Calif Prop: Payments to Public School Parents

Proposed Initiative Enters Circulation: State Payments to Parents of Public School Children.

Secretary of State Bruce McPherson announced today that the proponent of a new initiative may begin collecting petition signatures for her measure.

The Attorney General’s official title and summary is as follows:

STATE PAYMENTS TO PARENTS OF PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILDREN. STANDARDIZED TESTING. INITIATIVE STATUTE.

Amends state law to require that a grant of $1,000 be awarded to the parent or guardian of each public school student in grades 2 through 11 with a score of proficient or higher on all portions of the California Standards Test administered pursuant to California’s Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program. Provides that California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction shall determine qualifying scores for grant purposes, and provides for an annual appropriation from the General Fund to the Superintendent of Public Instruction to fund the required payments.

Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local governments: Annual state costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars to over $1 billion to provide grants to families of students performing well on standardized tests.

The Secretary of State’s tracking number for this measure is 1141 and the Attorney General’s tracking number is SA2005RF0078.

The proponent, Billie Jo Aldrich-Fallert, must collect 373,816 signatures of registered voters, equal to five percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2002 gubernatorial election, in order to qualify the measure. The 150-day deadline to circulate petitions for this measure is December 12, 2005. The initiative proponent can be reached at 559-967-1158.