BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1349
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Date of Hearing: April 21, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Jose Medina, Chair
AB 1349
(Weber) - As Introduced February 27, 2015
SUBJECT: Public postsecondary education: California First Act
SUMMARY: Requires the California State University (CSU) and the
University of California (UC) to guarantee undergraduate
admissions to eligible California students, as specified and
defined. Specifically, this bill:
1)Establishes the California First Act to improve undergraduate
access to CSU and UC, in accordance with the California Master
Plan for Higher Education, for California residents (defined
as persons who are not required to pay nonresident tuition).
2)Requires the Trustees of the CSU, and requests the Regents of
the UC, to guarantee undergraduate admissions at a campus, not
necessarily at a campus or in a major of the applicant's
choice, within their systems, to all eligible California
residents who apply on time and satisfy the undergraduate
admissions eligibility requirements.
3)Requires the Trustees, and requests the Regents, to submit an
annual report to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2017,
and every July 1 thereafter, for each campus and systemwide,
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for the total number of undergraduate applications received,
the number of undergraduate applicants admitted, and the
number of undergraduate applicants not admitted for the coming
academic year.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes the intent of the Legislature that each resident
of California who has the capacity and motivation to benefit
from higher education should have the opportunity to enroll
and progress in an institution of higher education.
(Education Code Section 66201)
2)Establishes the intent of the Legislature that UC and CSU seek
to maintain an undergraduate student population ratio of 60%
upper division students and 40% lower division students to
accommodate California Community College (CCC) transfer
students. (EDC Section 66201.5)
3)Establishes that UC and CSU are expected to plan for adequate
spaces to accommodate all California resident students who are
eligible and likely to apply to attend an appropriate place
within the system and that the Legislature intends to fund
programs in order to accomplish these purposes. (EDC Section
66202.5)
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: Purpose of this bill. According to the author, higher
education access is an essential element of California's Master
Plan for Higher Education (Master Plan). However, in recent
years, the state's budget crisis led California's public
colleges and universities to turn away otherwise qualified
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students and increase student fees and tuition. During this
period of economic volatility, the author notes that a
disturbing trend developed where California institutions focused
new admissions efforts on out-of-state students who pay higher
tuition prices. According to the author, as the economy
improves and funding for our public postsecondary educational
institutions increases, it is time for the state to enshrine a
critical principal of the Master Plan in state law. This bill
establishes the California First Act, to guarantee undergraduate
admission for all eligible California resident applicants and to
ensure reporting to the Legislature on resident undergraduate
admission. The author believes this bill appropriately
reaffirms and refocuses CSU and UC on educating California
students, while still maintaining the beneficial infusion of
talent from nonresidents.
Qualified freshman resident students. The Master Plan calls for
freshman eligibility pools for UC and CSU. UC is to draw its
incoming freshman class from the top 12.5% (one-eighth) of
public high school graduates. CSU is to draw its applicant pool
from the top 33% (one-third) of public high school graduates.
Freshman applicants are required to complete a set of high
school coursework (known as "A-G" requirements); in 2012-13, 39%
of high school graduates had successfully completed A-G
requirements. UC and CSU have additional freshman admission
criteria, including requiring certain test scores and GPAs. UC
and CSU currently report on whether they are accommodating
eligible freshman students; UC asserts it has been admitting all
eligible students, although not necessarily to the campus and
program of choice. CSU claims it has denied access to over
18,000 eligible freshman applicants. However, according to the
LAO, because an eligibility study has not been conducted since
2007, UC and CSU have no way of knowing if they are actually
admitting or denying students in compliance with the Master
Plan.
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Qualified transfer resident students. The Master Plan calls for
UC and CSU to accept qualified transfer students who complete 60
units of transferable credit at a community college and meet
minimum GPA requirements. For UC the minimum GPA is 2.4 and for
CSU the minimum GPA is 2.0. UC indicates it is currently
admitting all eligible transfer students, however not all
students are being accepted into their campus or program of
choice. CSU reports denying admission to 11,800 eligible
transfer students in fall 2014.
CSU local service areas. CSU is designed to function as a
regional system, with students eligible for access to a CSU
campus in their general vicinity. However, several campuses of
the CSU have raised admission standards for certain programs
above the systemwide standard and five campuses currently have
higher admission standards for every program offered - meaning
these campuses and programs deny admission to some local
students eligible to attend CSU. The LAO notes that CSU has not
indicated how many of the 11,800 students turned away were
denied access to their local campus. LAO has recommended, and
budget subcommittee staff has requested, CSU report on (1) the
number of eligible transfer students were denied access to their
local campus in fall 2014, and (2) the number of nonlocal
students admitted in fall 2014 to campuses denying admission to
eligible local transfer students.
Enrollment targets. Historically, in the annual state budget
the Legislature specified enrollment levels for the CSU and UC
and provided additional funding in years when enrollment was
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expected to grow. Enrollment growth funding has been based
primarily on changes in the college-age population and
eligibility studies. In four of the last eight years, the state
has not set enrollment targets in the budget. Without
enrollment-based budgeting, the state and universities have
disagreed over the number of California students UC and CSU are
expected to serve. Both CSU and UC assert that they have more
enrolled resident students than the state has funded. According
to the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), enrollment funding
allows the Legislature to set clear expectations about higher
education access and aligns state funding with costs.
Committee consideration. This bill requires CSU, and requests
UC, to admit all qualified undergraduate California residents.
As previously noted, the LAO has indicated that it is impossible
to determine whether CSU and UC are admitting all qualified
freshman students without an updated eligibility study.
Additionally, CSU has indicated it is not currently admitting
students for which it is not funded, and is not admitting all
eligible students in compliance with the Master Plan. While UC
contends it is currently in compliance with the Master Plan, it
has also indicated that it will, moving forward, only admit
California students for which it is funded by the state. In the
absence of appropriate funding, it is unclear how UC and CSU
would meet this requirement. For example, would UC and CSU
raise student fees in order to ensure revenues necessary to meet
the admission guarantee established in this bill? The author
and committee may wish to consider making the provisions of this
bill contingent upon the provision of adequate annual funding in
the Budget Act.
Related Legislation.
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AB 352 (Gaines), pending in this Committee, establishes limits
on nonresident enrollment at campuses of the CSU and UC.
AB 1370 (Medina), pending in this Committee, would revise
existing provisions and add new requirements governing the
nonresident tuition at UC and CSU.
SCA 4 (Nguyen), pending in the Senate, would place on the ballot
a constitutional amendment to limit out of state students at UC
to not more than 10% and to limit undergraduate tuition and fees
at UC through the 2020-2021 academic year to the 2016-17 level.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Community College League of California
AB 1349
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Opposition
None on File
Analysis Prepared by:Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916) 319-3960