CA's Education Reform Stalled in the Senate

Bill SBX5 1 stalled in the Assembly Education Committee while alternative Bill ABX5 8 moves forward to the Assembly Floor.

A major education reform package aimed at reforming California Education Code to align with the Federal education reform mandates of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) failed to gain approval of the California Assembly Education Subcommittee.

Both SBX5 1 (Romero) and ABX5 8 (Brownley) would make key changes to California Education laws making the state eligible to apply for some of the nearly 4 billion dollars in ARRA funding through the Race to the Top (RTTT) program. The key differences in the bill reported by the SF Chronicle is the elimination of a strong parent choice component in SBX5 1 that would have allowed parents of children in Program Improvement schools to move their child to any school, anywhere in the state; and stronger regulations imposed on Charter Schools in ABX5 8.

ABX5 8 may be voted on today in special session. If approved, the bill would be sent to the Senate for confirmation. California has only until January 19th to submit grant for the first round of RTTT funding. Not all states will receive RTTT funding and it is a one-time grant to the states so there is a sense of urgency to get a “hat in the ring” before the money runs out.

Proponents of SBX5 1 denounced the elimination of parental choice and the imposition of regulations on Charter Schools concerned that the Assembly form of the bill makes California less competitive in the RTTT competition.

The Grant Goddess will continue watching this one for you!

ASES Weekend Programs Bill AB 983 Dies in Committee

Loyal readers of the Grant Goddess blog! We’re busy working on a brand new web site that will include information about pertinent legislation. Here’s a little sample of what’s coming.

ASES Weekend Programs Bill AB 983 Dies in Committee

What a long, strange trip it was for Assembly Bill 983 that died in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner authored the bill in February 2009 to help school districts use their After School Education and Safety program (ASES) grant to run programs on weekends as well as during the weekdays.

Many school districts that receive this funding have trouble using all the funding with after school weekday programming. Since many of these schools are located in neighborhoods where a weekend program would help keep kids out of trouble, it was a logical and cost-free solution.

But, not all of the Senators agreed that it was cost free because school districts that didn’t use their ASES funding had to return the unused dollars back to the state budget. The Senators labeled it a “cost pressure bill” because schools would use more of the money already granted leaving less to return to the state budget.

Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill the year before because in his opinion weekends didn’t fit the intent of the Prop 49 original legislation (that created ASES). In my experience, weekends typically do begin after school lets out on Friday...

After passing successfully through the Assembly, and the Senate Education Committee, AB 983 died in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

But the odyssey of AB 983 didn’t end there. Assemblywoman Skinner was suddenly pressed into action to author a recycling bill that would have added a redemption value to currently un-taxed beverage containers over 16 oz. in size including juice containers. So the education language was stripped out of AB 983 and an attempt was made to reuse the bill as a vehicle with an entirely new purpose.

This process failed and the “bottle” bill was re-authored and submitted as Senate Bill 402 passing both the Assembly and Senate, and subsequently vetoed by the Governor. Governor Schwarzenegger in his veto cited the bill placed too much burden on citizens already suffering in the bad economy and that the existing retainer fee fund has made large loans to the General Fund leaving no money to expand the program at this time.

Bottom line is that AB 983 failed to pass in any form and ASES grant recipients still cannot use the grant money for weekend programs. But, for what it’s worth, they can still buy large bottles of juice without a container redemption fee.

Working with a Grant Writer

Today's BlogTalkRadio Tips from the Grant Goddess show will focus on Working with a Grant Writer. We will be discussing how to know if a grant writer is right for you, what to look for when hiring a grant writer, what should be included in the contract, and what services you can expect from a grant writer.

Join us today online at 3:00 p.m. (Pacific) to hear the show LIVE. During the live broadcast, you can call in with your questions or comments.

If you can make it to the live broadcast, you can access the archived version from here on our blog, or by going to our show page at BlogTalkRadio.

Click here to read some quick tips about working with a grant writer.

The radio show will cover many more tips than those you can read on the website, so plan on taking 30 minutes to listen to the broadcast.

Grant Goddess? Hello? Hello?

O.k., I am sure that you are smart enough to notice the big gap in posts between June and now. No, I haven't been on a cruise for the last several months. I have been busy, busy, busy writing and working. I have been spending a lot of my time exploring other social networking options as vehicles for getting information to all of you (Facebook, etc.).

There are so many options these days that it's almost overwhelming, isn't it?

In any event, we're back here.....after all of our searching and exploration, it has become clear that this is the place to focus on for sharing our information.

So, feel free to follow us on Twitter or Facebook, but but the grantgoddess.com website and the blog (right here) will be the place to come for your grant-related information.

Write to the RFA or the Rubric?

This is an interesting question - should you address your narrative to the RFA instructions or the scoring rubric (if one is provided for you)?

The best answer, of course, is both. But what if the instructions in the RFA (that's Request for Applications) and the scoring rubric differ?

I participated in a grant competition this summer in which the funder put out the word that they knew the instructions and the scoring rubric did not match, and that even though the readers would be instructed to use the scoring rubric to make their decisions, they wanted the applicants to follow the instructions in the RFP. the scoring rubric was just provided for our information. Huh?

Here's my advice (and what I did for that competition over the summer):

Follow the instructions. However, make sure you also address everything in the scoring rubric. Unless the scoring rubric and the instructions give you opposite instructions (usually, if they don't match, it's the case that one just leaves out criteria that are included in the other), you'll have nothing to worry about if you write to both.