BILL ANALYSIS Ó Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair SB 1456 (Lowenthal) - Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act of 2012. Amended: April 26, 2012 Policy Vote: Education 9-0 Urgency: No Mandate: Yes Hearing Date: May 14, 2012 Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. Bill Summary: SB 1456 establishes new requirements to be met in order to receive a Board of Governors (BOG) fee waiver at the California Community Colleges (CCC). This bill also recasts and revises the Seymour-Campbell Matriculation Act of 1986 as the Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act of 2012, and establishes new requirements that CCCs must meet to receive matriculation categorical funding. Fiscal Impact: BOG fee waiver mandate: Potentially significant costs to expand CCC administrative duties under the BOG fee waiver program. The BOG fee waiver program is an existing reimbursable state mandate on CCCs, and this bill would expand the administrative activities related to that $21 million mandate. Matriculation / Student Success changes: Unlikely to result in direct state costs. The imposition of additional requirements for students to receive BOG waivers may result in General Fund savings if the total number of BOG fee waivers issued is reduced. Background: Existing law requires that the CCCs make available a variety of "matriculation services" to students in order to ensure that students receive educational services necessary to optimize their opportunities for success. Matriculation services are funded through a categorical program, and the requirement to provide them is only operative if funds are specifically appropriated for these purposes. SB 1143 (Liu) Chapter 409/2010 created the CCC Student Success Task Force (SSTF); 20 individuals (community college chief SB 1456 (Lowenthal) Page 1 executive officers, faculty, students researchers, staff and external stake holders) who spent a year researching, studying and debating the best methods to improve student outcomes at the CCCs. According to the SSTF report, which was unanimously adopted by the BOG in January 2012, it was their goal to identify best practices for promoting student success and to develop statewide strategies to take these approaches to scale. The SSTF produced 22 specific recommendations and the report, per the requirements of the legislation, was presented to the Legislature at a joint informational hearing of the Assembly Higher Education Committee and the Senate Education Committee in February 2012. The BOG will implement SSTF recommendations through regulatory and statutory changes, as well as system-wide administrative policies. Proposed Law: This bill contains statutory changes necessary for implementation of some of the SSTF recommendations. It recasts and revises the Seymour-Campbell Matriculation Act of 1986 as the Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act of 2012, and establishes new requirements that CCCs must meet to receive matriculation categorical funding. Included in those requirements, are increased eligibility requirements for students seeking BOG fee waivers. Staff Comments: This bill implements some of the recommendations of the SSTF, in an effort to better and more efficiently serve CCC students. Its provisions alter the current matriculation program to focus on specified goals and outcomes, and to update terminology. The changes to the matriculation program would stay within that categorical program budget, and the bill provides that it is only operative if funds are specifically appropriated for it. The SSTF focus on these student services, and the service goals prescribed in the bill, are likely to increase cost pressure to increase funding for these activities. If successful, these activities may increase student success and efficiency moving through the CCCs and reducing overcrowding in the long term. This bill would add requirements for students to be eligible for BOG fee waivers, beyond simply self-certifying their household income and filling out the form. While those additional requirements are yet to be determined, they will include identifying a certificate, transfer, or career advancement goal, SB 1456 (Lowenthal) Page 2 and meeting academic progress and unit standards. Enacting additional requirements will likely increase the existing reimbursable mandate paid to the CCCs for BOG waiver-related activities. For example, if CCCs have to verify that a student meets the academic progress standards (whatever they end up being) in order to renew a BOG fee waiver, that process would be a new mandated duty on CCCs. The current mandate costs the state $21 million; thus, even a 1% increase caused by these new duties would result in $200,000 in new costs. The revenue loss caused by BOG fee waivers is backfilled by the General Fund. To the extent that the new requirements to receive a BOG fee waiver result in fewer of them, there will be direct General Fund savings.