BILL NUMBER: SB 148 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Steinberg
FEBRUARY 1, 2011
An act to add and repeal Article 5.5 (commencing with Section
54698) of Chapter 9 of Part 29 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the
Education Code, relating to partnership academies.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 148, as introduced, Steinberg. Partnership academies: Clean
Technology and Renewable Energy Job Training, Career Technical
Education, and Dropout Prevention Program.
Existing law establishes the partnership academies program as a
school-business partnership program to provide occupational training
to educationally disadvantaged high school pupils. Under existing
law, the Superintendent of Public Instruction is required to award
grants to school districts maintaining high schools to plan,
establish, and maintain these partnership academies.
Existing law requires the surcharge imposed on the consumption of
electricity in the state to be transferred to the Energy Resources
Programs Account in the General Fund, which is available, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, for ongoing energy programs and
projects.
This bill would require the Controller annually to allocate
$8,000,000 from the Energy Resources Program Account, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, to the Superintendent of Public
Instruction for expenditure in the form of grants to school districts
to be allocated pursuant to the existing provisions for creating and
maintaining partnership academies. The bill would require a grantee
to implement or maintain a partnership academy that focuses on
employment in clean technology businesses and renewable energy
businesses and provides skilled workforces for the products and
services for energy or water conservation, or both, renewable energy,
pollution reduction, or other technologies.
The bill would require the State Energy Resources Conservation and
Development Commission, in consultation with the State Department of
Education, to develop guidelines, which would be exempted from the
Administrative Procedure Act, to ensure that programs receiving
grants reflect current state energy policies and priorities as well
as provide skills and education linked to the needs of relevant
industries.
The bill would authorize a school district to apply for planning
grants for implementing a partnership academy and would allow the
Superintendent to expend up to 5% of the funds transferred to the
Superintendent to pay the costs incurred in the administration of
this program. The bill would require the Superintendents, in
consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and
Development Commission, to provide a report to the Legislature that
includes a description of the curriculum and substance of the
programs funded by grants awarded pursuant to these provisions, and
specified data. The bill would provide that the bill's provisions
would become inoperative on June 30, 2017, and, as of January 1,
2018, would repeal these provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Article 5.5 (commencing with Section 54698) is added to
Chapter 9 of Part 29 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Education Code,
to read:
Article 5.5. Clean Technology and Renewable Energy Job
Training, Career Technical Education, and Dropout Prevention Program
54698. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) California's international leadership in renewable energy,
energy conservation, clean technology, and climate change policies
creates significant opportunities to improve workforce development
and educational opportunities for high school pupils in the fields of
energy conservation, clean technology, and renewable energy.
(2) California has an opportunity to combine the education and
training of both its future college-educated workforce and its highly
skilled technical workforce with its effort to reduce high school
dropout rates. Clean technology jobs and renewable energy jobs ("
green collar jobs") can provide underserved communities with a
pathway out of poverty, a new and inspiring focus for educational
institutions, and significant statewide economic and environmental
benefits.
(3) A poll of at-risk California 9th and 10th graders by Peter D.
Hart Research Associates found that six in 10 pupils were not
motivated to succeed in school. Of those pupils, more than 90 percent
said they would be more engaged in their education if classes helped
them acquire skills and knowledge relevant to future careers. Career
technical education programs that create paths to further education,
advanced training, or productive jobs in high opportunity careers
can keep pupils engaged and on track toward a diploma.
(4) Investments in delivering pupils the skills and knowledge
needed for further education and employment in industries that focus
on renewable energy, energy conservation, clean technologies, and
climate change mitigation will provide multiple benefits to
California in all of the following ways:
(A) Helping to achieve the state's climate change goals required
by the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5
(commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code).
(B) Creating employment opportunities for Californians that would
otherwise not be fully realized.
(C) Expanding the state's utilization of renewable energy.
(D) Contributing to the growth of clean technology businesses in
California.
(5) Absent action, California will miss an opportunity to curtail
high school dropout and joblessness rates among its young people and
will perpetuate the lack of an integrated education, workforce
development, and business infrastructure that otherwise could take
advantage of the projected growth in these industries and the
corresponding increase in state and local taxes, other public
revenues, and additional economic benefits associated with a likely
surge in clean technology and renewable energy jobs.
(6) California must prioritize the reduction of high school
dropout and joblessness rates among its young people. It must also
ensure that pupils have pathways to careers that will help achieve
its greenhouse gas reduction goals and contribute to the development
of its renewable energy resources.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to stimulate the economy
of the State of California by creating partnership academies that
will lead to the creation of good paying jobs in industries and
businesses that are in compliance with the state's environmental
protection laws and regulations, providing entrepreneurs and
employers the best-trained workforce in the United States, and
preparing young people to work in clean, green industries and
professions. These jobs would help achieve California's climate
change mitigation obligations and conserve our state's vital
resources of water, air quality, land, and energy.
54698.1. As used in this article, the following terms have the
following meanings:
(a) "Clean technology business" means a business that focuses on
one or more of the following:
(1) Energy audits for determining the energy savings that could be
recovered through utility bill financing.
(2) Retrofitting and weatherization activities that increase
energy efficiency and conservation.
(3) Energy- and water-efficient public buildings.
(4) Retrofitting and installing energy-efficient household
appliances, windows, doors, insulation, and lighting.
(5) Retrofitting and installing water and energy conservation
technologies in existing homes, industrial buildings, commercial and
public buildings, and farms, forestlands, and ranches, to improve
efficiency, including the use of energy and water management
technologies and control systems.
(6) The manufacture, sale, assembly, installation, construction,
and maintenance of energy-efficient technologies and renewable energy
facilities or the component parts of renewable energy technologies.
