Education finance.

(1) Existing law authorizes a public credit provider, as defined, to require a participating party, with regard to providing credit enhancement for bonds, notes, certificates of participation, or other evidences of indebtedness of a participating party, to agree to specified conditions, including allowing the Controller to allocate specified school district, county office of education, or charter school apportionments to public credit providers if the public credit provider is required to make principal or interest payments, or both, pursuant to the credit enhancement agreement. Existing law imposes those same conditions on securing financing or refinancing for projects or working capital from the California School Finance Authority, in which case the Controller allocates apportionments to an identified trustee when a participating party will not make a payment to the authority at the time the payment is required. Existing law also requires any amount apportioned pursuant to these provisions to be deemed an allocation to the participating party for specified purposes. This bill would instead authorize these payments to a public credit provider or a trustee, as applicable, to be made, without regard to the specified funding source of the apportionment, from specified apportionments. The bill would also require that the amount apportioned for a participating party be deemed an allocation to the participating party and included in the computation of the allocation, limit, entitlement, or apportionment for the participating party. (2) The Quality Education Investment Act of 2006 effectuates the intent of the Legislature to implement the terms of the proposed settlement agreement of a specified legal action, to provide for the discharge of the minimum state educational funding requirement, and to improve the quality of academic instruction and the level of pupil achievement in schools whose pupils have high levels of poverty and complex educational needs, among other things. A provision of the act appropriates $218,322,000 from the General Fund for the 2013–14 fiscal year, of which $170,322,000 is for transfer by the Controller to Section A of the State School Fund for allocation by the Superintendent of Public Instruction pursuant to the act. This bill would instead require, for the 2013–14 fiscal year, that $361,000,000 be appropriated from the General Fund, of which $313,000,000 would be for transfer by the Controller to Section A of the State School Fund for allocation by the Superintendent of Public Instruction pursuant to the act. (3) Existing law, the Ortiz-Pacheco-Poochigian-Vasconcellos Cal Grant Program (Cal Grant Program) , establishes the Cal Grant A and B Entitlement awards, the California Community College Transfer Entitlement awards, the Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards, the Cal Grant C awards, and the Cal Grant T awards under the administration of the Student Aid Commission (commission) , and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under these programs for participating students attending qualifying institutions, as defined. Existing law requires the commission to certify by October 1 of each year a qualifying institution's latest 3-year cohort default rate as most recently reported by the United States Department of Education. Existing law provides that, for purposes of the 2012–13 academic year, and every academic year thereafter, an otherwise qualifying institution with a 3-year cohort default rate that is equal to or greater than 15.5% is ineligible for initial and renewal Cal Grant awards at the institution. Existing law also requires that an otherwise qualifying institution is ineligible for an initial or renewal Cal Grant award at the institution if the institution has a graduation rate of 30% or less for students taking 150% or less of the expected time to complete degree requirements, as specified, with certain exceptions. Existing law also requires that an otherwise qualifying institution that becomes ineligible under these provisions for initial and renewal Cal Grant awards may regain its eligibility for the academic year following an academic year in which it satisfies the requirements relating to the cohort default rate and the graduation rate. This bill would instead require that an otherwise qualifying institution that becomes ineligible under these provisions for initial and renewal Cal Grant awards shall regain its eligibility for the academic year for which it satisfies these requirements. (4) Provisions of law that became inoperative on July 1, 2003, and that were repealed on January 1, 2004, established the Governor's Scholarship Programs under the administration of the Scholarshare Investment Board. Existing law expresses the intent of the Legislature to provide explicit authority to the board to continue to administer accounts for, and to make awards to, persons who qualified for awards under the provisions of the Governor's Scholarship Programs as those provisions existed on January 1, 2003, and to provide for the management and disbursement of funds previously set aside for the Governor's Scholarship Programs. Existing law provides that the amount remaining in the Golden State Scholarshare Trust following a specified transfer is available as a reserve for funding claims for awards. Existing law additionally states the intent of the Legislature to provide a guarantee should additional funds be needed to cover awards authorized and made pursuant to the program. Existing law also requires the board to negotiate with the current manager of the program to execute an amended or new management and funding agreement, which would be required to include specified terms, including, but not limited to, terms that provide for the return to the General Fund of specified moneys appropriated to the Governor's Scholarship Programs. Of those funds transferred to the General Fund, this bill would appropriate $5,000,000 to the Chancellor of the California State University, without regard to fiscal years, for specified purposes relating to open education resources as provided in legislation enacted in the 2011–12 Regular Session. The bill would prohibit all, or a portion, of that $5,000,000 from being encumbered unless at least 100% of that amount encumbered is matched by private funds, and would require the amount of the $5,000,000 that is not matched by private funds to revert to the Golden State Scholarshare Trust for purposes of the Governor's Scholarship Programs. (5) Under the California Constitution, whenever the Legislature or a state agency mandates a new program or higher level of service on any local government, including a school district and a community college district, the state is required to provide a subvention of funds to reimburse the local government, with specified exceptions. Existing law, commencing with the 2012–13 fiscal year, requires that certain funds appropriated in the annual Budget Act for reimbursement of the cost of a new program or increased level of service of an existing program mandated by statute or executive order be available as a block grant to school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education to support specified state-mandated local programs and permits those entities to elect to receive that block grant funding in lieu of claiming mandated costs pursuant to the state claims process. This bill would add specified state-mandated local programs to the set of programs for which a school district, charter school, or county office of education may elect to receive a block grant, including, among others, an interdistrict attendance permits program. (6) The Budget Act of 2011 made numerous appropriations for the support of public education in this state. Existing law establishes the Proposition 98 Reversion Account in the General Fund, and requires that the Legislature, from time to time, transfer into this account moneys previously appropriated in satisfaction of the constitutional minimum funding requirements that have not been disbursed or otherwise encumbered for the purposes for which they were appropriated. The Budget Act of 2011 reappropriated $6,824,000 from the Proposition 98 Reversion Account, of which $6,594,000 was for allocation by the Superintendent of Public Instruction for apportionment for special education programs, as specified. This bill would reappropriate an additional $10,335,000 from the Proposition 98 Reversion Account for allocation by the Superintendent to support special education, as specified. (7) The Budget Act of 2011, as amended, reappropriated $220,137,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for apportionment for special education programs. This bill would reduce this reappropriation to the department for those purposes by $10,335,000 to $209,802,000. (8) Existing law establishes the 2006 University Capital Outlay Bond Fund in the State Treasury for deposit of funds from the proceeds of bonds issued and sold for the purpose of providing funds to aid the University of California, the Hastings College of the Law, and the California State University. This bill would amend the Budget Act of 2012 by appropriating $4,750,000 from the 2006 University Capital Outlay Bond Fund to the University of California for the purpose of funding preliminary plans and working drawings for the Classroom and Academic Office Building at the Merced campus. The bill would require that contractors and subcontractors of the University of California be required to pay prevailing wages, as specified, as a condition of the availability of these funds. The bill would also authorize the use of the 2006 bond funds remaining at the end of capital outlay projects for specified purposes. (9) The Budget Act of 2012 appropriated $2,053,750,000 for the support of the University of California. This bill would require the University of California, as a condition of receipt of those funds, to report to the Legislature by May 1, 2013, on whether it has met an enrollment goal for the 2012–13 academic year. (10) This bill would require the State Board of Education and the Health and Human Services Agency, including the Department of Health Care Services, the Department of Mental Health, and the Department of Social Services, to repeal regulations relating to county mental health services that are no longer supported by statute, including specified regulations. (11) Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution. (12) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.