The California Legislature is back in session and a slew of new bills are pouring into the hopper.  Before the current session comes to an end, close to 3,000 proposed measures will wend their way through the legislative process.  Some will be stillborn.  Others will die in committee.  Most will be amended, often significantly, before achieving passage.  Many will impact education, both public and private, spanning preschool to post-secondary levels.  A number of bills will be of significant consequence to private religious and independent schools offering instruction in grades K-12.

CAPSO scans all bills and, using special software, conducts a variety of searches that focus on both key terms (e.g. "private school," "teaching credential," etc.) and specific sections of existing law.  We would, for example, flag any newly introduced bill proposing any modification to Section 33190 of the California Education Code, which contains the statute concerning the filing of the annual private school affidavit.  Of course, our sleuthing isn't restricted to the Education Code; newly proposed additions or changes to the Health and Safety Code, Penal Code, Revenue and Taxation Code, Vehicle Code, and other compilations may impact private schooling either directly, or indirectly.
 
Sometimes we become aware of bills that propose particular benefits to public school employees, but which exclude private school counterparts.  Examples might include eligibility for the exercise of a particular tax benefit, participation in a pilot program, or eligibility for receipt of a grant.  At other times, we may find private schools subjected to proposed requirements that, in our view, would introduce an unnecessary degree of government interference in the operation of private schools.  Examples include proposed legislation requiring the preparation and submission of various reports (such as an annual pest control report), and limitations placed upon the sort of cleaning supplies a private school may use.  We are particularly vigilant when it comes to bills that would subject private schools to excessive regulation in the areas of admissions, personnel, curriculum, instruction, assessment and governance.

Bills that are flagged are evaluated by CAPSO's Public Policy Committee, which may make action recommendations to the board of directors and respective member organizations.  Recommendations may take the form of a simple "Support," or "Oppose" position, or may indicate more complex positions such as "Support if Amended," or "Oppose unless Amended."  In the latter instances, the Public Policy Committee will spell out the substance of the desired amendments.

CAPSO's bylaws require unanimity among the members in order for positions on pending legislation to be taken in the name of the organization.  Prior to establishing a formal position on a bill, each board member and member-organization contact is briefed on the nature of the legislation in question, and the rationale underlying the response proposed by the Public Policy Committee.  Of course, each member-organization remains at complete liberty to express its own opinions on any bill.  Needless to say, there is strength in numbers, and CAPSO's unanimity policy ensures that our lobbying efforts are supported by a broad and diverse membership base.
 
In the months to come, CAPSO will be asking its constituents to take personal action in support of or opposition to various bills.  To facilitate grass roots activism on behalf of positions that reflect the interests of California's broadly inclusive private school community, CAPSO maintains a web-based Legislative Action Center.  As CAPSO begins to take positions on various bills, the Legislative Action Center will provide "Action Alerts," that allow users to send pre-scripted (but customizable) emails to their state Assembly Members and Senators.  Please bookmark our "Legislative Alerts and Updates" page, and check it periodically, for information about CAPSO's positions on pending bills.  You can also join CAPSO's "Action E-List," to receive emails whenever a new alert is posted.

Please help CAPSO help private schools safeguard their ability to pursue their distinctive visions and missions by utilizing the Legislative Action Center and playing an active role in the fashioning of laws affecting private, K-12 education.

In June, 2010, the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) produced a report drawing attention to the finding that students with disabilities were not being afforded an equal opportunity to participate in extracurricular athletics in public elementary and secondary schools.  That finding led to the January 25, 2013 issuance of new federal guidance intended to clarify schools' responsibilities under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504). 
 
Section 504's provisions apply only to those private schools deemed to be recipients of federal financial assistance, a qualification that excludes the vast majority. According to the USDE's Office of Non-Public Education:

The new guidance has been misconstrued by some.  The Thomas B. Fordham Institute's Mike Petrilli, for example, opined that while "I love wheelchair basketball...it boggles my mind that the Obama Administration, without an ounce of public debate or deliberation, without an iota of Congressional authorization or approval, could declare by fiat that public schools nationwide must provide such programs or risk their federal education funding."  A Washington Times' article likened the new federal guidance to Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, the sweeping law requiring the provision of equal athletic opportunities to women.

