BILL ANALYSIS
AB 442
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 442 (Richman)
As Introduced February 14, 2003
Majority vote.
EDUCATION 9-1 APPROPRIATIONS 23-0
(vote not
available)
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|Ayes:|Goldberg, Plescia, Cohn, | | |
| |Diaz, Garcia, Liu, | | |
| |Pavley, Reyes, Wyland | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Mullin | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires each school district budget, beginning with
the 2005-06 fiscal year, to include a specified summary
available to the public and, at a minimum, distributed at public
hearings. Specifically, this bill :
Requires that the summary must contain 11 specified items,
including:
1)Itemized detail of the actual expenditures for the immediate
prior fiscal year and proposed current expenditures for
salaries, benefits, incentive bonuses, expenses, or other
forms of remuneration paid to certificated staff (including
administrators, pupil services personnel, and teachers), and
classified staff, office workers, paraprofessionals, clerical
employees, and others.
2)The actual expenditures in the immediate prior fiscal year,
proposed current year expenditures, and the percentage of any
increase or decrease budgeted for the current fiscal year,
segregated by type of credential for salaries and benefits
paid to employees assigned to classrooms within the school
district.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the governing board of a school district to approve
an annual statement of all receipts and expenditures of the
AB 442
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district for the preceding fiscal year and to file the
statement with the county superintendent of schools.
2)Requires a school district to prepare a budget showing a
complete plan and itemized statement of all proposed
expenditures and of all estimated revenues for the ensuing
fiscal year, together with a comparison of revenues and
expenditures for the existing fiscal year. Requires the board
to hold a public hearing on the district's proposed budget.
3)Requires the governing board of a school district to issue a
school accountability report card annually which must include,
among other things, the estimated expenditures per pupil and
types of services funded, the quality and currency of
textbooks and other instructional materials, the total number
of the school's fully credentialed teachers, and the number of
teachers relying on emergency credentials.
FISCAL EFFECT : Annual reimbursable costs to school districts
probably in excess of $200,000. This assumes districts incur at
least $200 in additional costs to comply with the provisions of
this measure.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "This bill provides for a
transparent disclosure of how school districts spend their funds
in a way the average person can understand. It will require
school districts to develop a summary of their budget, comparing
the amount of funds spent on instruction, administration and
overhead from the past year to the proposed budget year in an
uncomplicated executive summary of the budget.
"The overall goal of the bill is to help keep parents and the
public informed about the school year budget process, helping to
achieve greater accountability for school spending."
Supporters of the bill indicate that traditional school district
budgets are difficult for the layperson to understand quickly,
and cannot be easily compared to prior year actual spending.
According to the opposition this bill would impose an additional
and unnecessary requirement upon local school administrators.
Benefits of the summary required by this bill are clearly
outweighed by the costs in time and resources required to meet
this unfunded state mandate. Existing law already ensures that
financial reporting requirements are already in place. District
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and county office budgets are already available to state
officials and to the public.
Analysis Prepared by : Michael Ricketts / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0001307