Governor’s Recent Actions on Community College Legislation
During the last week of the 2006 legislative session, a number of bills affecting the California Community Colleges were approved by both houses of the Legislature, enrolled, and sent to the Governor for his signature or veto. Of those, the following bills have been signed by the Governor and will become law:
AB 1319 (Liu, D-La Canada Flintridge): Adult Education: Joint Data Systems: California Community Colleges
This bill specifies the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that develops a coordinated adult education data system. The bill requires the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, using existing resources, to convene a working group of adult education and data experts to review the separate, existing adult education and noncredit instruction data systems, and report to the Legislature and the Governor by July 1, 2007, on the feasibility, design, and cost of a common data set in adult education.
AB 162 (Leslie, R-Tahoe City): School Facilities: Department of General Services: California Community Colleges
The bill will require the Department of General Services, in consultation with participating school districts and community college districts, to establish mutually determined timeframe goals for a project’s plan review, district and consultant response, response review, and final approval.
AB 2165 (La Suer, R-La Mesa): Postsecondary Education: Intercollegiate Athletics
This bill, notwithstanding the provision that authorizes community college district governing boards to enforce rules and regulations relating to intercollegiate athletics or any other provision of law, prohibits any student athlete enrolled at any campus of the University of California, the California State University, or the California Community Colleges from participating as a member of any intercollegiate athletic team, or as a participant in any intercollegiate athletic event, if he or she, at any time after his or her enrollment as a college or university student, is prosecuted as an adult and is convicted of any of several specified crimes.
AB 2293 (Nava, D-Santa Barbara): Unemployment Compensation: False Information: Educational Institutions
This bill would authorize the assessment of penalties against an employer, or agent of that employer, in submitting facts concerning the termination of a claimant’s employment, when the claimant, while performing services for an educational institution, willfully makes a false statement or representation or willfully fails to report a material fact regarding any week during which the services were performed or any time granted to the claimant for professional development during his or her employment with that employer.
SB 1652 (Vincent, D-Inglewood): Community College Leases
This bill provides community colleges with more flexibility in the short-term leasing of unused facilities not needed for classroom buildings. It increases the number of days that a community college may lease the property from five to 14 separate or consecutive calendar days per year, without being subject to the general provisions regarding the lease and sale of district property.
Vetoed Legislation
SB 1546 (Alarcon, D-Sun Valley): Concurrent Award of Associate Degree and High School Diploma
This bill would have authorized community college districts to establish and offer to students a course of study leading to the concurrent award of the associate degree and a high school diploma.
In part, the Governor’s veto message stated:
I am returning this bill without my signature. This bill circumvents the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) by allowing college districts to concurrently award AA degrees and high school diplomas, without requiring students to pass the CAHSEE. I must reject such a change in policy. If a high school diploma is to mean anything, then those who earn diplomas must demonstrate their mastery of a common core of knowledge by passing an exam explicitly designed to test that mastery: the CAHSEE. In my education trailer bill of last year, I proposed to make it absolutely clear the community colleges do not have the authority to grant high school diplomas without requiring students to pass the CAHSEE.
