BILL ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2385| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ THIRD READING Bill No: AB 2385 Author: John A. Perez () Amended: 8/17/10 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 7-1, 6/30/10 AYES: Romero, Alquist, Emmerson, Hancock, Liu, Price, Simitian NOES: Huff NO VOTE RECORDED: Wyland SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 10-1, 8/12/10 AYES: Kehoe, Ashburn, Alquist, Corbett, Emmerson, Leno, Price, Wolk, Wyland, Yee NOES: Walters ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 62-13, 6/3/10 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Pilot Program for Innovative Nursing and Allied Health Care Profession Education at the California Community Colleges SOURCE : Author DIGEST : This bill establishes the Pilot Program for Innovative Nursing and Allied Health Care Profession Education at the California Community Colleges (CCC) to be administered by the CCC Chancellor's Office. Under this program, up to five campuses will be selected by the CCC CONTINUED AB 2385 Page 2 Chancellor to offer pilot programs that test innovative delivery models and expand student capacity in health care occupations for which there is a substantial labor market demand. Sunsets on July 1, 2017. ANALYSIS : The CCCs provide instruction to about 1.5 million students at 109 colleges operated by 72 locally governed districts throughout the state. The system offers academic and occupational programs at the lower division (freshman and sophomore) level, as well as recreational courses and precollegiate basic skills instruction. The CCCs offer a broad range of degrees, certificates, courses and transfer majors including those in nursing and the allied health professions (e.g. dental hygiene, dental assisting, medical assistant, occupational therapy assistant, physical therapy assistant, pharmacy technical, and sonography). In addition, many colleges have established programs intended to promote regional economic development. Current law requires CCCs to charge each student a fee of $26 per unit effective with the fall term of the 2009-10 academic year. This bill establishes a seven-year pilot program to be administered by the CCC Chancellor's Office to encourage up to five CCCs to establish innovative programs in areas which prepare students for health occupations for which there is a substantial labor market demand. Specifically, the bill: 1.Requires the CCC Chancellor to: A. Develop, contingent upon obtaining resources, a "request for application" (RFA) for CCCs to apply to participate on or after the 2011-12 academic year in this pilot program. The RFA will be developed in collaboration with representatives from education, labor, health care employers, licensing and credentialing entities, regional occupational centers and programs, hospitals and nursing organizations, and other appropriate entities. B. Select up to five campuses, ideally geographically distributed throughout the state, to participate in the pilot program. Existing innovative programs AB 2385 Page 3 currently underway that require additional resources "to move to scale" would be eligible to apply. C. Pursue funding to help support the development and delivery of the pilot program including but not limited to federal funds, private funds, employer contributions and state and federal workforce funds. D. Collect data, analyze this data, and contract with an external evaluator to conduct an independent evaluation, with findings and recommendations with respect to the pilot program to be reported to the Legislature by January 1, 2017. 2.Requires participating campuses to: A. Provide an industry-recognized certificate or degree in health care fields for which there is a demonstrated shortage of workers in the labor market and documented support from employers. B. Demonstrate a capacity to train specified health care workers, or the ability to sustain or expand current innovative health care education and training programs, or both. Limited capacity may be demonstrated by demonstrated by waiting lists to enter existing community college allied health care or nursing programs. C. Provide evidence of sufficient clinical sites. D. Include high-quality curriculum delivery models. Provide that all courses shall meet the curriculum standards approved by the appropriate state licensing entities that oversee each health occupation, and shall not in any way shorten the clinical units or hours as determined by the appropriate state licensing entities that oversee each health occupation. Curriculum already approved by the appropriate state licensing entities that oversee each health occupation shall be deemed to satisfy the requirements. E. Have flexible delivery models (e.g. on-line or AB 2385 Page 4 distance learning; and intensive week-end, evening, or summer courses.) F. Enhance student success by providing student support services to students in the pilot program including but not limited to advisers, tutors, mentors, financial assistance and internship assistance. G. Demonstrate clear, nonduplicative, and articulated education pathways with local secondary and postsecondary education entities. H. Identify funding resources to support the pilot program, as specified. 