There was good news and bad news on the bill-vetoing front. The good news was that Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed Assembly Bill 2167, De Leon, D-Los Angeles. ACSA had identified this as one of this session’s bills that would be particularly harmful from a school administrator’s viewpoint.
AB 2167 was one of the top bills for ACSA to oppose this year, as it would have allowed classified employees to challenge any item in their personnel files that they deemed false, harassing, frivolous or without merit. The district’s grievance procedure – a costly procedure – would then have been used to determine whether an item would be removed or not.
Fortunately, the governor opted to veto this bill. The governor’s veto message stated, “Current law already provides adequate protection for school employees to review the contents and provide rebuttal to documents in their personnel file. Enacting this bill could result in hindering the reasonable process of school management personnel to fairly evaluate and discipline employees. For these reasons, I am unable to sign this bill.”
However, in bad news, the governor also vetoed ACSA-sponsored AB 2468, Brownley, D-Santa Monica. This bill would have changed the procedures the State Board of Education uses in textbook adoptions to include the price of instructional materials in its deliberations.
In Schwarzenegger’s veto message, he wrote: “I have vetoed similar legislation dealing with the cost of instructional materials in prior years. Current law already provides safeguards against California paying higher prices for instructional materials than any other state or school district in the entire country. Moreover, I continue to believe that California should always focus on providing the highest quality of educational materials for our students.”
Other legislation signed by the governor includes two bills that aim to improve the delivery of preschool services: AB 2759, Jones, D-Sacramento, and Senate Bill 1629, Steinberg, D-Sacramento. These two measures, originally recommended by Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell’s P-16 Council as part of its plan to close the achievement gap, were co-sponsored by O’Connell and early education advocates including Children Now, Preschool California, and the California Child Development Administrators Association.
AB 2759 consolidates and reforms the existing five child development programs for preschool-aged children: State Preschool, Full-Day State Preschool, Prekindergarten and Family Literacy, Prekindergarten and Family Literacy Full-Day, and General Child Care and Development Programs to create the California State Preschool Program.
The new law also streamlines the administration of programs providing services to 3- and 4-year-olds, combines statutory and regulatory requirements for the programs, and ensures that children receive either part-day or full-day child development services based on the needs of the family.
SB 1629 establishes a commission to create a state Early Learning Quality Improvement System, which will develop a framework for improving the quality of early education programs. This includes a quality rating scale to help parents make informed decisions about programs for their children, and a graduated funding model to help existing and future programs reach and maintain higher levels of quality.
Among Schwarzenegger’s other vetoes was SB 1446, Romero, D-Los Angeles, which would have required school districts and state special schools to grant a high school diploma to a student with a disability who is scheduled to graduate from high school on or before Dec. 31, 2010, and has not satisfied the California High School Exit Exam requirement or received a CAHSEE waiver.
The measure would have also declared the intent of the Legislature to apply these provisions retroactively to students receiving special education services who were scheduled to graduate in the 2007-08 school year.