Department of Education spokesperson Daren Briscoe helped to clear the air by offering the following statement to Education Week's Michele McNeil: "The guidance does not say that there is a right to separate sports programs such as wheelchair basketball. Rather, the guidance 'urges'-but does not require-that when inclusion is not possible, school districts find other ways to give students with disabilities the opportunity to take part in extracurricular athletics."
 
Rather than imposing sweeping mandates, it appears the new guidance is directed at clarifying how schools can facilitate the participation of students with disabilities in extracurricular activities by providing "reasonable accommodations."  Examples, provided in this USDE press release, include:

• "The allowance of a visual cue alongside a starter pistol to allow a student with a hearing impairment who is fast enough to qualify for the track team the opportunity to compete.

Andrew Rotherham embraces the new guidance, drawing nuanced comparisons to both Title IX and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA):
 

Sen. Harkin Won't Seek Re-Election in 2014

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who has been called  "arguably the most powerful lawmaker in Congress when it comes to education," has announced he will not seek re-election in the next round of Congressional elections.  The Hawkeye State Democrat currently performs double duty as chair of both the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the funding of federal education programs.

Speculation has now begun over what the five-term Senator, who also served for ten years in the U.S. House of Representatives, hopes to accomplish during the remainder of his time on Capitol Hill.  In 2011, Senator Harkin led an unsuccessful effort to advance the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.  While some see a long overdue rewrite of the nation's major federal education law as the Iowa lawmaker's top priority, others think it unlikely.  Pushing for a revamped ESEA, they argue, would effectively pull the rug out from under the waivers already granted by the Obama Administration to over 30 states.  Two possible caveats accompanying that point of view: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has labeled ESEA reauthorization a second-term priority, and Iowa is not among the current crop of waivers recipients.


"The ABCs of School Choice" 2013 Edition

More than one million students at 3,000 events in every state recently celebrated National School Choice Week. To showcase the laws that give more than 255,000 children vouchers and scholarships to attend private school, the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice has released its 2013 edition of "The ABCs of School Choice." 

 

This comprehensive guide covers every voucher, tax-credit scholarship, education savings account, and individual tax credit/deduction program in operation; currently there are 39 private school choice programs in 21 states and Washington, D.C. The guide's program profiles also feature the children, parents, teachers, and schools that benefit from school choice policies. 

 

Along with those personal stories, "The ABCs of School Choice" provides policymakers, advocates, researchers, and reporters with each program's most recent participation numbers, funding levels, eligibility requirements, and historical usage rates. Also, unique to this year's edition is the "Friedman Feedback" section, which offers ways states can expand each program to eventually fund all children, a vision first established by the late Milton Friedman, a Nobel laureate.

 

 

Read the CAPE Outlook!

 

By now, readers are probably familiar with the uplifting personal history of Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.   The distinguished jurist began her life in a tenement located in a tough South Bronx neighborhood, and lost her alcoholic father at the tender age of nine.  What you may not have known is that Justice Sotomayor's mother scrimped and saved to enable her two children to  attend a Catholic school.  The future Supreme Court Justice became valedictorian of Blessed Sacrament's graduating class of 1968.  Recalling her experience at the school, Justice Sotomayor rendered an uncontested verdict: "It taught me how to be a good person," she said, adding that the school provided "a road of opportunity for kids with no other alternative."  

 

Sadly, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Blessed Sacrament School is slated for closure, along with 23 other financially strapped Catholic schools, each a community pillar and source of encouragement and achievement for countless numbers of children and families.  You can read more about the story in this month's edition of the CAPE Outlook newsletter, which also features stories on school safety, National School Choice Week, two newly published school choice resources, and more.

