BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 955 (Williams) - Community Colleges: Intersession Extension
Pilot Program
Amended: June 25, 2013 Policy Vote: Education 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 30, 2013
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE. AS AMENDED.
Bill Summary: AB 955 requires the California Community Colleges
Chancellor's Office (CCCCO) to establish a voluntary pilot
program that would authorize a community college district (CCD)
to establish and maintain an extension program meeting specified
characteristics during summer and winter intersessions. The bill
would require the CCCCO to select no more than 15 campuses for
participation, and would require a participating CCD to collect,
keep, and submit specified records related to the program. The
bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), by
January 1, 2017, to submit a report on the pilot program to the
Legislature, as specified. This bill would state the intent of
the Legislature that at least one campus should begin
implementation of the pilot program by January 2014 and that an
additional 5 campuses should implement the pilot program by July
1, 2014.
Fiscal Impact (as amended):
Oversight: Likely minor ongoing workload for the CCCCO.
CCD participation: Potentially significant costs and
revenue to CCDs that elect to participate, to comply with
reporting requirements. Significant (elective) costs to
offer extension courses, expected to be fully recovered by
increased fees.
LAO report: Minor and absorbable costs to complete the
required for the report.
Background: Existing law requires the governing board of a CCD
to admit any California resident, (and authorizes them to admit
any nonresident) possessing a high school diploma or the
equivalent and authorizes the board to admit anyone who is
capable of profiting from the instruction offered, as specified.
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(EC § 76000)
Existing law requires that community college students be charged
a per unit fee and statutorily prescribes the fee level through
the annual Budget process. Current law exempts students enrolled
in noncredit courses and in credit contract education courses,
as specified, from these fee requirements. Current law also
exempts from these requirements California State University and
University of California students enrolled in remedial classes,
as specified, and provides for the waiver of these fees for
students who have financial need or meet other specified
criteria. (EC § 76300)
Existing law authorizes a CCD to admit nonresident students and
requires that these students be charged a tuition fee, with
certain specified exemptions. Tuition is set by the governing
board of each CCD by February 1 of each year for the succeeding
fiscal year. Specified notice of fee changes must be provided,
and any increase in fees must be gradual, moderate, and
predictable.
Existing law prescribes a formula for the calculation of the
nonresident fee which, generally, is based upon the amount
expended by the district for the "expense of education",
adjusted by the Consumer Price Index, and divided by the total
full-time equivalent students (FTES) that attended the CCD in
the preceding fiscal year. Current law also authorizes a tuition
fee amount not to exceed that established by any contiguous
district, and prohibits the fee from being less than the
statewide average fee for students. Special provision is made
for the calculation of the fee by CCDs that have greater than
10% FTES from non-credit courses. (EC § 76140)
Proposed Law: AB 955 requires the CCCCO to establish and
maintain a voluntary pilot program for purposes of authorizing a
community college district to establish and maintain an
extension program meeting specified characteristics during
summer and winter intersessions. This bill requires the CCCCO to
select up to 15 community college campuses for participation, as
specified, and establishes parameters for the program.
Participating CCDs are required to collect and keep specified
records related to the program, and to annually report specified
information to the CCCCO. This bill requires the LAO to provide
to the Legislature with a written report that evaluates the
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pilot program established by this article, drawing upon campus
reports, campus visits, interviews with faculty, students, and
administrators, and other sources the LAO deems relevant, by
January 1, 2017, This bill states the intent of the Legislature
that at least one campus should begin implementation of the
pilot program by January 2014 and that an additional 5 campuses
should implement the pilot program by July 1, 2014. These
provisions will sunset on January 1, 2020.
Related Legislation: SB 1550 (Wright) 2012 would have required
the CCCCO to establish a voluntary pilot program and select up
to 8 campuses to establish and maintain an extension program
offering career and workforce training courses for credit at fee
levels covering the actual cost of these courses. SB 1550 failed
passage in the Assembly Higher Education Committee.
AB 515 (Brownley) 2011 would have established a California
Community Colleges Extension Pilot Program. That bill authorized
extensive participation by community colleges throughout the
state since any community college that certified that it met the
requirements of the program would be eligible to participate.
The bill was heard in the Senate Education Committee on June 29,
2011, but no vote was taken. A subsequent hearing on the bill
was cancelled at the request of the author.
