Career technical education: funding.

Existing law provides funding for various career technical education programs, including regional occupational centers and programs, specialized secondary programs, partnership academies, and agricultural career technical education programs. Commencing with the 2015–16 fiscal year and for each fiscal year thereafter, this bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction, using funds appropriated in the annual Budget Act for regional occupational centers and programs, to apportion an amount to each county office of education in the same relative proportion of funding that the county office of education, school districts, and joint powers agencies within that county receive in the 2014–15 fiscal year. The bill would further require each county office of education to allocate to regional occupational centers and programs a proportion of these funds in the same relative proportion of funding that they receive in the 2014–15 fiscal year. The bill would authorize the local educational agencies that operate career technical education programs to form into regions for purposes of entering into agreements to share in the cost of developing and maintaining a career technical education program using funding appropriated for regional occupational centers and programs, specialized secondary programs, partnership academies, and agricultural career technical education programs, as specified. The bill would require that funds subject to these agreements be expended only to ensure the development and maintenance of high quality career technical education programs. The bill would specify that absent an agreement, funds appropriated for specialized secondary programs, partnership academies, and agricultural career technical education programs be expended only for the purposes for which they were appropriated. The bill would impose certain conditions on the receipt of funds under these provisions, including, among others, that the governing board of each regional occupational center or program, in collaboration with individuals representing partner school districts within each region, California partnership academies, agricultural career technical education programs, and other career technical education programs develop a plan for establishing a sequence of courses by July 1, 2015, as specified. The bill would require the Superintendent to align the accountability measures for regional occupational centers and programs, agricultural career technical education programs, and partnership academies into a uniform accountability metric based on specified indicators and pupil data.