This measure would designate April 2014 as Autism Awareness Month and would encourage residents to show support for autism awareness by lighting their homes, businesses, schools, and places of worship with blue light bulbs.
This measure would recognize the week of March 23, 2014, to March 29, 2014, inclusive, as National Agriculture Week, and would designate March 19, 2014, as California Agriculture Day.
Existing law permits public school employees to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations, as specified. Existing law permits an employee organization to become the exclusive representative of an appropriate unit for purposes of meeting and negotiating, as specified. In each case that the appropriateness of the unit is an issue, existing law requires the Public Employment Relations Board to decide the question on the basis of the community of interest between and among the employees and their established practices including, among other things, the extent to which those employees belong to the same employee organization and the effect of the size of the unit on the efficient operation of the school district. Existing law provides that in the case of a district that employs 20 or more supervisory peace officer employees, a negotiating unit of supervisory employees is appropriate if it includes any of specified supervisory employees. Existing law prohibits these supervisory employees from being in a negotiation unit with employees whom they supervise. This bill would permit a supervisory peace officer employee to join or participate in an employee organization and negotiating unit that is composed of nonsupervisory peace officers if the representation has been agreed to by the supervisory employee representative, the nonsupervisory peace officer representative, and the employer and the Public Employment Relations Board is so notified.
(1) Existing law, the Donahoe Higher Education Act, sets forth the missions and functions of the segments of the public postsecondary education system in the state, including the University of California administered by the Regents of the University of California, the California State University administered by the Trustees of the California State University, and the California Community Colleges administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Provisions of the act are applicable to the University of California only to the extent that the regents, by appropriate resolution, make them applicable. Existing law requires the board of governors, the trustees, and the regents, with appropriate consultation with the academic senates of the respective segments, to jointly develop, maintain, and disseminate a common core curriculum in general education courses for the purpose of transfer. Existing law deems any person who completes this transfer core curriculum as having completed all lower division general education requirements for the University of California and the California State University. This bill would require the academic senates of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges to jointly develop and identify online courses that would be made available to students of each of the 3 segments for enrollment by the fall of 2014. The bill would require the online courses to be in areas defined as high demand transferable lower division courses under the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum and to be deemed to meet the lower division transfer and degree requirements for the 3 segments. The bill would require the board of governors to create an Internet portal through the California Virtual Campus that facilitates enrollment in the online courses. The bill would require funding for implementation of the bill to be provided for in the annual Budget Act, and would state the intent of the Legislature that the University of California's receipt of this funding be contingent upon its compliance with the bill's requirements. The bill would require the academic senates to submit a progress report to the Legislature by January 31, 2014, and would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to submit a summary and analysis of the implementation of the bill's provisions to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature by October 31, 2015. Pursuant to existing law, this bill would be applicable to the University of California only upon the adoption of an appropriate resolution by the regents. By placing additional requirements on community college districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law, until January 1, 2014, establishes the California Virtual Campus for various purposes, including, among others, to enhance the awareness of, and access to, online courses of study. This bill would extend the provisions establishing the California Virtual Campus until January 1, 2017, and would expand the purposes of the California Virtual Campus to include accomplishing the objectives established by the bill relating to online courses. (3) 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing law, known as the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, contains provisions relating to employer-employee relations between the state and the employees of state institutions of higher education, including the University of California and the California State University, as well as the Hastings College of the Law. These provisions assign major responsibilities for implementation to the Public Employment Relations Board. Under the act, an "employee" or "higher education employee" is defined as any employee of the Regents of the University of California, the Directors of the Hastings College of the Law, or the Trustees of the California State University. The act further provides that the board may find student employees whose employment is contingent on their status as students are employees only if the services they provide are unrelated to their educational objectives, or that those educational objectives are subordinate to the services they perform and that coverage under this act would further the purposes of the act. This bill would provide that student employees whose employment is contingent upon their status as students are employees or higher education employees for purposes of the act. The act prohibits "scope of representation," for purposes of the University of California only, from including, among other things, conditions for the award of certificates and degrees to students. This bill would provide that the conditions for the award of certificates and degrees to students that are outside of the scope of representation include what is required for students to achieve satisfactory progress toward their degrees.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in the state. Existing law authorizes the California Community Colleges to conduct numerous programs. This bill would appropriate $50,000,000 from an unidentified source to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges for allocation as scheduled to Disabled Students Programs and Services and Extended Opportunity Programs and Services. To the extent that the funds appropriated by this bill are allocated to community college districts for these purposes, these funds may be applied toward the minimum funding requirements imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.
