November 2022 ballot. CSBA Position: Support
Passed Senate Education Committee on a unanimous 7-0 vote, referred to Assembly Governance and Finance Committee
Assembly Constitutional Amendment 4 (Mullin, D-South San Francisco), which would allow 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections if they will be 18 years of age at the time of the corresponding general election. CSBA Position: Support
Passed Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee on 6/19 on a 4-0 vote with three members not voting
AB 773 (Gonzalez, D-San Diego), which would require school districts to implement voter education programming — developed by the Secretary of State and Department of Education, and further customized by local elections officials — for 12th-grade students during a presentation or assembly. CSBA Position: Support
Passed Senate Education Committee on 6/19 on a unanimous 7-0 vote, referred to Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee
AB 967 (Smith, D-Santa Clarita), which would extend to charter schools laws which already govern the development, adoption and transparency requirements for Local Control and Accountability Plans for traditional public schools. CSBA Position: Support
Passed Senate Education Committee on 6/19 on a 4-3 vote, referred to Senate Appropriations Committee
Senate Bill 223 (Hill, D-San Mateo), a reintroduction of the vetoed SB 1127 (Hill) from 2018, would permit governing boards to adopt a policy (with the ability to opt-out for any reason) allowing a parent or guardian to bring with them and administer medical cannabis in a non-smoking and non-vaping form to their child on school grounds, if the child is a qualified cannabis patient with a doctor’s recommendation. CSBA Position: Support
Passed Assembly Education Committee on 6/19 on a 5-2 vote, referred to Assembly Judiciary Committee
SB 328 (Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge), the CSBA-opposed school start time bill that would prohibit all non-rural middle schools from beginning the regular school day before 8:00 a.m. and non-rural high schools from beginning the regular day before 8:30 a.m., is awaiting hearing in the Assembly Education Committee, with a hearing date not yet scheduled.
