After marathon talks, a compromise bill to compete for federal Race to the Top funds will be unveiled today in the Senate education committee.
The measure, Senate Bill X5 4, is expected to be acted upon by the Senate today but not by the Assembly until lawmakers reconvene in early January.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass are preparing a joint statement, said Alicia Trost, Steinberg's spokeswoman.
The new Senate bill will address numerous education-reform priorities of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and target the issues demanded by the federal government in its $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition, Trost said.
The new bill represents a compromise between competing Senate and Assembly bills in key areas involving charter schools and the ability of parents served by persistently failing schools to force major campus change or to enroll their students in other districts, according to Trost.
SBx5 4 was filed under Steinberg's name but is expected to be amended to have Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, as its principal author.
One issue that remains under intense discussion, and is likely to be targeted in today's Senate hearings, involves the open enrollment issue -- the extent to which parents would have the right to transfer their children from failing campuses, Trost said.
SBX5 4 would allow parents to successfully petition for major changes in their schools, but limit the number of campuses statewide to 75, Trost said.
Charter-school accountability requirements, and other disputed issues involving charter schools, are not contained in the new bill, she said.
Trost said passage of SBx5 4 is not necessarily certain. "We're going to have to find out if it gets (through the Senate education committee) and then, obviously, out of Appropriations and off our floor," she said.
Trost said she does not know whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger supports the new bill. He has been adamant recently that he will veto any Race to the Top legislation that does not go far enough in improving schools.
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