Teachers: California Teacher Corps Act of 2016: teacher residency programs.

Existing law establishes a system of public elementary and secondary education in this state. Existing law establishes local educational agencies, including school districts and county offices of education, throughout the state, and authorizes these agencies to provide instruction to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. This bill would enact the California Teacher Corps Act of 2016, under which the Superintendent of Public Instruction would make grants to applicant local educational agencies and consortia of local educational agencies to assist these agencies in establishing, maintaining, or expanding teacher residency programs, as defined. The teacher residency programs established by the bill would be defined as school-based teacher preparation programs in which a prospective teacher would teach alongside an experienced mentor teacher, as defined, while also receiving teacher training instruction in a teacher credentialing program in a qualified institution of higher education. The bill would establish eligibility standards for persons who apply for participation in the teacher residency programs established by the bill. This bill would appropriate the sum of $60,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent on a one-time basis, available for the 2016–17, 2017–18, and 2018–19 fiscal years, to make grants to applicant local educational agencies and consortia of local educational agencies, as described above. Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts for the 2015–16 fiscal year imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.