BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1237
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Date of Hearing: April 12, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Marty Block, Chair
AB 1237 (Nestande) - As Amended: March 31, 2011
SUBJECT : Postsecondary education: finance: remedial
instruction.
SUMMARY : Finds and declares that state General Funds that do
not count toward the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee shall not
be appropriated for remedial instruction at the University of
California (UC) and California State University (CSU) and
authorizes the appropriation of Proposition 98 funds from K-12
instruction to the California Community Colleges (CCC) for the
purposes of remedial instruction for UC and CSU students.
Specifically, this bill finds and declares :
1)California high school graduates should be prepared for credit
coursework at UC and CSU.
2)Only General Fund moneys that count toward the Proposition 98
minimum guarantee shall be appropriated to support remedial
instruction in secondary education coursework.
3)General Fund moneys that do not count toward the Proposition
98 minimum guarantee shall not be appropriated for purposes of
supporting remedial instruction of college students in
coursework that is required prior to enrollment in coursework
offered for college credit by UC or CSU.
4)Funds that may otherwise be appropriated to school districts
for K-12 instruction under the Proposition 98 minimum
guarantee may instead be appropriated to CCC districts to fund
remedial instruction of CCC students who are provisionally
accepted to UC or CSU, for purposes of completing academic
coursework that is required prior to enrollment in coursework
offered for college credit.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Expresses legislative intent with respect to the determination
of standards and criteria for admission to UC and CSU.
(Education Code � 66205)
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2)Requires that a minimum amount of funding be applied for the
support of the public school system and CCC districts based on
a calculation made each fiscal year pursuant to one of the
three specified tests that is applicable to that fiscal year.
(Article XVI, Section 8 of the California Constitution)
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed nonfiscal by
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS : This bill is double-referred to the Assembly
Education Committee, where issues related to the appropriation
of K-12 Proposition 98 funds are more appropriately discussed.
Effect of this bill . As drafted the provisions of this bill
have no force of law, since General Funds are expended in the
annual budget act. Therefore, this bill is a statement of
legislative intent.
Need for this bill . According to the author, "At a time when
the Legislature and Governor have been forced to enact $1
billion in non-Proposition 98 General Fund cuts to higher
education, this bill provides an opportunity to revisit the
question if it's appropriate to require or even allow the CSU
and UC to use non-Proposition 98 funding for high-school
coursework. The remaining General Funds no longer being used to
support remediation could instead be redirected to offset
faculty layoffs, other instructional program cuts, or even be
redirected to other areas of the State's General Fund budget."
Background . UC and CSU evaluate newly admitted students to
determine whether they are prepared for college-level work.
According to a March 2011 issues brief by the Legislative
Analyst's Office, of regularly admitted CSU freshmen in 2009,
about 58% were unprepared for college-level writing or math or
both. UC freshmen remediation needs have declined slightly in
recent years; in 2010, about 26% of regularly admitted freshmen
arrived unprepared for college-level writing.
1)UC does not have a systemwide math requirement or placement
exam but does have a reading and writing proficiency
requirement for incoming freshman, the Entry Level Writing
Requirement (ELWR). Students may satisfy the ELWR in a number
of ways. For example, prior to enrollment a student may
satisfy the requirement through passage of the UC Analytical
Writing Placement Exam (formerly called the Subject A
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Examination), by attaining an acceptable score on another
approved test of Writing, or by earning at least three
semester credits or four quarter units of transferable college
credit in English composition. UC does not consider ELWR a
remedial course. Academic proficiency varies significantly
among UC campuses.
2)CSU students who do not demonstrate proficiency must pass the
appropriate precollegiate (commonly called "remedial") courses
within one year of admission. CSU will begin implementation
of new remediation requirements, called Early Start, beginning
in 2012. Under Early Start, entering freshmen who are not
proficient in math or "at risk" in English will need to start
the remediation process before their first term. By 2014
students will need to have started their work on becoming
ready for college-level English. Students will be given a
menu of options to determine the best approach for them to
start their remedial instruction, include such things as
senior year high school courses, courses offered in the summer
at any one of their local CCC or CSU campuses and online
courses, to name a few.
Should CCC be the only avenue for remedial instruction ?
Students requiring remediation are disproportionally from
economically disadvantaged backgrounds and first-generation
college students, many of whom have not had the benefit of a
strong college-preparatory program, which research has found to
be one of the most important factors in academic proficiency.
The Committee may wish to consider if it is best to endorse
completely precluding UC and CSU from providing remediation.
There may be instances when it is more cost-effective for the
state and beneficial to the student to receive remedial
instruction at the student's UC or CSU campus. At a time when
CCCs are reducing course offerings (denying access to 450,000
students), can CCC realistically meet all UC and CSU student
remediation needs, and by doing so do they deny access to
another student for whom CCC is the only educational option?
Previous legislation . SB 618 (Dutton, 2009), which was never
heard in the Senate, expressed legislative intent to hold the
public elementary and secondary education system responsible for
adequately preparing its pupils for coursework at UC and CSU
without the need to take remedial education courses. AB 2631
(Firestone, 1996), which failed passage on the Assembly Floor,
would have allowed the K-12 Proposition 98 apportionment to be
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offset for the costs of remedial instruction in English or
mathematics provided at UC, CSU or CCC.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
California State University
Analysis Prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960