CCAE: Membership and Maintenance of Effort

September is Membership Drive Month for CCAE.

That means if you join CCAE in September, you'll be entered in a drawing for iPad.

It also means you'll be part of a team working hard to safeguard and rebuild Adult Education.

Here is a previous AEM post about the benefits of CCAE membership.

Here is a link to the CCAE Membership page.

And here (below) is a quote from Dawn Koepke, Legislative Analyst for CCAE, about SB 91 and the Maintenance of Effort (MOE) Clause.  The recent cuts to Riverside Adult School demonstrate the need for the MOE and continued work to restore and safeguard Designated Funding for K12 Adult Education.

Your membership and participation in CCAE is part of the maintenance of effort we must exert in order to renew and rebuild Adult Education.

Hit the "read more" link to read the terrific quote.

"Specifically, SB 91 provided for a maintenance of effort (MOE) for adult education, requiring school districts who receive state funds originally designated for adult education and who used all or a portion of those state funds to support their adult education program in FY 12-13 to continue that FY 12-13 level of funding for adult education programs for the next two years. Importantly, the funding specifically refers to state funds. In this regard, federal dollars, fees, and other grant funding may not supplant the state funding a district received and directed to adult education in FY 12-13. That level of state funding must remain the same for the next two years and was intended to be above and separate from federal funds, fees, and etc. Any district that fails to follow through on funding its adult education program at the level it did in FY 12-13 will be in violation/non-compliant with the law and the Legislature's intent for the MOE.

 

Certainly, you've noted the anger and insolence of a number of school districts over this provision. We would argue, however, that this is an appropriate action taken by the Legislature - who, again, never intended for districts to dismantle their adult education programs. Categorical flexibility was a difficult mechanism to provide districts options but was not a free pass to shut programs - despite what some districts may believe. Further, with the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) passed as part of this budget, along with funding increases associated with Proposition 30 and the LCFF model, districts will receive more going forward than what they have for a number of years. In this regard, districts who managed their budgets well should have no reason or need to further dismantle their adult education programs. For districts who did not manage finances quite so well, their budgets shouldn't be balanced on the backs of the parents of the K-12 students they are educating - this will only serve to further challenge those families--who through attending adult education classes are striving for a better, more educated life for their families. Districts who refuse to comply with the MOE requirement should be warned that CCAE and CAEAA are not taking such violation of the law lightly. We're working with the California Department of Education (CDE), Legislature, and other organizations to ensure that all districts comply with the MOE requirement.

 

To be clear—the MOE isn't an option for those school districts that may or may not wish to access future regional consortia-related dollars. While the issues were previously tied together, the final budget deal did not provide for this framework that merely incentivized districts to maintain their funding. In its wisdom, the Legislature understood and saw the writing on the wall—that many districts were prepared to close programs entirely and close off their opportunity to future funding so that they could redirect all funds to K-12. In this regard, the Legislature made continuation of funding for two years REQUIRED—not an option under any circumstance."  - July 1 Legislative Update.