BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 860
Author: Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee
Amended: 6/12/14
Vote: 21
PRIOR VOTES NOT RELEVANT
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Not available
SUBJECT : Budget Act of 2014: Higher Education Trailer bill
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill provides for statutory changes necessary to
enact postsecondary education-related provisions of the Budget
Act of 2014.
Assembly Amendments delete the Senate version of the bill, which
expressed legislative intent to enact statutory changes relating
to the Budget Act, and instead add the current language.
ANALYSIS : This bill makes the following statutory changes to
implement the 2014-15 Budget Act.
Cal Grant Cohort Default Rate . Modifies an exemption to the Cal
Grant cohort default rate that allows institutions with a three
year cohort default rate of less than 10% and a graduation rate
above 20% to remain eligible for the Cal Grant program through
the 2016-17 fiscal year, by changing the cohort default rate to
less than 15.5%.
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Expand Cal Grant Renewal Eligibility . Allows students who
become ineligible for Cal Grant awards because they exceed the
income cap in one year to become eligible again in a subsequent
year if their income falls below the cap and they meet all other
program eligibility requirements. The change applies only to
students who reapply no more than three academic years after
receiving an initial award.
Cal Grant Maximum Award . Delays, by one year, a reduction in
the maximum amount of the Cal Grant A and B awards for students
attending private, non-profit colleges or accredited for-profit
colleges. Students will receive $9,084 for tuition expenses in
2014-15.
Middle Class Scholarship . Makes clarifying and technical
changes to statute pertaining to the middle class scholarship.
In addition sets the minimum award for an eligible full-time
enrollment student at $90.
California Community College (CCC) Student Equity Plans .
Codifies current regulatory requirements that each CCC district
maintain a student equity plan that includes the following for
each CCC in the district:
1. Campus-based research as to the extent of student equity by
gender and for students that are current or former foster
youth, disabled, low-income, veterans, or in specific ethnic
and racial categories.
2. Goals for access to, and completion of, basic skills, career
technical education and workforce training, and transfer
courses for the overall student population and for each
population group and a determination of what activities are
most likely to effectively meet those goals.
3. Measures for addressing disparities, as specified, including:
a means of coordinating with, at a minimum, specific student
equity-related categorical programs or campus-based programs.
4. Sources of funds for activities in the plan.
5. A schedule and process for evaluation.
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6. An executive summary that includes, at a minimum, the student
groups for whom goals have been set, the goals, the
initiatives that the CCC or district will undertake to
achieve these goals, the resources that have been budgeted
for that purpose, and specific contact information.
Beginning in 2016-17, the summary shall also include a
detailed accounting of how funding was expended and an
assessment of the progress made in achieving the identified
goals.
This bill requires the CCC Chancellor to allocate funds provided
for the purposes of successfully implementing the activities and
goals specified in the student equity plans consistent with:
ensuring that a CCC district has submitted a student equity
plan, ensuring that CCC districts that serve greater populations
of students who are high-need students or disadvantaged students
receive greater resources for services, establishing criteria to
determine the number of high-need and disadvantaged students in
a district, and establishing a list of eligible and ineligible
expenditures and activities.
CCC Construction Mandate . Makes permissive, a requirement that
CCCs submit specified facilities information to the CCC
Chancellor's office, thereby eliminating a reimbursable state
mandate (this information will continue to be collected through
the state's capital outlay process).
CCC Deferrals . Pays down inter-year deferrals of funding for
CCC by appropriating a total of $592.5 million of funds from
fiscal years 2012-13, 2013-14, and 2014-15. In addition, for
the month of June, defers $94.5 million to July.
Enhanced Non-Credit Rate Increase . Specifies that, beginning in
the 2015-16 fiscal year, career development and college
preparation full-time equivalent students shall be funded at the
same rate as the credit rate, as specified. The Legislative
Analyst's Office is required to report by March 1, 2016,
regarding the impact of this change.
CCC Growth Formula . Requires that the CCC Chancellor develop,
and the board of governors of a CCC adopt, a revised
apportionment growth formula for use commencing with the 2015-16
fiscal year. Specifies that the formula shall support the
primary missions of the segment, and be based on each
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community's need for access to the CCCs, as determined by local
demographics. In developing the formula, the chancellor must
consider multiple factors, including: (1) the number of persons
under the age of 25 without a college degree, within a CCC
district's boundaries, and the number of persons 25 to 64 years
of age, without a college degree (the chancellor may alter these
age ranges dependent on availability of data); and (2) the
number of persons who are unemployed, have limited English
skills, are in poverty, or exhibit other signs of being
disadvantaged.
In addition, specifies that the maximum amount of growth
established by the chancellor shall be no less than 5%, nor
greater than 10% of a CCC district's apportionment base for the
preceding fiscal year.
San Francisco Community College District Stability . Provides
the San Francisco Community College District with additional
funding, for the next three fiscal years, as the college works
to restore student enrollment and maintain accreditation. For
the 2014-15 fiscal year, the district will receive funding equal
to the amount it received in the 2013-14 fiscal year, with the
amount of funding for the district being reduced by five, and
10%, in 2015-16 and 2016-17, respectively. In order to receive
the third year of funding, the district will be required to meet
or exceed benchmarks related to fiscal management and controls,
as specified.