(7) Energy-efficient technologies or practices and renewable
energy production or the component parts of renewable energy plants
and energy distribution, including energy storage, energy
infrastructure (including transmission), transportation (including
logistics), clean vehicle technology, clean heat and power, and water
and wastewater (including water conservation).
(8) Natural resource conservation for the purpose of adapting to
climate change, including fish and wildlife habitat restoration,
reforestation, native species preservation, invasive species
eradication, community tree planting, and other activities that
address stressors on natural resources generated by climate change.
(b) "Renewable energy business" means a business that focuses on
one or more of the following:
(1) Research and development, manufacturing, generation,
development, or maintenance of appropriately sited power line
transmission.
(2) Power storage.
(3) Installation, repair, maintenance, or related activities
necessary to produce energy from wind, photovoltaic, solar thermal,
geothermal, biomass, including cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel, and
biomass power, green waste, and fuel cells.
54699. (a) The Controller shall annually allocate the sum of
eight million dollars ($8,000,000) from the Energy Resources Program
Account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Superintendent
for expenditure in the form of grants to school districts, that
shall be allocated using the same criteria as provided in Article 5
(commencing with Section 54690), except as provided in subdivision
(b) of Section 54691, and pursuant to the additional requirements of
this article.
(b) In addition to the requirements specified in Article 5
(commencing with Section 54690), a school district applying for a
grant shall propose to implement a partnership academy, or to
maintain an existing academy, that focuses on employment in clean
technology businesses or renewable energy businesses and provides
skilled workforces for the products and services for energy or water
conservation, or both, renewable energy, pollution reduction, or
other technologies that improve the environment in furtherance of
state environmental laws.
(c) The Superintendent shall review grant applications submitted
by school districts in consultation with the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission.
(d) The Superintendent, in consultation with the State Energy
Resources Conservation and Development Commission, shall review
ongoing programs to ensure that those programs are consistent with
current state energy policies and priorities.
(e) (1) The State Energy Resources Conservation and Development
Commission, in consultation with the department, shall develop
guidelines to ensure that programs receiving grants reflect current
state energy policies and priorities as well as provide skills and
education linked to the needs of relevant industries.
(2) For the initial adoption of guidelines, the commission shall
provide written notice to the public of not less than 30 days.
(3) For substantive amendments to the guidelines, the commission
shall provide written public notice of not less than 15 days.
(4) Notwithstanding any other law, guidelines adopted pursuant to
this article shall be exempt from the requirements of Chapter 3.5
(commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of
the Government Code.
(f) (1) The Superintendent shall give first priority for grants
pursuant to this article to school districts that propose to
establish a partnership academy at schoolsites that do not currently
participate in the partnership academies program pursuant to Article
5 (commencing with Section 54690) and shall give second priority to
school districts that would establish a partnership academy at
schoolsites that do not currently participate in the green
partnership academies program funded pursuant to Section 32 of
Chapter 757 of the Statutes of 2008.
(2) The Superintendent shall award grants to a school district to
establish or operate a partnership academy pursuant to this article
in the following amounts:
(A) A district operating a partnership academy may receive one
thousand dollars ($1,000) per year for each qualified student
enrolled in grade 9 in an academy during the first year of that
academy's operation, except no more than forty-five thousand dollars
($45,000) may be granted to any one academy for the initial year.
(B) A district operating a partnership academy may receive one
thousand dollars ($1,000) per year for each qualified student
enrolled in either grade 9 or 10 in an academy during the second year
of that academy's operation except that no more than eighty thousand
dollars ($80,000) may be granted to any one academy for the second
year.
(C) A district operating a partnership academy may receive one
thousand dollars ($1,000) for each qualified student enrolled in any
of grades 9 to 11, inclusive, in an academy during the third year of
that academy's operation, except that no more than one hundred twenty
thousand dollars ($120,000) may be granted to any one academy for
the third year.
(D) A district operating a partnership academy may receive one
thousand dollars ($1,000) for each qualified student enrolled in any
of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, in an academy during the fourth and
following years of that academy's operation, except that no more than
one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) may be granted to any
one academy for each fiscal year.
(3) For purposes of this section, "qualified student" has the same
meaning as described in subdivision (c) of Section 54691, but shall
also include a 9th grade pupil who meets the at-risk criteria
specified in Section 54690, who is enrolled in an academy for the 9th
grade, obtains 90 percent of the credits each academic year in
courses that are required for graduation, and successfully completes
a school year during the 9th grade with an attendance record of not
less than 80 percent.
(g) The Superintendent may award a grant to a school district that
has received a grant pursuant to Article 5 (commencing with Section
54690), subject to subdivision (d) and the availability of funds.
(h) The Superintendent shall encourage a school district that
receives a grant under this article to work and coordinate with
regional occupational centers and programs for the required career
technical education sequence of courses.
(i) A school district may apply for planning grants, in accordance
with subdivision (a) of Section 54691, for implementing a
partnership academy pursuant to this article.
(j) Commencing in 2013 and not later than January 1 of each year
for which this article is operative, the Superintendent, in
consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and
Development Commission, shall provide a report to the Legislature
that includes, but is not limited to, a description of the curriculum
and substance of the programs funded by grants awarded pursuant to
this article. The first annual report shall include the
identification of gaps in available curricula relating to clean
technology and renewable energy that are consistent with current
state energy policy and priorities. Commencing in 2014, the report
also shall include pupil participation data and data collected for
purposes of academy certification under subdivision (e) of Section
54691.
(k) Up to 5 percent of the funds transferred to the Superintendent
pursuant to this article may be expended to pay the costs incurred
in the administration of this article.
54699.1. This article shall become inoperative on June 30, 2017,
and, as of January 1, 2018, is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2018, deletes
or extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is
repealed.