BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 1402 (Lieu) - Economic and Workforce Development Program
Amended: As Introduced Policy Vote: Education 8-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 7, 2012 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 1402 recasts and revises provisions of the
Education Code governing the California Community Colleges (CCC)
Economic and Workforce Development (EWD) Program, and extends
the program's sunset date from January 1, 2013 to January 1,
2018.
Fiscal Impact:
Sunset extension: $22.9 million - $46.7 million, annually;
bill language specifies that funding is subject to an
appropriation in the Budget Act, as the program is
currently.
Background: The purpose of the EWD program is to advance
California's economic growth and global competitiveness through
education and services that contribute to continuous workforce
improvement, technology deployment, and business development and
are consistent with the current needs of the state's regional
economies. Local colleges and business partners form consortia
to identify regional workforce needs and priorities, provide
assistance to small businesses in the region through local EWD
Centers, and train workers.
Codified in 1991, the EWD program formalized earlier efforts to
coordinate statewide technical training and programs for small
businesses and economic development. SB 1809 (Polanco) Chapter
1057/1996 further clarified the legislative intent of the EWD
Program, defined regional planning, priority setting and
coordination and added audit requirements and accountability
standards. SB 1809 also made economic development and continuous
workforce improvement a primary mission of the CCC.
Proposed Law: This bill places the EWD in a new Education Code
SB 1402 (Lieu)
Page 1
section, separates it from the Career Technical Pathways
Initiative, and revises numerous goals and accountability
measures of the program. It also extends the program sunset
until January 1, 2018.
Related Legislation: A companion bill, SB 1070 (Steinberg), also
scheduled to be heard by this Committee on May 7, 2012, extends
the sunset date for the Career Technical Education Pathways
Initiative component of the current EWD Program. Where SB 1402
moves the EWD program to a new code section, SB 1070 leaves the
Career Technical Education Pathways Initiative in Section 88532;
the effect of which will remove the CTE Pathways from the
existing EWD act.
Staff Comments: This bill extends the sunset on a program that
received $22.9 million last year, and in 2009-10; the program
received $46.7 million in 2007-08 and in 2008-09, prior to
substantial budget reductions across the CCC system and the
state as a whole. In the absence of a sunset extension, the EWD
program would cease on January 1, 2013. Extending the sunset
continues the program, which also continues cost pressure to
fund the program. Cost pressure would be for the current level
of funding, at a minimum.
This bill recasts and revises numerous aspects of the EWD
program goals and principles, defines terms that are commonly
used but were not at the time that the program was codified, and
attempts to make the program more nimble as market needs change.
While these changes will shape the program's direction and, to
some degree, its activities, they remain within a larger EWD
purpose and are not likely to drive unique state costs. This
bill's changes to grantee accountability strengthen the
Chancellor's ability to deny funding to programs that are less
effective, and could make the program more cost effective
overall.
SB 1402 (Lieu)
Page 2