Education finance: fiscal transparency.

(1) Existing law establishes a system of elementary and secondary education in this state. Under this system, public and private schools provide instruction to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Controller, and the Director of Finance to take actions to ensure, for purposes of transparency, that the reporting of per-pupil expenditures of federal, state, and local funds includes actual personnel expenditures and actual nonpersonnel expenditures of federal, state, and local funds, as specified, for each local educational agency and school in the state, as required by a specified provision of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. The bill would require the Superintendent, in compliance with federal requirements, to ensure that each local educational agency collects appropriate data, and includes specified information, in the local educational agency's annual report. The bill would also require the Superintendent, the Controller, and the Director of Finance to establish guidelines for the reporting of personnel and nonpersonnel expenditures, as specified. The bill would also require the Superintendent, the Controller, and the Director of Finance to consider, no later than March 1, 2018, the provisions of the bill in developing and adopting new standards and criteria for local budgets and expenditures pursuant to a specified statute. The bill would require local educational agencies to adhere to the standards and criteria adopted pursuant to the bill commencing with the 2018–19 fiscal year. To the extent that this bill would impose new duties on local educational agencies, it would constitute a state-mandated local program. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.