BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 66
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|Author: |Leyva |
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|Version: |January 4, 2016 Hearing |
| |Date: January 13, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Kathleen Chavira |
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Subject: Career technical education
SUMMARY
This bill aligns performance accountability outcome measures for
the Economic and Workforce Development program with the outcome
measures for the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity
Act, authorizes the Department of Consumer Affairs to make
specified licensure information available to the California
Community Colleges (CCC) Chancellor's Office for purposes of
evaluating outcomes for students who participate in CCC career
technical education programs, statutorily establishes the
maximum Cal Grant C award at $2,462 for tuition and fees and
$3,000 for access costs, and authorizes adjustment of these
maximum amounts in the annual Budget Act.
BACKGROUND
Current law authorizes the Cal Grant program, administered by
the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC), to provide grants
to financially needy students to attend college. The program
consists of the Cal Grant A, Cal Grant B, and Cal Grant C
programs, and eligibility is based upon financial need, grade
point average, California residency, and other eligibility
criteria, as specified in Education Code § 69433.9. (Education
Code § 69430 - § 69439)
Cal Grant C awards assist with tuition and training costs at
occupational or vocational programs and may be used for
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institutional fees, charges, and other costs, including tuition,
plus training-related costs, such as special clothing, local
transportation, required tools, equipment, supplies, and books
and living expenses. Current law establishes the total number
of Cal Grant C awards as the number awarded in the 2000-01
fiscal year (7,761) with the maximum award amount and the total
amount of funding being determined in the annual Budget Act.
(Education Code § 69439)
Current law establishes the California Community Colleges
Economic and Workforce Development (EWD) Program to be
implemented and administered by the Chancellor's Office of the
CCC in those fiscal years for which funds are appropriated for
this purpose. Current law requires the Chancellor to implement
performance accountability outcome measures to annually provide
the Governor, Legislature, and public with information that
quantifies employer and student outcomes for program
participants.
(Education Code § 88600, § 88650)
Current federal law, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity
Act (WIOA) reauthorizes the nation's employment, training, adult
education, and vocational rehabilitation programs created under
the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. WIOA, among other things,
requires states to strategically align workforce development
programs, promote accountability and transparency and foster
regional collaboration.
(Title 29 United States Code, Chapter 32, § 3101, et seq.)
ANALYSIS
This bill:
1) Requires the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to make
available any licensure information it has in electronic
format for its boards, bureaus, commissions, or programs to
the California Community College (CCC) Chancellor's Office
to enable the CCC to:
a) Measure employment outcomes of students who
participate in CCC career technical education
programs.
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b) Recommend improvements in CCC career technical
education programs.
2) Authorizes DCA to make available the confidential
information outlined in (1) only to the extent that such
disclosure is in compliance with state and federal privacy
laws.
3) Statutorily establishes the maximum annual amount of the
Cal Grant C award. Specifically it:
a) Establishes the maximum annual amount
of the Cal Grant C for purposes of tuition and fees as
$2,462.
b) Establishes the maximum annual amount
of the Cal Grant C for purposes of access costs as
$3,000.
c) Authorizes the adjustment of the
statutory maximum amounts in the annual Budget Act.
d) Streamlines the current list of
allowable uses of Cal Grant C awards with a
cross-reference to an existing definition of access
costs within the Cal Grant program.
4) Requires, to the extent possible, the alignment of
performance accountability outcome measures for the
economic and workplace development program with the
performance accountability measures of the federal
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. It also:
a) Deletes existing statutorily prescribed
performance measures.
b) Reduces data collection requirements.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Source of the bill. In December 2014, the Board of
Governors of the California Community Colleges commissioned
the Task Force on Workforce, Job Creation and a Strong
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Economy to consider strategies and recommend policies and
practices to meet California's anticipated shortage of one
million industry-valued, middle skill credentials.
According to the report of the Task Force, California's
education pipeline is not keeping pace with the higher
levels of skills and education required by employers and
must significantly increase the number of individuals with
industry-valued degrees, certificates and credentials.
The Task Force was comprised of representatives from
community college faculty, staff, administration, trustees
and students, the employer community, labor, public
agencies involved in workforce training and economic
development, K-12 education policy and community based
organizations. The work of the task force involved
regional college conversations, town hall meetings, and
task force meetings. After almost a year of public
meetings and stakeholder input, the Task Force issued 25
recommendations which were presented to the Board of
Governors in September 2015 and adopted in November 2015.
Implementation of these recommendations requires statutory,
regulatory and administrative changes.
