BILL ANALYSIS
AB 555
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Date of Hearing: May 20, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 555 (Portantino) - As Amended: May 6, 2009
Policy Committee: Higher
EducationVote: 7-0
Education 11-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill establishes a pilot project, through January 2015,
that removes restrictions on a student's ability to concurrently
enroll in a K-12 public school and the Kern, Long Beach, Los
Angeles, Los Rios, or San Jose-Evergreen Community College
Districts (CCDs). Specifically, this bill:
1)Authorizes the governing board of one of the above CCDs to
enter into a partnership with school districts in its service
area to provide secondary pupils-who have exhausted all
opportunities to enroll in equivalent K-12 course
offerings-with advanced scholastic, career technical education
(CTE), or other coursework opportunities at a CCD's campus.
2)Removes the existing requirement that secondary school pupils
be recommended by their school principal to take courses at a
California Community College (CCC) and instead authorizes such
pupils to take community college courses at one of the five
CCDs after notifying their principal that they had exhausted
all opportunities to enroll in equivalent courses in the
district.
3)Prohibits the CCDs from offering physical education courses to
K-12 students pursuant to the partnership agreements.
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4)Exempts the five CCDs from provisions limiting the admission
of K-12 students to a CCC summer session to 5% of the
enrollment in each secondary school class.
5)Provides that, for purposes of state apportionments, the CCDs
shall be credited for additional full-time equivalent students
attributable to the attendance of the K-12 students, and
prohibits the CCDs from receiving funding for instructional
services for which a school district has been, or will be,
paid.
6)Requires participating CCDs and K-12 districts to report
annually on enrollment and successful course completion
pursuant to the above, and requires the Chancellor's Office of
the CCC to submit an evaluation of the pilot project, as
specified, by December 1, 2013.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)GF/98 cost pressure, likely $3 million to $4 million annually,
to enroll high schools pupils in the five CCDs for the purpose
of taking advanced scholastic, career technical education
(CTE), or other coursework. This assumes a 10% to 15%
increase in high school pupils concurrently at the five CCDs
in the pilot project. Enrollment in these districts is about
18% of statewide enrollment (on a full-time equivalent student
basis). Assuming these districts enroll the same percentage
of the roughly 125,000 K-12 pupils concurrently enrolled
statewide, such enrollment in these districts would currently
total about 22,700 pupils.
2)One-time GF costs, in 2013-14, of at least $100,000 to the
Chancellor's Office for the project evaluation.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . Concurrent enrollment provides students the
opportunity to enroll in college courses and earn college
credit while still enrolled in high school. Currently, a
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pupil is allowed to concurrently enroll in a CC as a "special
admit" while still attending high school if the pupil's school
district determines the pupil would benefit from "advanced
scholastic or vocational work." Special-admit students have
typically been advanced pupils wanting to take more
challenging coursework or those who come from high schools
where Advanced Placement or honors courses are not widely
available.
This bill establishes a pilot program for five community
college districts to partner with school districts to provide
more expansive concurrent enrollment opportunities to primary
and secondary school pupils in an attempt to improve college
participation rates.
2)Recent Concurrent Enrollment Controversy . In 2002, the state
took statutory and budgetary action to reduce concurrent
enrollment levels after concerns were raised about a number of
CCC districts inappropriately claiming state funding for an
increasing number of concurrently enrolled high school
students. While statute still permits districts to enroll some
K-12 students, the Legislature enacted new restrictions on
concurrent enrollment to prevent districts from abusing the
provision. As a result, the number of K-12 students
concurrently enrolled in CCC, predominantly high school
students taking physical education courses, declined by more
than 100,000 students. This bill does not change the
limitations regarding physical education courses at the CCDs
in the pilot program.
3)Related Legislation . AB 78 (Portantino), pending on this
committee's Suspense file, contains similar provisions but is
applicable to all of the CCC.
4)Prior Legislation . AB 1409 (Portantino) of 2007, which was
similar to AB 78, was held in Senate Appropriations.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081