BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 421
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
421 (Calderon) - As Amended April 13, 2015
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|Policy |Higher Education |Vote:|12 - 0 |
|Committee: | | | |
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|-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
| |Veterans Affairs | |8 - 0 |
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| | | | |
|-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
Yes
SUMMARY:
This bill requires every community college district governing
board to provide each of its colleges having 200 or more
enrolled student veterans with a veterans' counselor.
AB 421
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The bill also requires the California Community College (CCC)
Board of Governors (BOG) to adopt regulations establishing
minimum qualifications for a veterans' counselor, and in doing
so to consider specified requirements.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Ongoing reimbursable state-mandated costs (GF-Prop 98) of around
$6 million annually to fund a counselor at the 60 to 70 campuses
with more than 200 enrolled student veterans. Costs would
increase to the extent veteran enrollment increases beyond this
threshold at additional campuses.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the CCC Chancellor's Office, in 2013-14,
veterans and active duty military personnel comprised over
60,000 of the over 2.1 million students attending CCCs.
According to the author, "While the State of California and
the CCC have made strides recently in the area of
reintegrating veterans to civilian life and addressing their
educational needs, the State of California can do more to
ensure student veterans are adequately prepared to meet their
educational goals. Currently 54 CCC campuses have Veterans
Resource Centers [VRC] which provide an environment for
student veterans to relax and unwind with other students that
have shared their experiences. Still, nearly half of CCC
campuses do not have a VRC; with student-to-counselor ratios
hovering around 719:1, it is easy for student veterans to get
lost in the fray of overcrowded campuses and the difficulty of
navigating the transfer process."
AB 421
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The author contends that, "By requiring each CCC campus to
employ at least one academic counselor specified for student
veterans, AB 421 will ensure a minimum level of services for
student veterans at each community college campus [with
enrollment of at least 200 veterans]."
2)Related Legislation. AB 393 (Roger Hernández), also on today's
committee agenda, requires the Chancellor of the CCC to
develop and administer a grant program to provide funding to
support existing or planned veterans resource centers.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081