This bill, sponsored by the Chancellor's Office of the
California Community Colleges, implements statutory changes
recommended by the Task Force in three areas in an effort
to improve and streamline Career Technical Education (CTE)
programs. These include recommendations to:
a) Develop, streamline, and align common outcome
metrics for all state funded CTE programs and to
ensure compatibility with federal reporting
requirements.
b) Authorize the sharing of third-party
licenses/certification data across government
entities.
c) Support efforts to increase financial support
under the Cal Grant C program for community college
CTE students.
2) Middle skills jobs. Middle skills jobs are defined as
those that require more education and training than a high
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school diploma but less than a four-year college degree.
According to the National Skills Coalition (NSC), a
national advocacy organization governed and advised by a
coalition drawn from business, labor, community colleges,
community-based organizations, and the public workforce
system, while middle skills jobs make up the largest part
of California's labor market, key industries are unable to
find enough sufficiently trained workers to fill these
jobs. NSC reports that in 2012, 50 percent of all jobs in
California were middle skills but only 40 percent of the
workforce was trained to the level necessary to fill those
positions.
3) Cal Grant C background. Students meeting the general
eligibility for the Cal Grant award may be considered for
the Cal Grant C. There is no high school graduation
requirement, minimum grade point average or maximum age for
recipients. However, students must be California
residents, have United States or eligible noncitizen
status, complete US selective service requirements, enroll
at least half-time at an eligible California institution,
maintain satisfactory academic progress (defined by the
institution) once enrolled, meet family income and asset
ceilings, and not be in default on any student loan or owe
any federal or state grant refund.
Funding is available for up to two years, depending on the
length of the program. To qualify, a student must enroll in an
occupational, technical, or vocational program that is at least
four months long at a California Community College (CCC), an
independent college, or a vocational/career school.
According to the 2013-14 report on Cal Grant awardees prepared
by the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) almost 82
percent of Cal Grant C awardees are independent students. About
68 percent earned less than $18,000 annually, and more than 85
percent earned less than $30,000 annually. Almost half are over
age 30.
CSAC also reports that of the 15,159 Cal Grant C awardees in
2013-14, 12,800 attend a CCC, 2 attend a UC campus, 36 attend
another public institution, 105 attend an independent college
and 1,483 attend a private for-profit institution. Although the
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vast majority of students who receive the Cal Grant C are
enrolled in community college programs, almost two-thirds of the
total funds awarded are paid to students enrolled in vocational
for-profit programs.
In 2013-14, the maximum annual award was $547 for training
related costs and up to $2,462 more for tuition and fees for
attendance at other than a California Community College.
4) Impact of Cal Grant C changes? Given the demographics of
the Cal Grant recipients outlined in staff comment #5, it
appears that most students receiving a Cal Grant C at the
community colleges would be eligible for a Board of
Governor's fee waiver. The typical Cal Grant C award for
CCC students is thus $547 for costs other than tuition and
fees. Although SB 1028 (Jackson, Chapter 692, Statutes of
2014) expanded the allowable use of the Cal Grant C to
include living expenses, the CCC report that the Department
of Finance and the CSAC do not believe that the language
expands the allowable grant amount to community college
students. According to the CCC, a 2006 student survey
conducted by the CSAC indicates that the average cost of
books and supplies alone was $795/term. This bill would
establish the maximum grant amount for purposes of access
costs at $3000 per year, providing much need additional aid
to help more community college students complete their
Career Technical Education programs.
It is the stated intent of the bill sponsors to increase the
award amount to meet the financial assistance needs of community
college students. As drafted, however, it appears that a
qualifying student who attends a higher cost institution could
receive a Cal Grant C for both tuition/fees and access costs,
for a total annual award of up to $5,462.
The Committee may wish to consider and clarify:
a) Is it the intent to provide for tuition/fees
or access costs, or to increase the overall award for
Cal Grant C recipients to cover both?
b) Would increasing the overall award amount have
the effect of incentivizing recruitment of Grant C
recipient students by private and/or for-profit
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institutions? Is this a desirable effect?
c) Should the increase in the award amount for
access costs be limited to Cal Grant C recipients who
attend a public community college?
d) The current number of authorized Cal Grant C
awards is 7,761. Would increasing the overall award
amount of an already over-subscribed program result in
fewer students receiving Cal Grant C awards?
1) Streamlining/alignment of outcome metrics. Currently,
workforce development program funds for community college
Career Technical Education (CTE) offerings come from the
federal Carl Perkins Career and Technical Education Act,
the Economic and Workforce Development Program, and the
Career Technical Education Pathways Program. The
Chancellor's Office reports that state and national policy
shifts have made these programs more similar in scope.
