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K thru 12 Education
Other Budget Adjustments
CHILD CARE
Subsidized child care services help low-income working families become self-sufficient, contribute to school readiness of younger children, and are essential to support work participation of CalWORKs families. Services are provided through voucher programs, in which parents select the provider of choice, and through center-based programs that contract directly with the state.
The Governor's Budget provided $2.48 billion for State Department of Education (SDE) administered child care programs, after necessary budget balancing reductions totaling $198.9 million were identified. Total funding included $252.1 million in one-time Proposition 98 sources and $56.3 million in one-time federal sources to meet Stage 2 and Stage 3 caseload estimates at that time. This is consistent with past practices. Since the Governor's Budget, the following factors have affected child care funding needs, and result in a net increase in funding of $45.4 million, for a total of $2.5 billion, including an increase in ongoing Proposition 98 resources of $41.9 million, for 2008-09:
- The Legislature acted in the Special Session to use a large share of the carryover sources anticipated to meet budget year costs of Stage 2 and 3 child care to help reduce the current year Proposition 98 Guarantee as part of larger budget solutions. Accounting for these actions and revised estimates, carryover sources were reduced by $193 million. In addition, one-time and ongoing federal funds diminished by $63.6 million. This resulted in a need for additional resources of $256.6 million to backfill these losses.
- Caseload costs for Stage 2 and 3 have increased, requiring $20 million in additional funding.
- A policy change is proposed to fully fund Stage 2 costs without a traditional federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) holdback from the full estimate in the Department of Social Services CalWORKs budget. This requires additional Proposition 98 resources of $25.5 million and completes the policy change implemented last year to fund Stage 2 from Proposition 98. This also frees up TANF to fund CalWORKs, helps meet the TANF maintenance-of-effort requirement shortfall, and reduces pressure on the General Fund.
- Policy changes are also proposed to help reduce rapidly rising reimbursement rate cost pressure caused by the revised methodology for computing regional market rate limits that was implemented several years ago. This change will help preserve slots in the capped voucher-based Alternative Payment Program, as well as contain costs in voucher-based Stage 2 and Stage 3 programs, while enabling full funding of all caseload in this very constrained budget environment. Specifically, trailer bill revisions are proposed to bench market limits to the 75th percentile based on the new 2007 market survey beginning January 1, 2009, and to conduct the market survey every two years instead of annually. These actions are fully consistent with federal requirements and provide an average rate limit increase effective January 2009. California's reimbursement rate structure would remain among the most generous in the nation. Conducting the market survey every two years will save several hundred thousand dollars annually, as well.
STUDENT AND TEACHER LONGITUDINAL DATA SYSTEMS
The May Revision continues to fully fund development of the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CalPADS) and California Longitudinal Teacher Integrated Data Education System (CalTIDES) systems. CalPADS will enable tracking of individual student enrollment history and academic performance data over time. CalTIDES will serve as the central state repository for information regarding the teacher workforce for the purpose of developing and reviewing state policy, identifying workforce trends, and providing high-quality program evaluations of the effectiveness of teacher preparation and induction programs. Total funding for these projects is $10.3 million ($2.2 million General Fund) in 2008-09.
The May Revision also includes language to authorize the California Technology Assistance Project to provide training for implementing CalPADS. The California Technology Assistance Project promotes the effective use of technology in teaching, learning and school administration. The project currently provides technical assistance to schools and districts based upon local needs in each of 11 regions in California. This proposal would provide necessary training to local education agencies for CalPADS implementation.
The Administration believes that the primary goal of any education data system should be to help improve academic achievement. The focus should be on enabling local education agencies to use the data directly to improve instruction expeditiously. The implementation of CalPADS and CalTIDES, along with assignment of individual student identifiers through the California School Information Services program, is an important first step in making data available for local education agencies. There also is an abundance of education data available in many other forms at all levels of government and in the private sector. Examples range from automated reporting systems, program evaluations, studies, articles, and more. The Administration believes it is necessary to fully implement CalPADS and CalTIDES and analyze the information that is currently available to schools from various sources to improve outcomes before efforts are made to expand these systems or plan new systems.
