BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1456
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SENATE THIRD READING
SB 1456 (Alan Lowenthal)
As Amended August 24, 2012
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :35-1
HIGHER EDUCATION 7-1 APPROPRIATIONS 12-0
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|Ayes:|Block, Olsen, Achadjian, |Ayes:|Gatto, Blumenfield, |
| |Brownley, Lara, Miller, | |Bradford, |
| |Portantino | |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Davis, Fuentes, Hall, |
| | | |Hill, Cedillo, Mitchell, |
| | | |Solorio |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Galgiani | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : 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, and specifies that these standards, meet
specified requirements, including:
a) Be uniform across all CCC districts and not include a
maximum unit cap;
b) Be adopted in consultation with students, faculty and
other stakeholders, considering specified criteria; and,
c) Include a reasonable, phased-in implementation period
that commences no sooner than one year from adoption of the
minimum academic and progress standards or any subsequent
changes to these standards.
2)States legislative intent that:
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a) Minimum academic and progress standards be implemented
only to the extent adequate student support services and
interventions are provided to ensure no disproportionate
impact to students based on ethnicity, gender, disability
or socioeconomic status, and the BOG consider the ability
of CCC districts to meet these requirements before adopting
minimum academic and progress standards; and,
b) A student not lose fee waiver eligibility without a CCC
first demonstrating a reasonable effort to provide a
student with adequate notice and assistance in maintaining
his or her fee waiver eligibility, and the BOG adopt
regulations to implement this provision, as specified.
3)Requires the BOG to notify and provide specified information
to the policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature prior
to adopting minimum academic and progress standards.
4)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.
5)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
academic progress toward an educational goal and course of
study identified in his or her educational plan.
6)Requires the BOG to establish an implementation period for the
Student Success and Support Program, to be phased in as
resources are available.
7)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, and states legislative
intent that these policies and procedures be developed and
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implemented only as resources are provided and utilized by
CCCs to provide the student support services, individual
counseling and advising, and technology-based strategies
necessary to ensure that students can successfully meet the
new eligibility requirements.
8)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.
9)Requires participating colleges to develop a Student Success
and Support Program plan, as specified.
10)Stipulates that 4) through 8) are only operable in any fiscal
year when funds are appropriated specifically for these
purposes.
11)Requires the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) to report to
the Legislature by July 1, 2014, and every even-numbered year
thereafter, 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
(Proposition 98) cost pressure to increase funding for
matriculation services, specifically for expansion of
orientation, assessment, and development of students'
educational plans. (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
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budget decisions.
2)Any additional costs for CCC districts to determine students'
eligibility for BOG fee waivers will depend on the qualifying
academic and progress standards established by the local CCC
governing board. To the extent these standards involve
student performance characteristics already acquired by CCC
districts, costs should not be significant. If any CCC
districts have to modify their information technology 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 : Due to concerns regarding the relatively small
proportion of CCC students who are actually completing their
educational goals, SB 1143 (Liu), Chapter 409, Statutes of 2010,
required the CCC Chancellor to convene a task force to make
recommendations for improving student success. The Student
Success Task Force (SSTF) was comprised of 20 individuals (CCC
chief executive officers, faculty, students, researchers, staff
and external stake holders) who spent a year researching,
studying and debating the best methods to improve student
outcomes at the CCC.
The SSTF report, which was unanimously adopted by the BOG in
January 2012, includes 22 recommendations that are designed to
refocus priorities on the core missions of remedial education,
workforce preparation, certificate and degree attainment, and
transfer by: improving matriculation services and incentivizing
successful student behaviors, aligning course offerings to
student needs, improving basic skills education and professional
development, strengthening statewide CCC leadership, increasing
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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.
This bill requires students to meet academic and progress
standards to be eligible for the BOG fee waiver and to complete
orientation and assessment and to develop education plans.
According to information provided by the Chancellor's office,
several other financial aid programs establish academic and
progress standards to be met in order to continue to receive
grants and services including Extended Opportunity Programs and
Services, Cal Grants, and Pell Grants. To ensure students
receive the guidance and support they need to meet these
academic standards and to meet the orientation, assessment, and
education plan requirements, this bill requires these provisions
be implemented only as campuses develop and implement the
student support services and interventions necessary for
students to successfully meet these requirements and to ensure
no disproportionate impact to students based on ethnicity,
disability, gender, or socio-economic status.
Analysis prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0005541