BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 2655 (Swanson) - Community Colleges: Inmate Education.
Amended: March 29, 2012 Policy Vote: Education 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: July 2, 2012 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 2566 waives the open course requirement for
California community college (CCC) courses offered in state
correctional facilities and allows attendance hours generated by
credit courses to be funded at the credit rate, instead of the
noncredit funding rate.
Fiscal Impact:
Hundreds of thousands to millions General Fund, to the
extent that this bill's "open course" waiver results in
increased CCC courses taught in state prisons.
$329,000 General Fund annually, to increase apportionment
to the "for credit" rate.
Background: Existing law authorizes a community college district
to claim state apportionment for classes it provides to inmates
of any city, county, or city and county jail, road camp, farm
for adults, or federal correctional facility. Under existing
law, the attendance hours generated by these classes, whether
credit or noncredit, count as noncredit attendance hours for
apportionment purposes. (Education Code � 84810.5)
Classes provided to inmates of state correctional facilities are
not authorized for state apportionment. In addition, no funds
provided for inmate education programs can be considered as part
of the base revenues for community college districts in
computing apportionments. (EC � 84810.5)
Proposed Law: AB 2655 waives the open course requirement for
California community college (CCC) courses offered in state
correctional facilities, allowing courses other than distance
courses to be taught in state prisons. This bill also allows
attendance hours generated by credit courses to be funded at the
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credit rate, instead of the noncredit funding rate.
Related Legislation: AB 216 (Swanson) 2011 was nearly identical
to this bill, and was held under submission in this Committee.
AB 1702 (Swanson) 2010 was similar to this bill, and held under
submission in this Committee.
SB 574 (Hancock) 2009 was also similar to this bill, and was
held under submission in this Committee.
Staff Comments: Existing law does not permit CCCs to receive
state funding for courses that are not open to the public,
except for courses offered at city, county and federal
correctional facilities (but not at state correctional
facilities). Courses offered to state correctional inmates must
be "distance education" courses open to the public, as well.
Under existing law, CCC courses offered in local and federal
correctional facilities that are not open to the public are
funded at a "noncredit rate" (which is less than a "for credit
rate"), even if the courses are actually for credit.
This bill would waive the "open course" provisions for CCC
courses offered in state correctional facilities, thus
conforming to current allowances for CCC courses in local or
federal correctional facilities, for which the colleges receive
funding even though the courses are not open to the general
public. The CCCs would be able to offer courses in state
correctional facilities, and receive apportionments for those
courses. Additionally, this bill would allow attendance hours
generated by credit courses at all correctional facilities to be
funded at the corresponding rates for those types of courses
rather than at the lower, noncredit rate at which the current
courses offered in federal prisons and county jails are funded.
This bill would increase state costs by allowing CCCs to claim
funding for courses taught at state correctional facilities and
by funding credit courses provided at these facilities at the
full credit rate (noncredit courses would still be funded at the
lower noncredit rate). Currently, for-credit courses are funded
at the rate of $4,565 per full-time equivalent student (FTES),
career development and college preparation noncredit courses are
funded at $3,237 per FTES, and noncredit courses at $2,745 per
FTES.
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According to the CCC Chancellor's Office, community college
programs projected serving credit courses for 1,769 FTES in the
2006-07 fiscal year (which remains the most recent survey data
available). The majority of these FTES would already receive
full credit funding, because the courses are distance education
courses also open to the public. Under this bill, the remaining
FTES would also receive full credit apportionments, which are
$1,820 per FTES. For the 181 converted course rates, the cost
would be approximately $329,000.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has
sustained substantial budget reductions in recent years. The
CDCR has, in turn, reduced many of its programs including inmate
education and training programs. The 2011-12 Budget allocated
$99.5 million for inmate education programs, which is less than
half of the $206 million spent in 2008-09. Waiving the open
course requirements (which would allow CCCs to offer courses in
state correctional facilities) combined with an increased fiscal
incentive for the CCCs to offer courses in state prisons would
likely lead to an expansion of course offerings and costs above
what will likely occur without those increases.
Last October, the state enacted the 2011 Public Safety
Realignment, aimed at reducing prison overcrowding by
prospectively housing more felons in county jails. Public Safety
Realignment will result in future sentences for specified
felonies considered non-serious, non-violent, and non-sex
offenses being served in county jails instead of state prisons.
To the extent that the demand for CCC courses begins to increase
in county jails, as the inmate population (which previously
would have been sentenced to state prisons) grows, CCCs will be
able to increase courses for which the open course requirement
is waived. All courses will still, however, have to be funded at
the non-credit rate.
The costs incurred by this bill would depend on the number of
additional FTES that would take classes at a state correctional
facility. For every 100 for-credit FTES authorized under this
provision, state costs would increase by $456,000. While CCCs
are limited to enrollment caps, staff notes that expanding
access and funding rates creates pressure to increase funds and
incentivizes CCCs to augment prison education programs
statewide.
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