CALIFORNIA STATE TEACHERS' RETIREMENT SYSTEM
The California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) administers the Teachers' Retirement Fund, which is an employee benefit trust fund created to administer the State Teachers' Retirement Plan. The State Teachers' Retirement Plan is a defined benefit pension plan that provides retirement, disability, and survivor benefits for teachers and certain other employees of the California public school system. The Plan is comprised of three programs: the Defined Benefit Program, the Defined Benefit Supplement Program, and the Cash Balance Benefit Program. Within the Defined Benefit Program there is also a Supplemental Benefit Maintenance Account (SBMA), which provides annual supplemental payments in quarterly installments to retired teachers whose purchasing power has fallen below 80 percent of the purchasing power of an initial allowance.
Currently, the state makes annual General Fund contributions to the SBMA of 2.5 percent of teacher payroll for purchasing power protection. The 80 percent level of purchasing power is currently not a vested benefit. This means that if the amount in the SBMA is not sufficient to maintain payments keeping retired teachers benefits at the 80 percent level, the benefit may be reduced or employer contributions may be increased.
The Governor's Budget proposed to make the following changes to SBMA:
- Fully vest the SBMA benefit at 80 percent purchasing power protection.
- Reduce the state's contributions to the SBMA from 2.5 percent to 2.2 percent of salary.
- Delay the State's contribution from July 1 and split the contribution into two payments of 1.1 percent, made on November 1 and April 1 each year.
- Pay the $210 million interest from the $500 million STRS lawsuit in three installments beginning in 2008-09.
The May Revision will modify the Governor's Budget proposal as follows:
- Increase the benefit from 80 percent to 85 percent while retaining the existing policy where this benefit is not vested.
- Reduce the state's contribution from 2.5 percent to 2.25 percent of salary.
- General Fund savings of $66 million in 2008-09 and $16 million in 2009-10 from Governor's Budget.
- Contribute two payments of 1.125 percent each on November 1 and April 1 each year.
- Pay the interest from the STRS lawsuit in four equal payments of $52.6 million beginning in 2009-10.
PROVIDER ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING INFORMATION SYSTEM
The May Revision includes $285,000 in one-time federal funds in 2008-09 to rewrite the Provider Accounting and Reporting Information System (PARI$). The PARI$ is designed to manage SDE's child care agency contracts and payment processing functions. The rewrite is necessary because the current system is outdated, difficult to maintain, and does not have the capability to share data with other SDE systems.
PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE TEAMS
The May Revision proposes that $3 million in Proposition 98 General Fund be reappropriated to continue funding for the Personnel Management Assistance Teams authorized by Chapter 517, Statutes of 2006. These teams assist school districts establish and maintain effective personnel management, recruitment and hiring processes.
EMERGENCY REPAIR PROGRAM
The May Revision proposes another $100 million transfer from the Proposition 98 Reversion Account to the Emergency Repair Account in satisfaction of the Williams settlement agreement. This increment of funding for the program will bring total transfers to $392 million for the purpose of funding school facility emergency repair projects.
LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY CORRECTIVE ACTION ASSISTANCE
Consistent with actions taken by the State Board of Education to further the intentions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the May Revision proposes separate legislation that will appropriate $45 million federal Title I Set Aside funds to assist local educational agencies in their efforts to improve the academic performance of their students and to meet their federal accountability measures.
CHAPTER HIGHLIGHTS for
K thru 12 Education Back to Top
PRINTABLE BUDGET DOCUMENTS Back to Top
Revised Budget Summary - K thru 12 Education (pdf * - 256K)
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Provides the entire K thru 12 Education Chapter in pdf format.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Back to Top
Revised Budget Detail - K thru 12 Education
Displays Revised Budget Detail information for K thru 12 Education.
Proposed Budget Summary - K thru 12 Education (January 2008)
Displays Proposed Budget Summary information for K thru 12 Education.
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