However, each of these funding streams requires distinct
metrics to be reported, creating duplicative administrative
burdens for both the Chancellor's Office staff and local
data collectors. With the enactment of the federal
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), another
source of funding for workforce development programs, a
single set of common measures has been adopted for programs
serving both adults and youths under the Act.
This bill replaces existing accountability language under
the Economic and Workforce Development Program with
performance accountability outcome measures consistent with
that required under WIOA. Staff notes that the Legislature
has also recently provided funding for the development of
metrics to evaluate outcomes for Adult Education programs
and that these metrics are also expected to align with the
federal WIOA where applicable. Enactment of these
provisions reduces the burden of data collection and
reporting, establishes common reporting across districts
and inter-segmentally, and eases the overall administrative
burden associated with workforce development programs.
2) Data sharing and privacy protections. This bill requires
the Department of Consumer Affairs to share licensing data
with the California Community Colleges. Information on
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licensure has not historically been a data element
collected by the community colleges. The ability to
reliably collect this data is impacted by the fact that
these are industry licenses generally awarded by certifying
bodies, and not the schools that provided the training.
The California Community Colleges (CCC) report that they have
already gathered similar data on apprenticeship, POST (Peace
Officers Standards and Training) certification, and CompTIA
(Computer Technology Industry Association) certification it is
the intent that this information be used for the Student Success
Scorecard as one measure of a successful completion in CTE
pathways and programs.
The CCC report that they have already entered into several
memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with various state agencies
to facilitate data sharing. These include the Employment
Development, the Department of Social Services, the Office of
Statewide Health Planning and Development, the California
Student Aid Commission and California's public 4-year
universities. While these agencies interpret federal and state
law to allow such sharing of information, according to the CCC,
the Department of Consumer Affairs believes that state and
federal privacy laws restrict their ability to share licensing
information. The provisions of this bill would provide the
statutory clarity necessary to facilitate the sharing of
licensure data for the purpose of evaluating programmatic
outcomes.
Staff notes that examples of the MOUs governing data use and
exchange outline very similar conditions regarding the use,
maintenance and destruction of confidential data. In order to
ensure consistency, as well as protection of privacy, staff
recommends that the broader conditions applicable to most MOU
agreements be statutorily incorporated into the bill's
provisions, and that the bill be amended as follows:
a) On page 4, line 13, after the period insert,
"Licensure information made available by the
department pursuant to this section shall not be used
for any other purpose."
b) On page 4, line 14, strike "confidential" and on
line 16, replace "is in compliance" with "complies"
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c) On page 4 after line 17 insert:
"(c) The department may, by agreement, condition or
limit the availability of licensure information
pursuant to subdivision (a) in order to ensure the
security of the information and protect the privacy
rights of the individuals to whom the information
pertains.
(d) Licensure information made available pursuant to
subdivision (a):
(1) shall be limited to only that information
necessary to accomplish the purpose authorized in
subdivision (a);
(2) shall not be used in a manner that permits third
parties to personally identify the individual or
individuals to whom the information pertains;
(3) shall not be shared with or transmitted to any
other party or entity without the consent of the
individual or individuals to whom the information
pertains;
(4) shall be protected by reasonable security
procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of
the information to protect that information from
unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification,
or disclosure; and
(5) shall be immediately and securely destroyed when
no longer needed for the purpose authorized in
subdivision (a).
(e) Notwithstanding subparagraph (d)(3), the
department or the Office of the Chancellor of the
California Community Colleges may share licensure
information with a third party who contracts to
perform the function authorized in subdivision (a),
provided the third party is required by contract to
follow the provisions of this section."
3) Related Budget Proposal. The Governor's Proposed Budget
for 2016-17 includes $200 million to enable community
colleges to expand access to additional career technical
education courses and programs and to implement a regional
accountability structure that is aligned with the
recommendations of the Task Force on Workforce, Job
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Creation, and a Strong Economy. According to the Governor,
the Task Force identified an opportunity to align the
myriad of career technical education programs at the
community colleges and local education agencies with the
state's regional workforce needs and fouryear undergraduate
programs. Community colleges will be expected to
collaborate regionally with their educational, workforce,
labor, and civic partners to expand access to career
technical education programs and align programmatic
offerings with local wo4)rkforce demand. Community colleges
will use the strategic plans to inform the development,
coordination, and availability of new and existing career
technical education. In addition, the Board of Governors
are expected to adopt guidance, policies, and regulatory
reforms that enable community college districts to develop
and expand access to career technical education courses and
programs in a timely manner.
SUPPORT
Board of Governors
California Chamber of Commerce
Community College League of California
OPPOSITION
None received.
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