BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1741
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Date of Hearing: May 9, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1741 (Fong) - As Amended: March 20, 2012
Policy Committee: Higher
EducationVote:6-3
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California Community College Board of
Governors to develop a plan for supporting specified goals with
respect to increasing student success. Specifically, this bill:
1)Establishes the Student Success Infrastructure Act of 2012,
with the goals of:
a) Increasing the ratio of faculty counselors to students.
b) Restoring categorical programs providing student support
services.
c) Increasing the hours of instruction taught by full-time
faculty.
d) Expanding part-time faculty office hours, among other
steps to improve the professionalization of part-time
faculty.
2)Requires the CCC Board of Governors to annually adopt a plan
for supporting the above goals and the goals of the
Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act (SB 1456 of 2012).
3)Makes the above operative in any year only upon an
appropriation to the Student Success Infrastructure Fund,
specifically for the above purposes.
FISCAL EFFECT
To some extent, the goals outlined above are consistent with
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funding issues often addressed by the CCC as part of its annual
budget request to the governor and Legislature. For example, in
its 2012-13 budget request, the CCC included $313 million to
restore prior funding reductions for programs providing student
services. Nevertheless, the establishment of these particular
goals and a separate fund for these goals, and the requirement
that the CCC develop an annual plan for funding these goals
along with the provisions of SB 1456, creates some level of
additional cost pressure for allocation of Proposition 98 funds
for these specific purposes.
By way of illustration, the Chancellor's Office estimates the
following: (a) costs of $330 million to improve the
student/counselor ratio from a statewide average of 1900:1 to
900:1; (b) net costs of $78 million to increase the percentage
hours of instruction taught by full-time faculty to 75%
statewide; and (c) $11 million to meet statutory requirements
for funding part-time faculty office hours.
COMMENTS
1)Background and Purpose . Due to concerns regarding the
relatively small proportion of CCC students who are actually
completing their educational goals, SB 1143 (Liu)/Chapter 409
of 2010 required the CCC Chancellor to convene a task force to
make recommendations for improving student success. The
Student Success Task Force (SSTF) issued its report, including
22 recommendations, in January. The recommendations are
designed to refocus priorities on the core missions of
remedial education, workforce preparation, certificate and
degree attainment, and transfer, by improving matriculation
services and incentivizing successful student behaviors,
aligning course offerings to student needs, improving basic
skills education and professional development, strengthening
statewide CCC leadership, increasing CCC coordination,
maintaining a student success scorecard and data system, and
aligning resources with these recommendations. Most of these
recommendations can be implemented through regulation, the
budget act, or state administrative policy. Six
recommendations require statutory changes, most of which are
contained in SB 1456 (Lowenthal), pending in Senate
Appropriations.
The statewide CCC Academic Senate and the community college
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faculty unions have expressed concern that the task force
recommendations narrow the CCC mission, take key academic
decisions out of the purview of the local faculty, could
negatively impact disadvantaged students, and do not address
key needs, including restoring general and categorical
funding.
According to this bill's sponsor, the Faculty Association of
the California Community Colleges (FACCC), the four areas
identified in this bill are necessary to increase the
potential for student success. FACCC states, "We believe this
measure should be viewed as a companion piece to SB 1456
(Lowenthal),?we have relayed our concerns?that it would be
both improper and unrealistic to expect as major a shift in
our community college system as envisioned by the Student
Success Task Force without proper attention to the
infrastructure referenced in AB 1741."
2)Opposition . According to the CCC Chancellor's Office, this
bill "suggests that student improvement can only be achieved
once the goals of the Student Success Infrastructure Act are
funded and does not acknowledge that there are interim steps
that can be taken without incurring new costs. Moreover, once
there are new resources available, AB 1741 proposes to fund
existing models without considering new and innovative
approaches to serving students as cost-effectively as
possible?AB 1741 separates the conversation of resources from
the policy interventions necessary to improve student success
rates. The resource questions should be dealt with as part of
SB 1456 and/or in the ongoing implementation process."
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081