State Schools Chief Jack O'Connell Urges
Governor to Quickly Sign Two Education Funding Bills
SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today thanked the state Legislature for passing Senate Bill (SB) 847, coauthored by Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John Perez; Assembly Bill (AB) 185, authored by Assembly member Joan Buchanan, and urged Governor Schwarzenegger to quickly sign both measures so urgently needed federal stimulus funds can be disbursed to California schools.
"I want to thank the state Legislature for taking action to approve measures that will allow the California Department of Education to send these federal funds to local school districts," said O'Connell. "I urge the Governor to quickly sign these measures into law. Once enacted, the Department will disburse these urgently needed funds to our schools as quickly as possible."
Both measures would take effect immediately once signed by the Governor.
"I also want to thank President Barack Obama, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and Congress for acting promptly to send these funds to states that are deeply impacted by the national economic crisis," added O'Connell.
AB 185 provides the California Department of Education (CDE) with the authority to distribute nearly $904 million from two federal programs:
- $416 million is provided for districts that have schools participating in the School Improvement Grant program. The participating schools must implement one of four specified school intervention models to turn around the achievement of their students.
- $488 million is for Phase II of the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund program. About $271 million will be distributed to K–12 schools, with the remaining funds going to institutions for higher education. The K–12 funds will be distributed based on cuts to district revenue limit (general purpose) funding.
SB 847 provides the CDE with the authority to allocate $1.2 billion from the federal Education Jobs Fund to school districts to save 16,500 teaching positions in California. These funds will be distributed based on the state's revenue limit formulas.
For information on the School Improvement Grant, please visit School Improvement Grant (SIG) - Improving Academic Achievement. For information on the federal Education Jobs Fund, please visit Federal Education Jobs Bill Signed Into Law - Year 2010.
