BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 173 (Liu) - Adult Education Courses
Amended: April 24, 2013 Policy Vote: Education 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 13, 2013 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 173 reduces the categories of adult education
courses authorized to be offered by K-12 districts and the
California community colleges (CCCs) in order to receive state
funding. It furthers establishes processes and new authorities
to align student assessment policy, performance data and
accountability systems, teacher qualifications, and fee policy
for adult education courses offered by the CCC and K-12 local
educational agencies (LEAs). This bill also declares the
Legislature's intent that adult education funding be allocated
on the basis of enrollment and performance beginning in 2015-16.
Fiscal Impact: Provisions of this bill create new costs and new
savings for the state. The realization of savings in certain
provisions does not depend upon incurring the costs in other
provisions of the bill.
Prohibit apportionment for certain course types: Annual
state savings in excess of $26 million. Local cost pressure
on CCCs to continue to offer the courses.
Coordinate and issue assessment policy guidelines:
Potentially significant up-front costs and ongoing workload
for the CCC Chancellor's Office and California Department of
Education (CDE) to meet the coordination and reporting
requirements.
Implement comprehensive accountability system: Potentially
substantial costs to implement the new system and monitor
compliance and progress. The CCC currently collects adult
education data for a portion of the programs through a $1
million contract. This bill would expand those costs, to an
extent to be determined by the accountability system that
the CDE and CCC Chancellor's office jointly develop.
Reciprocity standards: Significant costs, likely in the low
hundreds of thousands, for the Commission on Teacher
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Credentialing (CTC) and the Academic Senate for CCC to
jointly develop and submit recommendations for modifying or
establishing reciprocity standards for instructors of adult
education.
Fee authority: Potentially significant revenue for
community college districts (CCDs) that choose to charge
allowable fees.
Background: Existing law authorizes both the CCC and K-12
systems to offer and receive state funding for adult education
courses. (Education Code � 41976 and � 84757)
Existing law prohibits the local governing board of CCD
maintaining a noncredit course from requiring an adult enrolled
in such a course to pay nonresident tuition or any fee or charge
of any kind for a class in English and citizenship for
foreigners, a class in an elementary subject, a class designated
as granting high school credit to an individual without a high
school diploma or other adult basic education programs and
courses, as specified. (EC � 76380)
Existing law authorizes a school district governing board to
require a fee of an adult enrolled in a class for adults and
prohibits the total of the fees required and revenues derived
from average daily attendance from exceeding the estimated cost
of maintaining such classes. (EC � 52612)
Existing law prohibits the CCC from requiring an adult enrolled
in a noncredit course to pay nonresident tuition or any fee or
charge of any kind for a class in English and citizenship for
foreigners, a class in an elementary subject, a class designated
by the governing board as a class for which high school credit
is granted when the class is taken by a person who does not hold
a high school diploma, or any class offered by a community
college district pursuant to Section 8531, 8532, 8533, or 8534.
(EC �76380)
Proposed Law: SB 173 requires the CDE, in conjunction with the
CCC Chancellor's Office, to coordinate and issue assessment
policy guidelines regarding assessments to be used by LEAs and
CCDs for purposes of placement in adult education courses. This
bill also requires those entities to jointly establish and
implement a comprehensive performance accountability system for
adult education courses, in accordance with prescribed
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requirements. Additionally, this bill would:
1. Prohibit LEAs from receiving apportionments from the
adult education fund for providing adult programs in
parenting, older adults, home economics, and health and
safety education, as specified.
2. Prohibit noncredit CCC parenting, older adults, home
economics, and health and safety education courses from
receiving program-based funding from the state. This bill
would authorize CCDs to charge a fee for adult education
courses, including classes in English and citizenship,
until July 1, 2015, in accordance with specified
regulations and procedures.
3. Require the CTC and the Academic Senate for CCC to
jointly submit recommendations to specified policy and
fiscal committees of the Legislature for modifying or
establishing reciprocity standards for instructors of adult
education courses by July 1, 2014.
Staff Comments: This bill would require the CDE, in conjunction
with the CCC
Chancellor's Office to coordinate and issue assessment policy
guidelines regarding assessments to be used by school districts
and CCDs for purposes of placement in adult education courses
offered by those districts. Coordination with CDE, and expansion
of existing CCC assessment guidelines is likely to result in
minor one-time costs to both departments. The Chancellor's
Office estimates a cost of $50,000 for this activity. The CDE
would likely incur similar staffing costs.
This bill would also require the CDE and the Chancellor's Office
to jointly establish and implement a comprehensive performance
accountability system for adult education courses, which will
likely incur substantial new costs. The current CCC assessment
contract, which serves only a portion of the adult education
courses, costs $1 million per year. Additionally, there would be
substantial ongoing costs to monitor the new assessment
contracts and expanded number of students affected.
This bill would delete the existing authorization for adult
programs in parenting, home economics, and health and safety
education, and adult programs for older adults, to receive
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apportionments from the adult education fund. Essentially, CCCs
could still offer the classes, but the state would not provide
funding to do so. The most recent available data from the
Chancellor's Office shows the following apportionments:
$1,368,910 for Health Safety courses, $1,746,342 for Parenting
courses, $510,013 for Home Economics courses, and $22,528,418
for Courses for Older Adults. Eliminating state apportionments
for these courses could result in savings in excess of $26
million.
The bill would require the CTC and the CCC Academic Senate to
jointly develop and submit recommendations to policy and fiscal
committees of the Legislature for modifying or establishing
reciprocity standards for instructors of adult education courses
by July 1, 2014. Intensive coordination over the 6-month period
will likely result in significant costs to develop and report
the required recommendations. Depending upon the nature of the
recommendations, they could create cost pressure or cost
efficiencies for the state.
This bill would, notwithstanding the prohibition of the fee for
classes in English and citizenship for foreigners, authorize the
governing board of a CCD to charge a fee for adult education
courses, including classes in English and citizenship, until
July 1, 2015. This may result in significant revenue for a CCD
that chooses to institute fees as permitted. That revenue would
be somewhat mitigated, however, by increased reporting
requirements in order to charge fees.
Staff notes that the Governor's 2013-14 Budget proposes a number
of changes to adult education beginning in 2013-14. These
changes include elements that: a) eliminate the K-12 adult
education categorical program and consolidate all associated
annual funding into a new K-12 "local control funding formula";
b) appropriate $300 million in new Proposition 98 General Fund
to reconstitute the adult education program within the CCC
system beginning in 2013-14 (the Governor's proposal currently
restricts community college apportionments to "credit"
instruction); and, c) shift $15.7 million from a K-12
apprenticeship program to a new community college program.
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