(1) Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that governing boards of school districts establish a uniform system of evaluation and assessment of the performance of all certificated personnel within each school district of the state. Existing law requires the governing board of each school district to establish standards of expected pupil achievement at each grade level in each area of study and to evaluate and assess certificated employee performance on a continuing basis as it reasonably relates to the progress of pupils toward the established standards and, if applicable, the state-adopted academic content standards as measured by state-adopted criterion-referenced assessments, the instructional techniques and strategies used by the employee, the employee's adherence to curricular objectives, and the establishment and maintenance of a suitable learning environment, within the scope of the employee's responsibilities. This bill would repeal these provisions, and would revise and recast the requirements for teacher evaluations. The bill would express a legislative finding and declaration that teacher evaluations be effective, comprehensive, and of high quality, and would express legislative intent that teacher evaluations by local educational agencies, as defined, be based on standards upon which a teacher's performance is measured. The bill would specify requirements for the evaluation and assessment of teachers by local educational agencies. The bill would specify that unweighted multiple measures, including pupil assessment data, may be used in teacher evaluations. The bill would require that evaluations be used for, among other purposes, the identification of a teacher's need for professional learning and improved instructional practices. The bill would require that evaluators be knowledgeable and trained to give productive feedback, and that experts in the specific teaching field of the teacher being evaluated be included in the evaluation process. Because the 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing law imposes various taxes, including taxes on the privilege of engaging in certain activities. The Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is a crime, provides procedures for the collection of certain fees and surcharges. This bill would impose an oil and gas severance tax upon any operator, as defined, for the privilege of severing oil or gas from the earth or water in this state for sale, transport, consumption, storage, profit, or use, as provided, at the specified rates, calculated as provided. The tax would be administered by the State Board of Equalization and would be collected pursuant to the procedures set forth in the Fee Collection Procedures Law. The bill would require the board to deposit all tax revenues, penalties, and interest collected pursuant to these provisions into the California Higher Education Fund, a continuously appropriated fund created by this bill, for allocation to the Regents of the University of California, the Trustees of the California State University, the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the Department of Parks and Recreation, and to a reserve account, as provided. Because this bill would expand the scope of the Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is a crime, it would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999 requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with the approval of the State Board of Education, to develop an Academic Performance Index that measures the performance of schools and the academic performance of pupils. Existing law requires the Superintendent, on or before October 1, 2013, to report to the Legislature and recommend to the state board for adoption a method for increasing emphasis on pupil mastery of standards in science and social science through the system of public school accountability or by other means. This bill would require the Superintendent, on or before July 1, 2015, to report to the Legislature and recommend to the state board for adoption a project-based assessment, as specified, through the system of public school accountability, or by other means, to measure the civics learning objectives contained in the history-social science framework for grades 1 to 12, inclusive. The bill would require the civics learning objectives to include specified elements.
The Medi-Cal Act establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, Medi-Cal provider payments to be reduced by 1% or 5%, and provider payments for specified non-Medi-Cal programs to be reduced by 1%, for dates of service on and after March 1, 2009, and until June 1, 2011. Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, Medi-Cal provider payments and payments for specified non-Medi-Cal programs to be reduced by 10% for dates of service on and after June 1, 2011. This bill would instead require that, to the extent permitted by federal law, this payment reduction not apply to skilled nursing facilities or subacute care units that are a distinct part of a general acute care hospital, intermediate care or other specified facilities serving developmentally disabled individuals, or specified Medi-Cal provider payments for fee-for-service benefits, including payments to pharmacies, for dates of service on or after June 1, 2011. The bill would also provide that this payment reduction shall not apply to managed health care plans for dates of service after the effective date of the bill. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
