BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON BUDGET AND FISCAL REVIEW
Mark Leno, Chair
Bill No: AB 1465
Author: Committee on Budget
As Amended: June 12, 2014
Consultant: Joe Stephenshaw
Fiscal: Yes
Hearing Date: June 15, 2014
Subject: Budget Act of 2014: Higher Education Trailer Bill
Summary: Provides for statutory changes necessary to enact
postsecondary education-related provisions of the Budget
Act of 2014.
Background: This bill makes the following statutory
changes to implement the 2014-15 budget.
Cal Grant Cohort Default Rate. Modifies an exemption to
the Cal Grant cohort default rate that allows institutions
with a three year cohort default rate of less than 10
percent and a graduation rate above 20 percent to remain
eligible for the Cal Grant program through the 2016-17
fiscal year, by changing the cohort default rate to less
than 15.5 percent.
Expand Cal Grant Renewal Eligibility. Allows students who
become ineligible for Cal Grant awards because they exceed
the income cap in one year to become eligible again in a
subsequent year if their income falls below the cap and
they meet all other program eligibility requirements. The
change would apply only to students who reapply no more
than three academic years after receiving an initial award.
Cal Grant Maximum Award. Delays, by one year, a reduction
in the maximum amount of the Cal Grant A and B awards for
students attending private, non-profit colleges or
accredited for-profit colleges. Students will receive
$9,084 for tuition expenses in 2014-15.
Middle Class Scholarship. Makes clarifying and technical
changes to statute pertaining to the middle class
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scholarship. In addition sets the minimum award for an
eligible full-time enrollment student at $90.
California Community College (CCC) Student Equity Plans.
Codifies current regulatory requirements that each
community college district maintain a student equity plan
that includes the following for each community college in
the district:
Campus-based research as to the extent of student
equity by gender and for students that are current or
former foster youth, disabled, low-income, veterans,
or in specific ethnic and racial categories.
Goals for access to, and completion of, basic
skills, career technical education and workforce
training, and transfer courses for the overall student
population and for each population group and a
determination of what activities are most likely to
effectively meet those goals.
Measures for addressing disparities, as specified,
including: a means of coordinating with, at a minimum,
specific student equity-related categorical programs
or campus-based programs.
Sources of funds for activities in the plan.
A schedule and process for evaluation.
An executive summary that includes, at a minimum,
the student groups for whom goals have been set, the
goals, the initiatives that the community college or
district will undertake to achieve these goals, the
resources that have been budgeted for that purpose,
and specific contact information. Beginning in
2016-17, the summary shall also include a detailed
accounting of how funding was expended and an
assessment of the progress made in achieving the
identified goals.
Requires the CCC Chancellor to allocate funds provided for
the purposes of successfully implementing the activities
and goals specified in the student equity plans consistent
with: ensuring that a community college district has
submitted a student equity plan, ensuring that community
college districts that serve greater populations of
students who are high-need students or disadvantaged
students receive greater resources for services,
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establishing criteria to determine the number of high-need
and disadvantaged students in a district, and establishing
a list of eligible and ineligible expenditures and
activities.
CCC Construction Mandate. Makes permissive, a requirement
that community colleges submit specified facilities
information to the CCC Chancellor's office, thereby
eliminating a reimbursable state mandate (this information
will continue to be collected through the state's capital
outlay process).
CCC Deferrals. Pays down inter-year deferrals of funding
for community colleges by appropriating a total of $592.5
million of funds from fiscal years 2012-13, 2013-14, and
2014-15. In addition, for the month of June, defers $94.5
million to July.
Enhanced Non-Credit Rate Increase. Specifies that,
beginning in the 2015-16 fiscal year, career development
and college preparation full-time equivalent students
(FTES) shall be funded at the same rate as the credit rate,
as specified. The Legislative Analyst's Office is required
to report by March 1, 2016, regarding the impact of this
change.
CCC Growth Formula. Requires that the CCC Chancellor
develop, and the board of governors adopt, a revised
apportionment growth formula for use commencing with the
2015-16 fiscal year. Specifies that the formula shall
support the primary missions of the segment, and be based
on each community's need for access to the community
colleges, as determined by local demographics. In
developing the formula, the chancellor must consider
multiple factors, including: 1) the number of persons under
the age of 25 without a college degree, within a community
college district's boundaries, and the number of persons 25
to 64 years of age, without a college degree (the
chancellor may alter these age ranges dependent on
availability of data); and, 2) the number of persons who
are unemployed, have limited English skills, are in
poverty, or exhibit other signs of being disadvantaged.
In addition, specifies that the maximum amount of growth
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established by the chancellor shall be no less than five
percent, nor greater than 10 percent of a community college
district's apportionment base for the preceding fiscal
year.
San Francisco Community College District Stability.
Provides the San Francisco Community College District with
additional funding, for the next three fiscal years, as the
college works to restore student enrollment and maintain
accreditation. For the 2014-15 fiscal year, the district
would receive funding equal to the amount it received in
the 2013-14 fiscal year, with the amount of funding for the
district being reduced by five, and 10 percent, in 2015-16
and 2016-17, respectively. In order to receive the third
year of funding, the district would be required to meet or
exceed benchmarks related to fiscal management and
controls, as specified.
