STATE NEWS
From the Capitol
The golden state shines with historic budget
On July 9, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an education budget that makes critical investments in California's students. CSEA Board Member Wayne Harris and Legislative Advocate Xong Lor were there to witness and celebrate this historic moment!
There’s never been a better day to be in CSEA. The state budget recently signed by Governor Gavin Newsom represents a truly historic investment in our members and their students. It is proof that our legislators believe classified employees play a critical role in keeping school districts operating and students thriving. It is also testament to the power of our membership supporting and electing pro-labor lawmakers through the Victory Club. The budget package for transitional kindergarten through 12th grade education and community colleges includes Assembly Bill (AB) 128, Senate Bill (SB) 129, AB 130, and AB 132. Proposition 98 funding in this budget totals $93.7 billion, an increase of $22.8 billion and a 32 percent increase over last year. CSEA played a significant role in this year’s budget process. We submitted letters to the governor’s office and Legislature sharing our priorities. We advocated for our members and students throughout the legislative session. We successfully received the following outcomes that will change the face of public education in California as we know it:
- Consistent COLA: In a “normal” year, the COLA is generally reflective of inflation, between one and three percent. We received nothing last year, so there is a catch-up included for last year’s COLA, which is compounded with this year’s, bringing us to 5.07 percent for the Local Control Funding Formula (TK-12) and Student Centered Funding Formula (Community Colleges).
- Universal Transitional Kindergarten: Implementation of universal transitional kindergarten will begin in 2022-23 with eligibility increasing two months per year until full implementation in 2025-26. At full implementation, Proposition 98 funding will grow by $2.7 billion. This is truly a historic moment as this proposal was sparked by our members at the 2019 Annual Conference.
- Universal meals: Nutrition services have been a lifeline during the pandemic, literally serving millions of pick-up and drop-off meals to families across California while schools were closed. Many of our members were on the frontline providing these meals. The budget makes California the first state in the nation to provide free school meals for all TK-12 public school students. It includes $54 million to supplement the federal universal meals program, which was extended for 2021-22, and $650 million ongoing starting in 2022-23 to cover the entire cost for our state’s new, ongoing universal breakfast and lunch program.
- Increase custodians and paraeducators: The $1.1 billion ongoing concentration grant add-on is to reduce the ratio of students to staff who provide direct services to students (hiring more staff), which includes custodians and paraeducators.
- Classified Employee Summer Assistance Program (CSESAP): The budget includes $60 million for CSESAP. This allows employees to remain eligible for the program even if the district extends the school calendar year and employees are required to work beyond 11 months.
- Professional development: This includes $1.5 billion over five years ($300 million per year) in the Educator Effectiveness Block Grant for professional development for in-person staff (including classified, teachers and administrators) on “immediately relevant topics.”
- Deferral: Last year, because we were facing a significant budget deficit, instead of cutting funding to education, the state implemented deferrals. Deferrals were late payments to schools and community colleges. With the state’s record revenue level, the state will pay back funding it owes to schools and colleges. This includes $11 billion for TK-12 schools and $1.45 billion for community colleges.
For more in-depth details of this year’s budget, you can access:
Sponsored bills ensure more protections for members
On July 16, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the first CSEA-sponsored bill of this year’s legislative session with Assembly Bill 289 (Calderon). Submitted via resolution by Tustin Chapter 450, Ocean View Chapter 375 and North Orange County CCD Chapter 167 at the 2020 Annual Conference and brought to life by the Governmental Relations Team, AB 289 will ensure fairness in district merit system elections and remedy problems with the existing process by:
- Only permitting ballot counters to use a uniform stamp to mark all ballots and envelopes in the same location to avoid ballot tracking or the appearance thereof, maintaining the privacy of the secret ballots.
- Adding classified employees on vote tabulation committees to ensure fairness and integrity of the elections.
- Requiring districts to include both sides in any employee communication related to merit system elections rather than allowing districts to intimidate employees with one-sided captive-audience meetings.
In addition to AB 289, these are CSEA’s other sponsored bills and where they stand in the legislative process:
- AB 438 (Reyes) Layoff Notice Parity: This bill standardizes the layoff process so that classified employees receive the same March 15th layoff notice and hearing rights as teachers and certificated administrators, finally ensuring layoff protection parity for all school employees regardless of job title. This bill is in the Senate Appropriations Suspense File and awaits committee action likely to occur in late August.
- SB 411 (Cortese) Work After Retirement: This bill mitigates exorbitant penalties for retirees in the California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) who inadvertently violate the working after retirement rules, including the work limitation of 960 hours per year. The bill is on the Governor’s desk now, awaiting his signature.
- AB 275 (Medina) Probationary Period Parity: This bill conforms the probationary period for community college classified employees working in non-merit districts with that of community college classified employees working in merit districts and in K-12 districts from one year to six months. The bill is awaiting a final concurrence vote on the Assembly floor.
- SB 270 (Durazo) Employee Contact List: This bill enforces existing law that requires public employers to provide employee organizations with contact information for their employees. Employers are provided with opportunities to comply with the requirements under current law. Additionally, the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) is given the discretion to assess an appropriate penalty of up to $10,000 depending on the employer's size and severity of the violation. This bill is in the Assembly Appropriations Suspense File and awaits committee action likely to occur in late August.
- AB 22 (McCarty) Transitional Kindergarten: This bill expands transitional kindergarten to all 4-year-olds regardless of birth date. This bill was introduced pursuant to CSEA Resolution 5 from 2019. The appropriations and much of the policy in this bill have already been incorporated in the state budget enacted in early July. This bill itself is in the Senate Appropriations Suspense File and awaits committee action likely to occur in late August.