BILL ANALYSIS Ó Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair SB 611 (Steinberg) Hearing Date: 05/09/2011 Amended: As Introduced Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Education 7-3 _________________________________________________________________ ____ BILL SUMMARY: SB 611 requests the Regents of the University of California (UC Regents), subject to the availability of funds in the annual Budget Act, to establish and maintain the University of California Curriculum Integration Institute (UCCII) to be administered by the President of the University of California, as specified. _________________________________________________________________ ____ Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund Continues UCCII Cost pressure; up to $10,000 annually General* *Specifies Budget Act funds, federal or private funds, "or any combination thereof" _________________________________________________________________ ____ STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. This bill would request that "subject to availability of funds in the annual Budget Act, the availability of federal or private funds, or any combination thereof," the UC Regents establish and maintain the University of California Curriculum Integration Institute (UCCII) to be administered by the President of the UC, as specified. The UCCII is an existing pilot program (which first met in May 2010) to provide an opportunity for school and university faculty to work together to develop model courses that meet certain criteria for a-g approval (acceptable toward meeting UC admissions criteria), particularly in core subject areas, which received $600,000 in 2010-11. In 2005, SB 70 (Scott), the Career Technical Education Pathways Initiative (CTEPI), appropriated $20 million to fund the Career SB 611 (Steinberg) Page 1 Technical Education Pathways and Workforce Development Program. The program would align K-12 career technical education with local community colleges, based on models consistent with the California Community Colleges (CCC) Economic and Workforce Development Program. Subsequent legislation allocated $20 million, plus $32 million each year through fiscal year 2013-14. These funds are used to support the work of the Board of Governors to improve linkages and career technical education pathways between high schools and community colleges. The CCC is assisting K-12 in building and aligning coordinated CTE pathways that lead to postsecondary programs of study to prepare students for high-skill jobs with high wages. The UCCII is one of the funded projects, and is intended to train and help high school faculty create a-g approved courses. The UCCII has been funded through a CTEPI grant, which is scheduled to sunset on June 30, 2014, when CTEPI funds will sunset. This bill specifically requests that the UC Regents continue this program with Budget Act funding, private or federal, or any combination thereof, creating significant cost pressure to fund this program at its current level of $600,000, at a minimum. This bill further expresses legislative intent for rapid implementation and scaling of UCCII, including increasing the number of annual UCCII convenings from two to ten. UC estimates that the total cost to implement the requests made in SB 611 would be approximately $10,222,000. The exponential increase in funding above the current level is primarily associated with increasing the number of institutes from two per year to ten. UCCII would have to significantly increase staff, and would incur additional costs for facilities, materials, and equipment. Additionally included in the estimate is a projection of scaled costs paid on behalf of participants; the current grant partially funds school and district participation, including participants' travel costs and some substitute teacher costs. Increasing the number of convenings would increase these costs, as well.