BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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Date of Hearing: May 20, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
1145 (Medina) - As Amended May 6, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires a report on the Early Commitment to College
Program (ECCP). Specifically, this bill:
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1)Requires the Superintendent of Public Construction (SPI), in
lieu of reporting to the Legislature on the program by
November 1, 2017, to instead provide data about the program to
the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) by November 1, 2016.
2)Requires the LAO, by November 1, 2017, to report to the
Legislature specified information about the program, including
a recommendation on whether the program should be continued.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Any costs to the LAO should be minor and absorbable.
2)No additional costs to the SPI, since the data is already
required to be collected by the SPI pursuant to current law.
COMMENTS:
1)Background on ECCP. SB 890 (Scott), Chapter 472, Statutes of
2008, established the ECCP, with voluntary participation by
students and school districts, for the purposes of increasing
college-going rates, motivating students to prepare for
college, helping students understand that college is
attainable and affordable, providing a clear path to college,
and preparing a highly skilled workforce.
According to the California Department of Education (CDE),
under the prior administration of the Department, the CDE
never received funding to administer this program. The CDE did
send information to school districts as required, and post
program information on its website, but that information has
since been removed. No data was collected about program
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participation, and CDE has no information on the number of
districts that are participating.
Information available online suggests that thousands of
students did take the ECCP pledge, including "thousands at
nine middle schools" in the Los Angeles Unified School
District and 15,000 in the Long Beach Unified School District
(LBUSD). The LBUSD program, called the Long Beach College
Promise, was implemented in conjunction with a one-semester
tuition-free guarantee from California State University, Long
Beach, as well as college scholarships. Since this program was
built on existing local models, it is likely that there are
more participating districts, though the extent to which their
activities are a result of the ECCP may be difficult to
determine.
2)Purpose. According to the author, "The goal [of the ECCP] is
to inform the creation of a stronger program that connects
low-income students to higher education. Due to lack of
support and funding, the implementation of this voluntary
program has not been successful. The program sunsets in 2019,
and a report on participation rates is due in 2017 to the
Legislature. Without leadership and support, it does not
appear that the CDE report will be useful to the Legislature
in determining the strengths and weaknesses of the existing
program."
3)Comment. Given that the program was not funded and CDE
apparently lacks the data they are required to collect for the
program, it is not clear how the LAO could conclude that there
is a basis for continuing the program, nor is it clear that
doing this report should be a priority use of the LAO's staff
resources.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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