Legislative Updates
Current Updates
January 25, 2011
California Alliance State Policy Issues Brief
With a new Governor, State Superintendent of Public Instruction and close to forty new Legislators, the California Alliance has drafted a state policy issues brief that articulates our position on a number of specific policy issues which will be taken up by new leadership and ultimately shape arts education in our public schools. The brief lists the priorities for K-12 education established by Governor Brown, alongside the Alliance’s perspective on each of those priorities. During January, Alliance executive director Laurie Schell, Alliance policy director Joe Landon, and legislative advocate Kathy Lynch met individually with the new legislators and their legislative staff in Sacramento to deliver the paper and discuss our positions.
September 30, 2010
Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed AB2446
On September 30, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed AB2446 (Furutani), citing cost as a primary reason for the veto. Arts education advocates have achieved a legendary “David and Goliath” victory in the defeat of this bill, which would have diminished access to the arts and foreign language courses for high school students. The Alliance is grateful to our staunch army of advocates for staying the course through a long campaign. The Governor’s signing message is as follows:
To the Members of the California State Assembly:
I am returning Assembly Bill 2446 without my signature. Improving and expanding Career Technical Education (CTE) opportunities has been among my highest priorities. While I am supportive of the author’s intent to give CTE a prominent place in high school graduation priorities, the final version of this bill omitted my Administration’s proposed amendments that were intended to limit the new costs to school districts. Therefore, I am concerned that this bill could be construed to impose higher costs without a fund source, which could also be interpreted as a state reimbursable mandate. Given that school budgets are very constrained due to the recession, adding new costs at this time is not advisable.
For these reasons, I am unable to sign this bill.
Sincerely,
Arnold Schwarzenegger
September 9 , 2010
AB 2446 (Furutani)
Despite the Alliance’s success in blocking the bill in the Senate Appropriations Committee, the bill, with strong support from both labor and the business community, was amended in the final hours of the last day of the session, and quickly passed votes in both the Assembly and the Senate. The Governor has thirty days in which to sign or veto the bill.
SB1076 (Price)
Authored by Senator Curren Price, Chair of the Joint Committee on the Arts, the bill passed both houses and was sent to the Governor for his signature on September 3. This bill would authorize taxpayers to designate on their tax returns that a specified amount in excess of their tax liability be transferred to the California Arts Council Fund to support their efforts.
