Sacramento, California - The California State Assembly just wrapped up a full week of floor votes, hearing well over 400 measures. Of those, Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia (D- Coachella) has successfully ushered a vast series of education bills onto the Senate including legislation that would improve school health environment, access to child care, pre-k as well as special education, career technical education, and ethnic studies programs.
School Health/Environment
AB 2453, Air Pollution: Schools (E. Garcia) works to make schools in communities identified for Community Emission Reduction Programs pursuant to AB 617 (Garcia, 2017) eligible for funding for air quality adaptation efforts, including but not limited to installing vegetative barriers and upgrading or installing air filtration systems. Additionally, it would declare that updates to air filtration systems are eligible for facility modernization funding.
“AB 2453 directs air districts to proactively work with school districts to identify what interventions may be available to reduce pollution exposure in priority, heavily pollution burdened communities,” shared Assemblymember Garcia.
“Communities like those in my district have been well served by educational programs like the air quality flag program and other related efforts led by Comite Civico Del Valle. This bill would support both efforts underway and the creation of new programs. The passage of this bill is an important step to improve the health environment for students while attending school.”
Early Education/Child Care
“Unfortunately, tens of thousands of 4-year-olds are without access to pre-k programs,” stated Assemblymember Kevin McCarty who has collaborated with Assemblymember Garcia to introduce AB 1754, Pre-K for All Act of 2018 (McCarty/E. Garcia) that would require the state to provide all 4-year-old children who meet those eligibility requirements with access to early care and education programs.
“Investments in early childhood education are the foundation for building up a stronger California economy,” exclaimed Garcia. “As we go about expanding these early education opportunities and preparing for tomorrow’s economy it is equally important to provide support for our working families by ensuring that they can access child care while pursuing their family’s economic advancement.”
AB 2292, Improving Infant and Toddler Care (Aguiar-Curry) would invest in California’s child care system by increasing state rates for infant and toddler care, creating an inclusive grant program to fund implementation and start-up costs of new child care facilities, and establishing a fund to recruit a new generation of family child care providers.
Special Education
“Children and individuals with special needs must be guaranteed equal opportunities to thrive. I have made it a point to engage with my colleagues and carry legislation that would help provide additional resources to assist students with disabilities and their families,” said Garcia.
This year, he teamed up with several colleagues, Republicans and Democrats alike, to improve the state funding system that offers support for special education to better meet the needs of students with more severe disabilities, establish new family empowerment centers in underserved communities in order to improve special education and developmental services and direct funding for special education teacher mentorship program grants.
AB 3136, Special education funding (O'Donnell/E. Garcia) would make improvements to the state’s funding mechanism that provides critical support to California’s students with special needs by establishing state support for special education preschool services, providing funding to equalize long-standing special education funding inequities, and provide support for students requiring higher cost services due to their disability.
AB 2704, Special education programs: Family Empowerment Centers on Disability (O'Donnell/E. Garcia) seeks to establish new Family Empowerment Centers (FECs) while increasing funding levels for each center, and requiring data collection and reporting to improve coordination between the California Department of Education and FECs. This bill will support the critical work of FECs and improve their ability to act as a resource.
AB 2168, Special Education Grants (Thurmond) directs carryover federal funds to be made available as grants to local education agencies for the creation or expansion of mentorship support programs to promote the retention of special education teachers.
Career Technical Programs/ Ethnic Studies
Garcia stated, “Education is not one-size-fits-all and we must bolster investments into the technical education programs, and cultural enriching courses that encourage students to derive their own unique identity and build lucrative skill sets.”
“Career Technical Education programs are a critical component to lifting California communities out of poverty by aligning our educational system with industry skills and regional workforce development efforts. These opportunities stimulate career aspirations and pathways.”
“The establishment of an After School Coding Grant program through the ASES will help open up a whole wide world of career opportunities for students by enforcing a diverse range of computer programing skill sets.”
“Requiring Ethnic Studies curriculums in schools is of particular significance for students in my district, as it is for many communities across our state like ours with a multitude of cultural demographics. These curriculums help improve the quality of learning our young people receive by empowering our students to take pride in their identity and inadvertently excite them to excel in school.”
AB 2098, Kids Code (McCarty) would establish the After School Kids Code Grant Pilot Program within the ASES framework to provide funding for after-school programs that promote STEM education and focus on computer coding as part of their curriculum.
AB 2772, Pupil Instruction: Ethnic Studies (Medina) would require students to complete semester-long social studies or English language arts course in ethnic studies to graduate from high school, based on a state-adopted model curriculum, commencing in the 2023-24 school year.
AB 1743, California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program (O'Donnell) extends funding for the Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program at $500 million per year and establishes funding of $12 million per year for regional technical assistance.
