Senate Education Committee Takes Action on Its “Suspense File”
The Senate Education Committee took action on its “suspense file” on April 27, 2006. The “suspense file” is a process used by the committee to determine the cost implications of a piece of legislation. In general, all bills that have costs in them that exceed $150,000 are referred to the “suspense file.”
The following bills affecting community colleges were acted upon by the committee:
• SB 1264—Student Financial Aid: Cal Grant Deadlines (Alquist, D-San Jose)—This bill would push back the deadline for the Cal Grant program from March 2 to June 30. This bill will not affect the date when students may begin to apply for the Cal Grant.
This bill was approved by the committee.
• SB 1304—Community College Facilities (Runner, R-Antelope Valley)—This bill would authorize local community college districts to acquire existing government- or privately-owned buildings and use state funds for converting them to community college use if they meet the following criteria:
The building was constructed as a school building or has been rehabilitated consistent with pupil safety performance standards equivalent to those of a school building
The total cost of purchasing and converting the building is less than the estimated cost of constructing an equivalent new building
The land associated with the building will be owned by, or controlled through, a long-term lease by the community college district and approved by the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC)
The bill also specifies that these buildings shall be subject to the annual prioritization process of the BOG with no higher priority for state funding than other projects, and that funding for instructional equipment shall be available in the same manner as for other community college facilities.
This bill was approved by the committee.
• SB 1309—Nursing (Scott, D-Altadena)—This bill makes a variety of proposals to address the nursing shortage in California, including promoting high school pre-nursing health career-technical education pathways, reducing student attrition in California Community College (CCC) nursing programs, increasing the number of nursing slots at both the CCCs and the California State University (CSU), promoting the recruitment and retention of CCC nursing faculty, facilitating student and faculty clinical placements, and creating a statewide health workforce database.
This bill was approved by the committee.
• SB 1421—Child Care: CalWORKs Recipients: Fraud (Margett, R-Arcadia)—This bill requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to conduct a two-year pilot study in Los Angeles County to investigate possible incidents of fraud in welfare-related child care.
This bill was approved by the committee.
• SB 1460—Inmate Education Programs (Cox, R-Fair Oaks)—SB 1460 would authorize a community college that generates units of full-time equivalent student (FTES) in classes for inmates to add and count credit attendance hours for state apportionment purposes and authorizes an adjustment of the noncredit base revenue to reflect student workload measures generated and revenues received in the 2006-07 fiscal year. This bill would expand the existing authority to include state correctional facilities.
This bill was approved by the committee.
• SB 1497—Community College Fee Waiver (Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga)—This bill waives the enrollment fee at the California Community Colleges (CCCs) for students who are the spouse or child of a United State Armed Forces (USAF) member who is serving in a combat zone.
This bill was held in committee.
• SB 1563—Community College Early Assessment Pilot Program (Escutia, D-Whittier)—This bill establishes the Community College Early Assessment Pilot program, under which up to 25 community colleges would be authorized to participate to provide students at their feeder high schools with an indicator of their readiness for college-level English and math. The program would be administered by the California Partnership for Achieving Student Success (Cal-PASS), which the bill also establishes.
This bill was approved by the committee.
• SB 1709—College Opportunity Act (Scott, D-Altadena)—This bill calls on the Governor to convene and chair a “State of College Opportunity” meeting every two years through 2015 to assess state progress toward achieving California’s higher education goals. The meeting includes representatives from the Legislature, higher education, and various public leaders.
The measure also requires the state to notify families of every student in the 6th, 8th, and 10th grades about those opportunities, including information on financial aid programs, and the development of a 10-year enrollment plan for the higher education system—setting annual growth at a minimum of 2.5%-3% per year.
This bill was approved by the committee.