Staff Comments: This bill requires the CCCCO to establish a
pilot program. Program participation would be voluntary for the
CCDs, but establishing the program (including a selection and
oversight process) would be mandatory for the CCCCO. The
stability of the funding mechanism is unclear because the
Chancellor's Office will incur expenses to establish the
program, whether or not there are participating CCDs; yet, the
bill also provides that participating CCDs will bear the cost of
the program, and specifically prohibits General Fund use to run
the program.
The CCCCO would need additional staff to establish the pilot,
before campuses can begin to implement the program. The CCCCO
projects that it would require a Specialist position ($130,000
for salary and benefits) for MIS data work and $5,000 per site
to make data element changes to be able to add the pilot program
to the data system. Staff would be also be needed to create a
separate financial aid system for this program; the bill
specifies that a certain amount of fees be diverted to
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"financial aid" for students that are eligible for the BOG fee
waiver, but it does not specify how that aid will be distributed
(particularly, if it is insufficient to cover all of the fees
for low-income students). A separate application and
administration process could be necessary and, as the
administrator of the program, the CCCCO will either be
responsible for establishing how financial aid will work or for
verifying and enforcing that campus aid programs exist and meet
the requirements of the bill. Finally, staff would also be
needed to develop and administer a selection process for the
campuses, and to execute participation agreements. The CCCCO
estimates that the total cost to establish the program will be
approximately $400,000.
The personnel needs would likely have to be filled before the
CCDs are selected to participate, though the bill specifies that
fees charged to students by the CCDs must pay the administrative
oversight costs of the CCCCO. It is unclear if the bill would
allow the CCCCO to recover start-up costs; this bill requires
the program to be self-supporting from a campus perspective, but
only specifically allows for the CCCCO's "oversight" costs to be
recovered by fees. It is unclear whether the initial CCCCO costs
would be considered oversight costs. It is also unclear whether
and when the start-up costs could be recovered by the CCCCO, as
a practical matter. If the program begins with one campus in
January 2014, as the legislative intent indicates, it is
unlikely that the single campus will reimburse the CCCCO for its
initial costs; either the first few participating campuses will
have to share the start-up costs, or the CCCCO will have to make
a projection of likely final participation and be reimbursed
over a longer period of time.
Annual oversight costs will depend on the number of
participating campuses, and will likely be fully recovered by
fees. Staff notes that fee levels will need to be set at a rate
that allows for: a) full program cost recovery for the campus to
offer the courses; b) full program oversight cost recovery for
the CCCCO; and, c) one-third of the fees to be earmarked for
financial aid. Functionally, two-thirds of amount of the course
fees will need to be able to cover the full cost of the program
for campuses and the CCCCO.
AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED: Author's proposed amendments would
remove the CCCCO from actively administering the program, and
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instead require that participating campuses submit specified
information to the CCCCO in their annual audits. Proposed
amendments would also revise financial aid requirements and
reporting requirements for participating campuses. The
amendments would also reduce the scope of the LAO report.
AS AMENDED: Committee amendments, like the author's proposed
amendments, remove the CCCCO from actively administering the
pilot, including removing the management of a new financial aid
system. Like the author's proposed amendments, the committee
amendments require that the BOG establish certain audit
reporting requirements, and that participating campuses submit
specified information to the CCCCO in their annual audits.
Committee amendments also:
1) Limit the pilot to six campuses: College of the Canyons,
Crafton Hills College, Long Beach City College, Oxnard
College, Pasadena City College, and Solano Community
College.
2) Authorize each campus to determine its own financial aid
program, as long as it meets the criteria specified in the
bill.
3) Require participating campuses to report all of the
following, with regard to financial aid: a) the number and
percentage of participating students who are receiving
financial aid; b) the criteria used for determining
eligibility for, and prioritizing financial aid awards; c)
methods for communicating financial aid information to
students; d) the total amount of financial aid disbursed
and the sources of the aid; e) information on the
proportion of students whose extension program fees are
subsidized with financial aid, the percentage of total fees
that is paid by financial aid for individual students, with
this information aggregated in ways that assist in
evaluating the consequence and equity of the financial aid
program, and the sources of the financial aid.
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4) Reduce the scope of the LAO report, by limiting it to
information provided by campuses, as specified in the bill.