BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 860
Page 1
( Without Reference to File )
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 860 (Budget and Fiscal Review Committee)
As Amended June 12, 2014
Majority vote. Budget Bill Appropriation Takes Effect
Immediately
SENATE VOTE : Vote not relevant
SUMMARY : Contains necessary statutory and technical changes to
implement the Budget Act of 2014 relating to higher education.
This bill makes the following statutory changes to implement the
budget:
1)Delays by one year a reduction in the 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 fiscal year.
2)Modifies performance requirements for institutions
participating in the Cal Grant program to require a graduation
rate above 20% and a cohort default rate of less than 15.5%
through the 2016-17 fiscal year.
3)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.
4)Makes several clarifying and technical changes to statute
pertaining to the Middle Class Scholarship, including setting
the minimum award for an eligible student and requiring
applications to be submitted by March 2.
5)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:
a) Campus based research as to the extent of student equity
by gender and for students that are current or former
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foster youth, disabled, low-income, veterans, or specific
ethnic and racial categories.
b) 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.
c) 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.
d) Sources of funds for activities in the plan.
e) A schedule and process for evaluation.
f) 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 California Community College (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 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, 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.
6)Moves requirements for the CCC California Work Opportunity and
Responsibility to Kids program, which have been included in
annual budget acts, into statute.
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7)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).
8)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.
9)Specifies that, beginning in the 2015-16 fiscal year, career
development and college preparation full-time equivalent
students 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.
10)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: a) 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, b) 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
established by the chancellor shall be no less than 5% nor
greater than 10% of a community college district's
apportionment base for the preceding fiscal year.
11)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 5% and 10% in 2015-16 and 2016-17, respectively.
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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.
12)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.
13)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
(DOF), to develop a framework of indicators designed to
measure the ongoing condition of a community college's
operational environment in the following areas: a)
accreditation statues; b) fiscal viability; c) student
performance and outcomes; and d) programmatic compliance with
state and federal guidelines. Requires that each community
college develop, adopt, and publicly post a goals framework
that addresses at least of 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 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.
14)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.
15)Makes technical and clarifying chances to statutory
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requirements for annual reporting on system-wide performance
measures by the University of California (UC) and California
State University (CSU).
16)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 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.
17)Provides the CSU with the authority to pledge up to 12% 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 consider
appropriations for the CSU.
18)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.
19)Requests the UC Regents to establish the California Blueprint
for Research to Advance Innovations in Neuroscience 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: a) maintain
California's leadership role in neuroscience innovation; b)
develop a dynamic map of the human brain, as specified; c)
grow California's economy through the expansion of high
technology and biotechnology sectors; and, d) train the next
generation of scientists.
20)Provides the UC with authority to begin the Tolman Hall
Seismic Replacement Building project on the UC Berkeley
campus.
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21)Authorizes the use of $6 million in excess Student Loan
Authority funds (remaining after the recently-approved sale of
the Cal Loan program portfolio by the California Educational
Facilities Authority) as an offset to the General Fund cost of
Student Aid Commission loan assumption program costs.
22)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.
23)Authorizes the State Fire Marshal to delegate enforcement of
building standards on CSU campuses to the CSU. Authorizes the
CSU to use one contract for multiple projects at multiple
campuses, and to provide public notice of contract bids on its
Internet Web site.
24)Authorizes adjustments to Proposition 98 of 1998 General Fund
spending in whatever amounts are necessary to maintain
budgeted funding levels for community colleges, if Proposition
30 of 2012 revenue estimates for 2012-13, 2013-14, or 2014-15
fiscal years are higher or lower than actual receipts.
25)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.
26)Declares that statutory changes contained in this bill,
including appropriations, are consistent with the 2014 budget
package.
Analysis Prepared by : Mark Martin / BUDGET / (916) 319-2099
FN:
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