BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair


          SB 1402 (Lieu) - Economic and Workforce Development Program
          
          Amended: As Introduced          Policy Vote: Education 8-0
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: No
          Hearing Date: May 7, 2012       Consultant: Jacqueline 
          Wong-Hernandez
          
          This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. 

          
          Bill Summary: SB 1402 recasts and revises provisions of the 
          Education Code governing the California Community Colleges (CCC) 
          Economic and Workforce Development (EWD) Program, and extends 
          the program's sunset date from January 1, 2013 to January 1, 
          2018.

          Fiscal Impact: 
              Sunset extension: $22.9 million - $46.7 million, annually; 
              bill language specifies that funding is subject to an 
              appropriation in the Budget Act, as the program is 
              currently.

          Background:  The purpose of the EWD program is to advance 
          California's economic growth and global competitiveness through 
          education and services that contribute to continuous workforce 
          improvement, technology deployment, and business development and 
          are consistent with the current needs of the state's regional 
          economies. Local colleges and business partners form consortia 
          to identify regional workforce needs and priorities, provide 
          assistance to small businesses in the region through local EWD 
          Centers, and train workers. 

          Codified in 1991, the EWD program formalized earlier efforts to 
          coordinate statewide technical training and programs for small 
          businesses and economic development. SB 1809 (Polanco) Chapter 
          1057/1996 further clarified the legislative intent of the EWD 
          Program, defined regional planning, priority setting and 
          coordination and  added audit requirements and accountability 
          standards. SB 1809 also made economic development and continuous 
          workforce improvement a primary mission of the CCC.  

          Proposed Law: This bill places the EWD in a new Education Code 








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          section, separates it from the Career Technical Pathways 
          Initiative, and revises numerous goals and accountability 
          measures of the program. It also extends the program sunset 
          until January 1, 2018.

          Related Legislation: A companion bill, SB 1070 (Steinberg), also 
          scheduled to be heard by this Committee on May 7, 2012, extends 
          the sunset date for the Career Technical Education Pathways 
          Initiative component of the current EWD Program.  Where SB 1402 
          moves the EWD program to a new code section, SB 1070 leaves the 
          Career Technical Education Pathways Initiative in Section 88532; 
          the effect of which will remove the CTE Pathways from the 
          existing EWD act.

          
          Staff Comments: This bill extends the sunset on a program that 
          received $22.9 million last year, and in 2009-10; the program 
          received $46.7 million in 2007-08 and in 2008-09, prior to 
          substantial budget reductions across the CCC system and the 
          state as a whole. In the absence of a sunset extension, the EWD 
          program would cease on January 1, 2013. Extending the sunset 
          continues the program, which also continues cost pressure to 
          fund the program. Cost pressure would be for the current level 
          of funding, at a minimum.
          
          This bill recasts and revises numerous aspects of the EWD 
          program goals and principles, defines terms that are commonly 
          used but were not at the time that the program was codified, and 
          attempts to make the program more nimble as market needs change. 
          While these changes will shape the program's direction and, to 
          some degree, its activities, they remain within a larger EWD 
          purpose and are not likely to drive unique state costs. This 
          bill's changes to grantee accountability strengthen the 
          Chancellor's ability to deny funding to programs that are less 
          effective, and could make the program more cost effective 
          overall.
















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