BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 27
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Date of Hearing: March 25, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
27 (Chávez) - As Amended March 4, 2015
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|Policy |Higher Education |Vote:|13 - 0 |
|Committee: | | | |
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|-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
| |Veterans Affairs | |9 - 0 |
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|-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
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Urgency: Yes State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable:
Yes
SUMMARY:
This bill requires the state's public postsecondary educational
institutions to exempt qualifying nonresident veterans from
nonresident tuition and fee charges, in conformance with federal
AB 27
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law. Specifically, this bill:
Requires the California Community Colleges (CCC) and the
California State University (CSU), and requests the University
of California (UC), by July 1, 2015, to adopt tuition policies
ensuring participation of eligible veterans and their dependents
in GI Bill education benefits and providing conformity with the
federal Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014
("Choice Act").
FISCAL EFFECT:
According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), any
postsecondary institution lacking conformity with the Choice Act
by July1, 2015 will be ineligible for payment of any GI Bill
benefits, including those associated with resident veterans. To
illustrate the potential loss of this federal revenue to the
segments for failing to conform with the federal law, according
to information provided by the California Department of Veterans
Affairs (Cal-Vet), in 2013-14, the CCC received $16.7 million in
payments, for 27,704 student veterans, under the Post-9/11 GI
Bill. Similarly, CSU received $26.1 million (for 6,255 students)
and UC received $25.2 million (for 1,936 students). There would
be additional, but much smaller revenue losses associated with
students participating in other GI Bill programs.
AB 27
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COMMENTS:
1)Background and Purpose. The VA administers the GI Bill to
provide education and training benefits to eligible veterans
and their eligible dependents. The G.I. Bill provides for
in-state tuition and fees at public institutions. The federal
Choice Act (2014), in part requires public institutions to
provide in-state tuition regardless of the residency status of
specified veterans and their eligible dependents in order for
the institution to remain eligible to receive GI Bill
education payments.
In response to the enactment of the Choice Act, AB 13
(Conway)/Chapter 639 of 2014, required the state's segments of
higher education to update and adopt policies no later than
July 1, 2015, regarding tuition rates for eligible veterans
and their eligible dependents to ensure conformity to, and
compliance with, the Choice Act. The Choice Act in essence
requires that public institutions either comply with the
nonresident tuition/fee waiver or discontinue participation in
the GI Bill educational benefits programs. Since AB 13 did not
explicitly require policies to ensure continued participation
in GI Bill educational benefit programs, a segment could
arguably conform to AB 13 through discontinuing participation
in the federal program. Though such an outcome is extremely
unlikely, AB 27 provides clarification that the segments'
policies are to ensure continued participation of both
resident and non-resident veterans who are eligible for GI
Bill benefits. Given the pending July 1, 2015 deadline for
conformity, AB 27 is an urgency measure.
2)Segment Actions. The UC Regents were scheduled to consider an
AB 27
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action to adopt a policy conforming to the Choice Act and
consistent with AB 27 at their March meeting. Though it
intends to comply with the Choice Act, CSU has not yet
outlined a plan to achieve compliance. The CCC maintains that
it requires a statutory change in order to implement the
Choice Act requirements.
3)Related Legislation. AB 13 (Chavez), also on today's committee
agenda, exempts from CCC non-resident student fees those
veterans covered under the Choice Act, and authorizes
community colleges to claim state apportionment funding for
these students.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081