3.Authorizes participating campuses when selecting students for admission to the pilot program to use the diagnostic assessments and multicriteria screening assessments authorized under current law for admission to CCC nursing programs. 4.Authorizes participating campuses to collect supplemental student fees from students in the program to support the program. Such fees would have to be based on a fee schedule approved by the CCC Chancellor at the time the campus applies to participate in the pilot program. The bill specifies that any such fees could not offset state apportionment funding, and part or all of any CCC supplemental fee may be covered by student financial aid for eligible students. 5.States legislative intent that the pilot program be funded with a combination of state apportionment funding, employer-based partnerships, federal grants, and private philanthropic resources. 6.Includes a variety of findings and declarations. 7.Provides that the provisions of this bill shall be implemented in any fiscal year only to the extent that the Chancellor's Office determines that sufficient monies are available to administer the program. AB 2385 Page 5 7.Becomes inoperative on July 1, 2017, and sunsets on January 1, 2018. Comments Need for the Bill . According to the author, the CCC system offers educational programs in a variety of allied health care professions and prepares approximately 70 percent of California's registered nurses. These are among the most costly CCC programs, which, in recent years have been subjected to budget cuts. Colleges have thus been forced to limit enrollment and are struggling to keep pace with program demand. Supplemental Fee Authority . Perhaps the most significant feature of this bill is that it allows up to five CCCs for a limited period of time to charge higher student fees for enrollment in certain programs. There currently exist a wide variety of differential fees within California's public and private higher education institutions. For example, a student admitted in 2009-10 to a California State University (CSU) School of Nursing to pursue a Bachelor's of Science Degree in Nursing (BSN) would pay student fees of approximately $5,000 per year for each of two years whereas this same student pursuing a BSN at the University of California (UC) would pay an estimated $10,000. An identical student pursing a BSN at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland would pay approximately $35,000 per year. A student pursuing an Associate Degree of Nursing at a CCC in 2010-11 is expected to pay $26 per unit. Part-time nursing students at Samuel Merritt University pay $1,504 per unit. UC currently charges special fee rates for 12 professional programs including nursing, medicine and pharmacy. These special fees are substantially higher that the fees paid by students in other programs. In addition, both UC and CSU have accredited extension programs through which students (matriculated and nonmatriculated) may take credit courses; extension course fees are substantially higher than university fees as there is no state subsidy and students must pay the full cost of AB 2385 Page 6 delivering the course. In one advanced degree nursing program offered by UC, students pay a higher fee for a portion of the program offered through extension, and then have their fees reduced when they transition to the portion of the program offered through the campus (and which is state subsidized.) Students in a nearly identical program at a different UC campus pay the state-subsidized fee level throughout the entire program. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund Pilot project $500 to $1,000 annually General* for five years Evaluation $85 General *Counts toward meeting the Proposition 98 minimum funding guarantee SUPPORT : (Verified 8/17/10) American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO Association of California Healthcare Districts California Community Colleges Board of Governors California Hospital Association California Postsecondary Education Commission Faculty Association of the California Community Colleges Latino Coalition for a Healthy California School Innovations & Advocacy United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : Proponents argue that the community colleges educate the majority of nurses in the AB 2385 Page 7 state and are well positioned to implement changes to attract a diverse pool of candidates and address the state's pressing workforce shortages with a pilot program that could be a cost-effective model for other healthcare education programs. ASSEMBLY FLOOR : AYES: Ammiano, Arambula, Bass, Beall, Bill Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore, Hall, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lieu, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Solorio, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Villines, Yamada, John A. Perez NOES: Adams, Anderson, Conway, Cook, DeVore, Emmerson, Gaines, Hagman, Harkey, Logue, Miller, Smyth, Tran NO VOTE RECORDED: Tom Berryhill, Norby, Salas, Audra Strickland, Vacancy CPM:cm 8/17/10 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END ****