Assembly Higher Education Committee Takes Action on Community College Legislation
The Assembly Higher Education Committee, chaired by Assembly Member Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge), took action on 26 bills this past week, most of which pertained to community colleges. The following is a summary of the bills that were considered by the committee:
AB 1780 (Baca, D-Rialto) reduces community college student enrollment fees. Specifically, this bill reduces enrollment fees from $26 to $18 per credit unit. The bill would become effective if federal legislation is enacted that repeals the current federal regulation that limits the size of the Pell Grant that may be received by low-income students enrolled in the community colleges. It is estimated that $142 million would be needed to backfill the revenue that would be lost if the fees were reduced. The bill was approved by the committee.
AB 1923 (Nation, D-San Rafael) prohibits the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges from charging any mandatory system wide tuition and fees to any qualified member of the California National Guard. The bill authorizes qualified members of the National Guard to receive up to 60 units of tuition and fee-waiver benefits for every three years that they have committed to serve in the Guard, and sets a maximum of 120 units of waiver benefits per qualified member under this act. The bill was approved by the committee.
AB 1972 (Daucher, R-Brea) allows for community colleges to establish full-time, non-tenure track faculty positions in specified critical areas of study. Specifically, the bill authorizes the Board of Governors to designate critical areas of study in which there is a shortage of qualified instructors. When a critical area of study is designated as applicable to a community college district, the governing board of that district may enter into full-time, non-tenure track contracts of up to three years to employ faculty to teach in those critical areas of study. The faculty shall be paid according to the appropriate salary schedule for full-time instructors. The bill was approved by the committee.
AB 2086 (Dymally, D-Compton) directs the Chancellor of the Community Colleges, on or before September 1, 2007, to encourage community college districts in Northern California to collaborate with private, open-access, nonprofit tribal colleges to develop and expand nursing and teacher preparation programs. The Chancellor is requested to submit a budget request to the Legislature and the Governor for this purpose. The bill was approved by the committee.
AB 2168 Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge) mandates the establishment of a single general education common core curriculum in the community colleges for students who desire to transfer to the University of California (UC) or California State University (CSU). Specifically, the bill requires the CSU and community colleges, and requests the UC, with the approval of their Academic Senates and in consultation with their students’ representatives, to merge current general education requirements for community college transfer students into a single common core curriculum in general education by June 1, 2008. The bill was approved by the committee.
AB 2666 Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) provides that students who are members of a tribal entity that is located in another state, recognized by, and eligible to receive services from the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, are entitled to resident classification at California’s public colleges and universities. The bill was approved by the committee.
AB 2813 De La Torre (D-South Gate) seeks to expand the benefits of the Cal Grant Programs in three eligibility areas. Specifically, the bill eliminates the restriction in the Cal Grant B Program that denies first-year tuition and fee benefits to 98% of recipients; seeks to raise the age limit from 24 to 27 in the California Community College Transfer Entitlement Program, and increases from 22,500 to 45,000 the number of Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards to be made each year. The bill was approved by the committee.
AB 3015 (Benoit, R-Palm Desert) specifies that any funds appropriated for community college equalization in the 2006-07 Budget Act shall be distributed using the following approach: (a) $50 million in funds shall be appropriated using the methodology specified in current law (this methodology includes the 2003-04 fiscal year base year funding and enrollment data); and (b) any funds appropriated in addition to the $50 million shall be allocated using the formula approved for this purpose by the Board of Governors at its meeting on March 30, 2006 (the so-called “compromise”).
The bill expresses a legislative finding that a total of $161.2 million is needed to be appropriated in the Budget Act of 2006 to complete equalization. If less than that amount is appropriated, the Chancellor shall proportionally allocate the amount that is appropriated so that the result is the same relative funding increase per full-time equivalent students (FTES). The bill was approved by the committee.
ACR 118 (Canciamilla, D-Pittsburg) declares that the existing community college space standards are obsolete as contained in Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations and should be updated in consultation with the Director of Finance. The resolution was approved by the committee.
Finally
All of the bills approved by the committee have a fiscal impact. Thus, they have been referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for their next hearing.
