BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 2534 (Block) - Community Colleges: Veterans Education Pilot
Program.
Amended: July 5, 2012 Policy Vote: Education 8-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 6, 2012
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 2534 requires the California Community College
(CCC) Chancellor's Office to establish a voluntary pilot program
to authorize 3 to 5 campuses to establish and maintain a career
technical education (CTE) program that factors experiential
learning for veterans for career technical education course
credit, certificates and associate degrees. This bill also
requires the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) to submit a
specified report.
Fiscal Impact: This bill places new requirements on the
Chancellor's office and the LAO, but makes participation
voluntary for individual CCCs.
Chancellor's office: Up to $100,000 (General Fund)
annually, for the duration of the pilot program to develop
guidelines, provide technical assistance to the campuses,
conduct a competition, evaluate all proposals, and manage
the projects.
CCCs: Up to $100,000 in local costs for up to 5
participating campuses to provide release time for faculty
to review curriculum, prepare prior learning assessments,
and develop a standardized credit by exam.
LAO: Minor and absorbable costs to complete the required
report.
Background: Until 2007, statute required the CCC Board of
Governors (BOG) to approve all educational programs offered by
community colleges and also required the BOG to approve
individual courses that are not part of an approved program.
State regulations delegated the responsibility for these
approvals to the CCC Chancellor.
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AB 1943 (Nava) Ch. 817/2006 authorized local community college
governing boards to approve stand-alone credit courses that are
not part of an educational program, without the prior approval
of the BOG until January 1, 2013. These "Stand alone" courses
fall outside traditional groupings of classes, and are not part
of an established educational program. These courses are
generally created to meet specific local educational and
workforce needs.
Proposed Law: AB 2534 requires the Chancellor's Office to
establish a voluntary pilot program to authorize 3-5 campuses to
establish and maintain a CTE program that factors experiential
learning for veterans for career technical education course
credit, certificates and associate degrees. Specifically, this
bill:
1) Authorizes a local district governing board to apply for a
campus within the district to be selected.
2) Requires that the Chancellor select no more than three to
five of those campuses to participate in the pilot program
and requires that the Chancellor consider the following in
selecting campuses: a) The geographic, socioeconomic, and
demographic diversity of students attending the campus; b)
the percentage of veterans on a campus and the existing
campus' veteran services and programs; c) the district's
program and planning capacity; d) the potential for support
from funding partners in industry, the military, labor,
etc. that might reduce the cost of attendance participating
students.
3) Authorizes CTE course credit and certificates for the pilot
program to include credit earned as a result of prior
military service.
4) Authorizes a CCC governing board to approve credit courses
that are not part of an approved educational program for a
campus that participates in the pilot program, as allowed
under AB 1943, for the duration of the pilot program
(instead of sunsetting on January 1, 2013).
5) Requires participating CCCs to report to the Chancellor's
Office on; the demographics of the students served by the
pilot program, summary statistics on enrollment financing
sources, completion rates and credit granted for prior
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learning experience for the pilot program, and requires the
Chancellor's Office to provide this information to the LAO
by July 1, 2017.
6) Authorizes the LAO to use any sources of information it
deems relevant, including, but not limited to, campus
reports campus visits, and interviews, to conduct an
evaluative report required by December 1, 2017, assessing
the pilot program's effect on student veterans' success in
reaching their educational goals, and to identify any best
practices which emerge from the program and which the
Legislature may want to consider for statewide policy.
Related Legislation: AB 2462 (Block) requires the Chancellor of
the CCC to determine which courses credit should be awarded for
prior military experience, and encourages the CCCs to take
specified related actions. This bill will also be heard in this
Committee on August 6, 2012.
Staff Comments: This bill requires the Chancellor's office to
establish a new pilot program to identify, explore and develop
best practices for a statewide policy on awarding credit for
experiential learning for veterans. Before the pilot program
begins, the office must design the program, develop
participation and evaluation guidelines, and provide technical
assistance to CCCs interested in applying to participate; then,
select 3-5 campuses for participation. During the pilot program,
the Chancellor's office will have a role in managing the
programs. The Chancellor's office will require an additional
position to establish the pilot program and select the
participants, which it estimates will cost approximately
$100,000. It is not clear the extent to which ongoing management
of the pilot program will justify a dedicated PY, but there will
be workload for continued oversight.
CCCs that elect to participate will likely incur local costs.
This bill proposes an extended authority to approve courses for
the purposes of the pilot program to those campuses selected for
participation in the pilot program, which provides an incentive
to participate.
The LAO has indicated that it could complete the required report
within its existing resources.
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