BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 940
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Date of Hearing: June 21, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Marty Block, Chair
SB 940 (Committee on Education) - As Amended: June 14, 2011
SENATE VOTE : 39-0
SUBJECT : Education.
SUMMARY : Corrects technical errors and oversights, and makes
non-controversial and conforming changes to various statutes
related to education. Specifically, this bill :
1)Removes references to the Office of the Secretary of Education
and redirects responsibilities to the Office of the Governor
or the State Board of Education.
2)Repeals obsolete reporting requirements for the Education
Technology Professional Development Program, the funding
priorities for technology in higher education, and the
guidelines for California Community College (CCC) design-build
projects.
3)Clarifies that a student who has met the transfer degree
requirements is granted priority for the purposes of
enrollment planning and admissions consistent with the
priorities outlined in existing law.
4)Corrects various incorrect references in law, including a
reference to the Cal Grant Program, and a reference to the
maximum percentage-of-hours limitation for part-time CCC
faculty.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : This bill is authored by the Senate Education
Committee and provides for technical and non-controversial
"clean-up" to the Education Code, relative to higher education.
The major changes provided for in this bill include:
1)Office of the Secretary of Education (OSE) : In January, 2011,
Governor Brown eliminated the OSE. Various provisions of law
SB 940
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had assigned responsibility for receiving various reports to
the OSE. This bill deletes those references and replaces them
with the Office of the Governor. Additionally, existing law
establishes the Scholarshare Program, administered by the
Scholarshare Investment Board, to offer California families a
tax-advantaged college tuition savings plan that allows them
to invest and save for a college education with state
tax-deferred and federal tax-free benefits. At the request of
the Governor's office, this bill would replace the Secretary
of Education with the Executive Director of the State Board of
Education, or their designee, as a member of the Investment
Board.
2)Eliminating reporting requirements : This bill repeals
statutory reporting requirements relative to the Education
Technology Professional Grant Program, recommendations on
funding priorities for higher education, and guidelines for
CCC design-build projects, as these reporting requirements
have been met and the code sections are now obsolete.
3)Transfer degree priority admission : SB 1440 (Padilla),
Chapter 428, Statutes of 2010, granted priority for the
purposes of enrollment planning and admissions to the
California State University (CSU) for CCC students who
complete the transfer degree authorized by SB 1440. This bill
clarifies that these students be granted priority consistent
with the priorities outlined in existing law.
Related legislation : This bill is one of three Education Code
"clean-up" bills sponsored by the Senate Education Committee
that make various non-controversial revisions to statute. SB 941
(Senate Committee on Education) and SB 942 (Senate Committee on
Education), are primarily related to K-12 education and are
currently pending in the Assembly Education Committee. In
addition, SB 292 (Padilla) contains provisions identical to
Section 4 of this bill. SB 292 is scheduled for hearing in this
Committee on July 5, 2011.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on File
Opposition
SB 940
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None on File
Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960