CCC Local Property Tax Revenues . Adjusts the method for scoring
local property tax revenues in the 2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16
fiscal years, that formerly flowed to redevelopment agencies and
now flow to the colleges as an offset to CCC apportionments, by
scoring revenues received late in the fiscal year, after April
15, as having been received in the next fiscal year. This will
provide the CCC with more certainty as they develop and
administer their budgets.
CCC Performance Measures . Requires the CCC Chancellor, in
coordination with CCC stakeholder groups, the appropriate fiscal
and policy committees of the Legislature, and the Department of
Finance, to develop a framework of indicators designed to
measure the ongoing condition of a CCC's operational environment
in the following areas: (1) accreditation statues; (2) fiscal
viability; (3) student performance and outcomes; and (4)
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programmatic compliance with state and federal guidelines.
Requires that each CCC develop, adopt, and publicly post a goals
framework that addresses, at the least, the areas specified
above.
Before the commencement of the 2015-16 fiscal year, and annually
thereafter, requires the CCC Chancellor to publicly post the
statewide goals and locally-developed and adopted CCC or
district goals and targets. The CCC Chancellor shall assess the
degree to which each CCC district is improving its outcomes and
offer technical assistance to CCC districts that are not
improving.
CCC Clinical Nursing Faculty . Extents the sunset, from June 30,
2014 to December 31, 2015, on the additional time a person
serving as temporary full-time clinical nursing faculty, or as a
part-time clinical nursing faculty, may be employed by a CCC
district. Under this extension, a person serving as a full-time
clinical nursing faculty, or as a part-time clinical nursing
faculty, may be employed by a CCC district for up to four
semesters or six quarters within any period of three consecutive
academic years, which is twice the statutory limit for all other
temporary faculty.
University of California (UC) and California State University
(CSU) Performance Measures . Makes technical and clarifying
chances to statutory requirements for annual reporting on
system-wide performance measures by the UC and CSU.
Student Success Fee Moratorium . Prohibits a CSU campus, or the
chancellor, from approving a student success fee before January
1, 2016, and requires the chancellor to conduct a review of the
CSU student fee policy, as specified. Requires the chancellor
to report to the Department of Finance and the appropriate
fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature, on February 1,
2015, regarding proposed revisions to the CSU student fee policy
related to student success fees.
CSU Capital Outlay Process . Provides the CSU with the authority
to pledge up to 12% of the state funds provided in its General
Fund support budget, less general obligation debt payments and
lease payments, towards capital outlay, lease-revenue bond debt
financed and pay as you go, inclusive. Further, provides the
CSU with the authority to pursue capital outlay projects, after
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approval by the Department of Finance and review by the
committees in each house of the Legislature that consider the
state budget, and the budget subcommittees in each house of the
Legislature that consider appropriations for the CSU.
UC Capital Outlay Process . Makes technical and clarifying
changes to the UC capital outlay process; moves language
regarding energy conservation projects that had been included in
provisional budget language into statute; and creates one
process to authorize UC energy conservation projects instead of
two.
California Blueprint for Research to Advance Innovations in
Neuroscience (Cal-BRAIN) Act of 2014 . Requests the UC Regents
to establish the Cal-BRAIN program to leverage California's vast
research assets and federal funding opportunities to accelerate
the development of brain mapping techniques, including the
development of new technologies, in order to achieve the
following goals: (1) maintain California's leadership role in
neuroscience innovation; (2) develop a dynamic map of the human
brain, as specified; (3) grow California's economy through the
expansion of high technology and biotechnology sectors; and (4)
train the next generation of scientists.
UC Berkeley Tolman Hall Seismic Project . Provides the UC with
authority to use its General Fund appropriations for the Tolman
Hall Seismic Replacement Building project at the Berkeley
campus.
Student financial aid offset . Authorizes the use of $6 million
in excess Student Loan Authority funds (remaining after the
recently-approved sale of the CalLoan program portfolio by the
California Educational Facilities Authority) as an offset to the
General Fund cost of Student Aid Commission loan assumption
program costs.
State Law Library Fee Sunset Extension . Extends the sunset
date, to January 1, 2020, for authority to use a portion ($65)
of certain appellate court civil filing fee revenue to support
the California State Law Library.
CSU infrastructure and contract authority . Authorizes the State
Fire Marshal to delegate enforcement of building standards on
California State University campuses to the CSU. Authorizes the
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CSU to use one contract for multiple projects at multiple
campuses, and to provide public notice of contract bids on its
Internet Web site.
CCC Education Protection Account (EPA) . Authorizes adjustments
to Proposition 98 General Fund spending in whatever amounts are
necessary to maintain budgeted funding levels for CCCs, if EPA
revenue estimates for 2012-13, 2013-14, or 2014-15 are higher or
lower than actual receipts.
CCC CalWORKs Program . Moves requirements for the CCC CalWORKs
program, which have been included in annual budget acts, into
statue.
Clean Energy Job Creation Fund Reappropriation . Reappropriates
the balance of Item 6870-139-8080 of Section 2.00 of the Budget
Act of 2013, payable from the Clean Energy Job Creation Fund and
extends the ability to encumber this balance until June 30,
2018.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: Yes Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee,
statutory changes contained in this bill, including
appropriations, are consistent with the 2014 Budget package.
PQ:d 6/15/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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