BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 2478 (Hayashi) - Student residency requirements: Veterans.
Amended: August 6, 2012 Policy Vote: Education 8-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: August 16, 2012
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: AB 2478 provides that a California Community
College (CCC) student who was a member of the Armed Forces
stationed in California for more than one year immediately prior
to being discharged, is exempt from paying nonresident fees for
up to one year, if he or she files an affidavit with the
community college stating an intent to establish California
residency, as specified.
Fiscal Impact: Significant revenue loss to the CCCs, and cost
pressure to backfill from the General Fund. See staff comments.
Background: Existing law establishes uniform residency
requirements for purposes of determining the amount of fees to
be paid by students at the University of California, the
California State University, and CCC and establishes various
exceptions to these residency requirements, including the
following:
1) A member of the Armed Forces who is stationed in the
state on active duty, except a member assigned for
educational purposes. (Education Code � 68075)
2) A member of the Armed Forces who is transferred to
another state but continuously enrolled at a college in
California. (EC � 68075)
3) A student who is a dependent of a member of the Armed
Forces stationed in this state on active duty. (EC �
68074)
4) A student dependent of a member of the Armed Forces may
keep his or her resident classification until he or she has
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resided in the state for the minimum time necessary to
become a resident in the event the member of the Armed
Forces upon whom they are dependent is transferred outside
of the state or retires as an active member of the Armed
Forces. (EC � 68072)
Proposed Law: AB 2478 exempts a CCC student who was a member of
the Armed Forces stationed in California for more than one year
immediately prior to being discharged, from paying nonresident
fees for up to one year, if he or she files an affidavit with
the community college stating his or her intent to establish
California residency.
Related Legislation: AB 2250 (Gaines) 2012 would provide that a
student, or spouse of a student, who is an active member of the
Armed Forces who has served at least 2 years, is exempt from
paying nonresident fees and tuition at California's public
postsecondary institutions. This measure was held under
submission in the Assembly Appropriations committee.
Staff Comments: This bill exempts veterans formerly stationed in
California, who intend to reside in the state, from paying
non-resident tuition at CCCs. Each affected veteran would be
eligible to pay $46 per unit, rather than $244 per unit. For
each full time student (enrolled in 30 units per academic year),
the CCC would lose $5,920 in fee revenue. If even 10 students
benefit from this bill, the resulting fee revenue loss would
meet the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
The number of veterans who will be eligible to benefit from this
bill is not known. There are currently approximately 44,000
veterans enrolled in CCCs statewide. If 1% of them were
full-time students newly eligible to pay resident tuition rates,
the resulting fee loss would be approximately $2.6 million. The
CCC system budget assumes a certain amount of fee revenue each
year. Fee revenue losses result in General Fund cost pressure to
backfill the lost revenue in order to continue to provide
necessary programs.
This bill does not make affected veterans eligible for Board of
Governors (BOG) fee waivers, because it only waives non-resident
fees requirements, rather than providing that they meet
residency requirements (needed for BOG fee waiver eligibility).
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