CA PTA Legislative Alert

Take Action: Urge the Governor to sign SB 847, so schools can receive $1.2 billion in federal funds now!

As expected, the Legislature adjourned late last night without passing a state budget. As we told you last week, the California Department of Education needs legislative authority to disburse the $1.2 billion that California will receive from the federal government as a result of the passage of the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act.   SB 847 (Steinberg), an urgency measure strongly supported by PTA, passed out of the Legislature yesterday and is now on its way to the Governor's desk.   Call the Governor's office today to urge him to sign SB 847 now, so that these funds will begin flowing to schools as quickly as possible.  Click here to contact the Governor.    SB 847 specifies that the funds are to be disbursed to school districts, county offices of education and charter schools, on the basis of revenue limits, within 14 days of the passage of this act or notification to the state of a federal funding award, whichever is later.  As per the federal legislation, the funds are to be used only for compensation, benefits and other expenses necessary to retain existing employees, to recall or rehire former employees and to hire new employees providing school-level education and related services.  Funds must be used before September 30, 2012.   Two additional bills of interest, also needed to allow for the timely disbursement of federal dollars to school districts, were passed and sent to the Governor in the waning hours of the legislative session. Both are also urgency measures. AB 184 (Block) extends the authority for the Superintendent of Public Instruction to allocate funds for the special disabilities adjustment (SDA) formula for two additional years. AB 185 (Buchanan) authorized the disbursement of School Improvement Grant (SIG) and federal State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) Phase II dollars.