 

The CAPE Outlook newsletter is published monthly during the course of the school year by the Council for American Private Education. CAPSO is CAPE's California affiliate.  

 

California Democrats have achieved super-majorities in both houses of the state legislature.  The state's incumbent governor is a Democrat, as are both its U.S. senators, and 40 of 55 members of its congressional delegation.  In the November elections, President Obama's Golden State margin of victory over GOP nominee Mitt Romney was a resounding 60.3% to 37.2%.  In short, California is a very blue state.

So, if you're a current Republican member of the California legislature, what do you do?  In the case of Jeff Gorell, a second-term Assembly Member from Camarillo, you introduce AB 67.  Depending upon your personal views and partisan loyalties, you are either likely to regard Mr. Gorell's bill as a brilliantly cunning snare, or a vacuously cynical bit of political theater. 

AB 67 begins with a declaration reminding the people of the state that the passage of Proposition 30 will produce an estimated $50 billion over a period of seven years.  The bill next states that voters were promised that the imposition of Proposition 30's additional taxes would "protect education" and "...provide General Fund support for the California State University, the University and of California, and the California Community Colleges."  Then comes the haymaker - the creation of a freeze on State University, University of California, and community college tuition and fees over the entire seven-year period during which the Prop. 30 tax hikes remain in effect.   

 

The bill is co-authored by no fewer than 20 additional Republicans, which suggests it is the product of deliberate crafting by the Republican Caucus rather than a solo effort tossed into the hopper by a maverick.  If AB 67 makes its way to a committee hearing, it should be fascinating to note exactly who lines up in support of the measure, and who in opposition.  The Republicans are sure to seek out students who will cheer the bill on, pointing to the dramatic rate of increase in tuition and fees in recent years, and reminding Democrats that Governor Brown asked them to support Proposition 30 to keep tuition in check.  

 

Democrats will likely counter with other students who may well argue that the imposition of a multi-year freeze on tuition and fee hikes will cripple the growth of academic programs, jeopardize faculty retention, and weaken the quality of teaching and research.  They will, undoubtedly, be joined by university and community college administrators.  In response, Republicans will ask where the money will come from to pay for increases in tuition and fees if the funds generated by Proposition  30 are considered insufficient.  And the answer they are likely to receive is that additional revenue will be generated by economic growth as California recovers from the economic downturn.  

 

While hopes for the return of  a robust economy are shared by members of both parties, the state agency primarily responsible for wedding economic forecasting to political policy - the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office - draws a cautionary note.  By way of response to Governor Brown's proposed budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year, the LAO cautioned:

 

"We note that there are still considerable risks to revenue estimates given uncertainty surrounding federal fiscal policy and the volatility inherent in our revenue system. In addition, under the Governor's multiyear plan, the state would still have no sizable reserve at the end of 2016-17 and would not have begun the process of addressing huge unfunded liabilities associated with the teachers' retirement system and state retiree health benefits. As such, the state faces daunting budget choices even in a much-improved fiscal environment."

 

Governor Brown appears more optimistic.  In his recent "State of the State" address, the onetime seminarian paraphrased the biblical account Pharaoh's dream, as interpreted by Joseph:

 

"Recall the story of Genesis and Pharaoh's dream of seven cows, fat fleshed and well favored, which came out of the river, followed by seven other cows lean fleshed and ill favored. Then the lean cows ate up the fat cows. The Pharaoh could not interpret his dream until Joseph explained to him that the seven fat cows were seven years of great plenty and the seven lean cows were seven years of famine that would immediately follow. The Pharaoh took the advice of Joseph and stored up great quantities of grain during the years of plenty. When famine came, Egypt was ready.

 

"The people have given us seven years of extra taxes. Let us follow the wisdom of Joseph, pay down our debts and store up reserves against the leaner times that will surely come."

 

Those strike me as wise words.  Consider the source. 

 

 Ron Reynolds 

The next edition of the CAPSO Midweek E-Mailer will be published February 27, 2013.