AB 247: Education finance: school facilities: Kindergarten Through Grade 12 Schools and Local Community College Public Education Facilities Modernization, Repair, and Safety Bond Act of 2024.

(1)The California Constitution prohibits the Legislature from creating a debt or liability that singly or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabilities exceeds the sum of $300,000, except by an act that (1) authorizes the debt for a single object or work specified in the act, (2) has been passed by a 23 vote of all the Members elected to each house of the Legislature, (3) has been submitted to the people at a statewide general or primary election, and (4) has received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at that election.

This bill would set forth the Kindergarten Through Grade 12 Schools and Local Community College Public Education Facilities Modernization, Repair, and Safety Bond Act of 2024 as a state general obligation bond act that would provide $10,000,000,000 to construct and modernize education facilities, including $8,500,000,000 for elementary and secondary educational facilities and $1,500,000,000 for community college facilities, as specified. This bond act would become operative only if approved by the voters.

(2)The Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 provides for the adoption of rules, regulations, and procedures, under the administration of the Director of General Services, for the allocation of state funds by the State Allocation Board for the construction and modernization of public school facilities.

This bill would require a school district to submit to the Department of General Services a 5-year school facilities master plan as a condition of participating in the school facilities program under the act. The bill would amend the methodology for calculating the local contribution a school district is required to make in order to be eligible to receive state funding under the act, as specified. The bill would require a school district that seeks new construction or modernization funding under the act after November 5, 2024, to submit an updated report of the school districts existing school building capacity to the State Allocation Board.

The bill would authorize the allocation of state funds under the act for the replacement of school buildings that are at least 75 years old, for specified assistance to school districts with a school facility located on a military installation, as specified, and small school districts, as defined, and for the testing and remediation of lead levels in water fountains and faucets used for drinking or preparing food on schoolsites, as provided. The bill would authorize new construction and modernization grants to be used for seismic mitigation purposes, certain health and safety projects, and, among other things, to establish schoolsite-based infrastructure to provide broadband internet access. The bill would also authorize modernization grants to be used for the control, management, or abatement of lead.

The bill would increase the maximum level of total bonding capacity, as defined, that a school district could have and still be eligible for financial hardship assistance under the act from $5,000,000 to $15,000,000. The bill, commencing with the 202627 fiscal year, would increase that $15,000,000 maximum by a specified inflation adjustment each fiscal year. The bill would authorize the State Allocation Board to provide assistance for purposes of procuring interim housing to school districts and county offices of education impacted by a natural disaster for which the Governor has declared a state of emergency. The bill would also make conforming changes.

The bill would make these provisions effective upon the adoption by the voters of the Kindergarten Through Grade 12 Schools and Local Community College Public Education Facilities Modernization, Repair, and Safety Bond Act of 2024.

(3)This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.