BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1456
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 8, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 1456 (Lowenthal) - As Amended: July 5, 2012
Policy Committee: Higher
EducationVote:7-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill establishes additional requirements for students to be
eligible to receive a California Community Colleges (CCC) Board
of Governors (BOG) fee waiver, and places new conditions on
community colleges for use of state funds made available for
matriculation services. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires otherwise eligible students to meet academic and
progress standards, as adopted by the BOG, in order to receive
a BOG fee waiver.
2)Stipulates that the academic and progress standards per (1)
are to be adopted by the BOG in consultation with students,
faculty and other stakeholders and are to include a reasonable
implementation period, and states legislative intent that the
standards be implemented only to the extent adequate student
support services and interventions are made available to
ensure no disproportionate impact to students based on
ethnicity, gender, disability or socioeconomic status.
3)Recasts the Seymour-Campbell Matriculation Act of 1986 as the
Seymour-Campbell Success Act of 2012, and establishes a
Student Success and Support Program, which, in addition to
existing services provided under a matriculation agreement, is
to include the development of an educational plan related to a
student's academic and career goals.
4)States that a student's responsibility under a matriculation
agreement is to identify an academic and career goal, declare
a specified course of study within a time period or course
unit accumulation to be determined by the BOG, and maintain
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academic progress toward the academic/career goal identified
in their educational plan.
5)Requires the BOG to establish an implementation period for the
Student Success and Support Program, to be phased in as
resources are available.
6)Requires the BOG, in consultation with stakeholders, to
establish policies and processes requiring all students,
except those determined to be exempt, to complete orientation
and assessment and to develop educational plans and to adopt
an appeals process. This requirement is to be implemented over
a period of time, as determined by the BOG in consideration of
available resources.
7)Requires the BOG to develop a funding formula, as
specified-replacing the existing funding formula developed for
matriculation services-to allocate funding among districts
under the Student Success and Support Program. The funding
formula is to include a requirement that, if participating
districts use an assessment tool, they use the BOG's common
assessment tool.
8)Requires participating colleges to develop a Student Success
and Support Program plan, as specified.
9)Stipulates that (3) through (8) are only operable in any
fiscal year when funds are appropriated specifically for these
purposes.
10)Requires the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) to report to
the Legislature by July 1, 2014 on the implementation and
impacts of the Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act of 2012.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Since 2009-10, when significant budget reductions were enacted
across the CCC, annual state funding for matriculation has
totaled $49.2 million. (In 2008-09, funding for matriculation
totaled $101.8 million.)
This bill, over time, will create significant General Fund
(Prop 98) cost pressure to increase funding for matriculation
services, specifically for expansion of orientation,
assessment, and development of students' educational plans.
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(The student/counselor ratio at the CCC is currently about
1900:1.)
Using more efficient means to deliver these services, such as
a systemwide common assessment and web-based
counseling/planning tools, where appropriate, will ameliorate
some of these cost pressures. Aside from these efficiencies,
expansion of matriculation funding will be dependent annual
budget decisions.
2)Any additional costs for districts to determine students'
eligibility for BOG fee waivers will depend on the qualifying
academic and progress standards established by the board. To
the extent these standards involve student performance
characteristics already acquired by districts, costs should
not be significant. If any districts have to modify IT systems
to determine students' eligibility for waivers under these new
requirements, those one-time costs would be
state-reimbursable.
3)To the extent more students are no longer eligible for a BOG
fee waiver due to the academic and progress standards, there
will be an increase in student fee revenue if these students
nevertheless continue to enroll.
4)To the extent implementation of this bill increases the rate
of student course completion, and ultimately the number of
enrolled CCC students attaining their educational goals, over
time the system will benefit from reduced administrative costs
and greater efficiencies, and the state will benefit from a
more educated workforce, which tends to increase wages and
thus tax revenues.
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
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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. This bill contains
the principal SSTF recommendations that require statutory
changes.
The bill is supported by the CCC Academic Senate, the
Community College League, several community college districts,
and numerous community and education groups.
2)Opposition . The California Teachers Association's Community
College Association argues that implementation of this bill
will "create a two-tier system of students, between those
life, family, and educational experiences that foster their
movement through the existing cumbersome community college
system vs. students who lack the necessary language, computer,
and mathematical skills necessary for college success."
The California Community College Independents, an association
of independent bargaining units for faculty, are opposed
unless the bill is amended to ensure that disadvantaged
students receive appropriate support services and
interventions, clarify application of the terms "educational
goals" and "academic and career goals," and incorporate
academic probation into the application of academic and
progress standards.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081