Your President attended the CCAE State Board meeting held on July 11th at the Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza in Sacramento on July 11th. In the spirit of the times, he stayed at the Vagabond Inn across the street and saved $30! There is much to report from the meeting. However your section Leg Chair, Janice Roselius from San Bernardino went up for the day and attended the Legislative Committe meeting on the Friday, July 10th. She has provided this important report on Jeff Frost's update . Jeff Frost is our longstanding legislative analyst and lobbyist.

Thank you Janice for this excellent report!

CCAE Legislative Commitee Report

Update by Jeff Frost, CCAE Legislative Analyst


Budget

Flexibilitiy         

No Changes are being proposed

Adult Ed is in Tier III because of the large pot of money that had not been allocated through the full implementation of AB23 that authorized the redistibution of ADA beginning in 2006-07. The democrats put Adult Ed and ROP into Tier III to avoid raising taxes even though both had support in the legislature as stand alone programs.

The reduction in the number of adults allowed in ROP programs has been suspended as part of Tier III flexibility.


Base Year   

There is a proposal to move the base year to 2007-08, but this has not been approved . It may be included in a clean-up bill. If your school site has extenuating circumstances during that year that resulted in a much lower ADA, contact Jeff.


Account Codes

Districts have the option of creating an account code for expending adult education funds, but they are not required to. There is pending legislation to re-instate the codes for Tier III programs to ensure accountability of how funds were spent 2008-09 through 2012-13.

Suspension of Prop 98

Jeff thinks the Democrats will not vote for suspension because it is considered political suicide for them, A possible solution is the elimination of Cal WORKS but the State may lose $4 Billion in federal matching funds. Even the republicans don't want to eliminate it. Reforming it may be good for Adult Ed.

Democrats are planning to pass legislation allowing 55% approval vote for school district parcel taxes instead of the two-third requirement.

August 15 layoff notices for teachers

The union has lots of money to challenge this action in court.

Bills

No important bills affecting adult education are likely for the next four or five years.

Conclusion

Districts will continue to hemorridge, so keep making adult education important to them.

Proposal for legislative committee

Jeff proposed that the legislative effort become a Section function, rather than organizing a single day in Sacramento, that focusses on outreach and awareness locally. He suggested that each agency or Chapter form a team of advocates that would include a teacher, administrator, a businessperson, and a student, The team should meet with the legislator on Fridays during the school year to let them know that adult education is still providing vital services and that SB4 "flexibility" has resulted in Adult Education helping K-12 deal with the fiscal impact of the state budget cuts.Keep communicating with supportive legislators.

In addition, each agency should build a program that is reponsive to the community and get support from community members, businesses and other partners


Legislative Committee Discussion
Strategies under consideration