Community College Local Property Tax Revenues. Adjusts the
method for scoring local property tax revenues in the
2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16 fiscal years, that formerly
flowed to redevelopment agencies and now flow to the
colleges as an offset to CCC apportionments, by scoring
revenues received late in the fiscal year, after April 15,
as having been received in the next fiscal year. This will
provide the colleges with more certainty as they develop
and administer their budgets.
CCC Performance Measures. Requires the CCC Chancellor, in
coordination with community college stakeholder groups, the
appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the
Legislature, and the Department of Finance, to develop a
framework of indicators designed to measure the ongoing
condition of a community college's operational environment
in the following areas: 1) accreditation statues; 2) fiscal
viability; 3) student performance and outcomes; and 4)
programmatic compliance with state and federal guidelines.
Requires that each community college develop, adopt, and
publicly post a goals framework that addresses, at the
least, the areas specified above.
Before the commencement of the 2015-16 fiscal year, and
annually thereafter, requires the chancellor to publicly
post the statewide goals and locally-developed and adopted
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community college or district goals and targets. The
chancellor shall assess the degree to which each community
college district is improving its outcomes and offer
technical assistance to community college districts that
are not improving.
CCC Clinical Nursing Faculty. Extents the sunset, from
June 30, 2014 to December 31, 2015, on the additional time
a person serving as temporary full-time clinical nursing
faculty, or as a part-time clinical nursing faculty, may be
employed by a community college district. Under this
extension, a person serving as a full-time clinical nursing
faculty, or as a part-time clinical nursing faculty, may be
employed by a community college district for up to four
semesters or six quarters within any period of three
consecutive academic years, which is twice the statutory
limit for all other temporary faculty.
University of California (UC) and California State
University (CSU) Performance Measures. Makes technical and
clarifying chances to statutory requirements for annual
reporting on system-wide performance measures by the UC and
CSU.
Student Success Fee Moratorium. Prohibits a CSU campus, or
the chancellor, from approving a student success fee before
January 1, 2016, and requires the chancellor to conduct a
review of the CSU student fee policy, as specified.
Requires the chancellor to report to the Department of
Finance (DOF) and the appropriate fiscal and policy
committees of the Legislature, on February 1, 2015,
regarding proposed revisions to the CSU student fee policy
related to student success fees.
CSU Capital Outlay Process. Provides the CSU with the
authority to pledge up to 12 percent of the state funds
provided in its General Fund support budget, less general
obligation debt payments and lease payments, towards
capital outlay, lease-revenue bond debt financed and pay as
you go, inclusive. Further, provides the CSU with the
authority to pursue capital outlay projects, after approval
by DOF and review by the committees in each house of the
Legislature that consider the state budget, and the budget
subcommittees in each house of the Legislature that
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consider appropriations for the California State
University.
UC Capital Outlay Process. Makes technical and clarifying
changes to the UC capital outlay process; moves language
regarding energy conservation projects that had been
included in provisional budget language into statute; and
creates one process to authorize UC energy conservation
projects instead of two.
California Blueprint for Research to Advance Innovations in
Neuroscience (Cal-BRAIN) Act of 2014. Requests the UC
Regents to establish the Cal-BRAIN program to leverage
California's vast research assets and federal funding
opportunities to accelerate the development of brain
mapping techniques, including the development of new
technologies, in order to achieve the following goals: 1)
maintain California's leadership role in neuroscience
innovation; 2) develop a dynamic map of the human brain, as
specified; 3) grow California's economy through the
expansion of high technology and biotechnology sectors;
and, 4) train the next generation of scientists.
UC Berkeley Tolman Hall Seismic Project. Provides the UC
with authority to use its General Fund appropriations for
the Tolman Hall Seismic Replacement Building project at the
Berkeley campus.
Student financial aid offset. Authorizes the use of $6
million in excess Student Loan Authority funds (remaining
after the recently-approved sale of the CalLoan program
portfolio by the California Educational Facilities
Authority) as an offset to the General Fund cost of Student
Aid Commission loan assumption program costs.
State Law Library Fee Sunset Extension. Extends the sunset
date, to January 1, 2020, for authority to use a portion
($65) of certain appellate court civil filing fee revenue
to support the California State Law Library.
CSU infrastructure and contract authority. Authorizes the
State Fire Marshal to delegate enforcement of building
standards on California State University campuses to the
CSU. Authorizes the CSU to use one contract for multiple
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projects at multiple campuses, and to provide public notice
of contract bids on its internet website.
CCC Education Protection Account (EPA). Authorizes
adjustments to Proposition 98 General Fund spending in
whatever amounts are necessary to maintain budgeted funding
levels for community colleges, if EPA revenue estimates for
2012-13, 2013-14, or 2014-15 are higher or lower than
actual receipts.
CCC CalWORKs Program. Moves requirements for the CCC
CalWORKs program, which have been included in annual budget
acts, into statue.
Clean Energy Job Creation Fund Reappropriation.
Reappropriates the balance of Item 6870-139-8080 of Section
2.00 of the Budget Act of 2013, payable from the Clean
Energy Job Creation Fund and extends the ability to
encumber this balance until June 30, 2018.
Fiscal Effect: Statutory changes contained in this bill,
including appropriations, are consistent with the 2014
budget package.
Support: Unknown
Opposed: Unknown
Comments: This bill provides the necessary statutory
references to enact the 2014-15 budget related to higher
education.
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