BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1391
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Date of Hearing: June 24, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Das Williams, Chair
SB 1391 (Hancock) - As Amended: June 19, 2014
SENATE VOTE : 35-0
SUBJECT : Community colleges: inmate education programs:
computation of apportionments.
SUMMARY : Allows California Community Colleges (CCC) to receive
full funding for courses offered in correctional institutions
and establishes the Career Technical Education Grant Program to
provide grants to CCC to offer workforce development programs in
state correctional facilities. Specifically, this bill :
1)Waives open course requirements for classes offered by CCC
districts for inmates of state correctional facilities and
authorizes the inclusion of the units of full-time equivalent
students (FTES) generated in those classes for purposes of
state apportionments.
a) Provides that the attendance hours generated by inmates
in local, state or federal facilities for credit courses
shall be funded at the marginal credit rate, and noncredit
courses shall be funded at the noncredit rate.
b) Prohibits CCC districts from claiming apportionments for
any class where the district receives full compensation for
its direct education costs for the conduct of the class
from any public or private agency, individual, or group of
individuals, or where the district has a contract or
instructional agreement, or both, for the conduct of the
class with a public or private agency, individual, or group
of individuals that has received from another source full
compensation for the costs the district incurs under that
contract or instructional agreement.
c) Provides that in reporting a claim for apportionment to
the Chancellor of the CCC, the district shall report any
partial compensation it receives from the aforementioned
sources and provides that the chancellor shall subtract the
amount of any partial compensation received from the total
apportionment to be paid.
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d) Establishes that these provisions shall not provide a
source of funds to shift, supplant, or reduce the costs
incurred by the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) in providing inmate education
programs.
2)Requires CDCR to, in collaboration with the CCC Chancellor, to
establish the Innovative Career Technical Education Grant
Program (ICTE Grant Program) with goals for education and
workforce development and metrics for evaluating efficacy and
success of the ICTE Grant Program. Requires, beginning July
2017 and each three years thereafter, CDCR to report findings
from evaluations to the Legislature and Governor.
a) Provides ICTE Grants Program grants to be awarded to CCC
to offer career technical education and workforce
development programs for inmates in state correctional
facilities to fund equipment and instructional materials
necessary for the instruction of these programs.
b) Requires programs developed and provided by CCC pursuant
to this program to include:
i) Career technical education and experiential
educational courses and training necessary to obtain high
skill, high pay employment, or to enter apprenticeship
programs upon release from prison;
ii) Sequences of courses leading to industry, business,
or state certification;
iii) CCC courses that offer units transferable to the
University of California and the California State
University;
iv) Information on reentry programs with job search
assistance, and, where possible, information about
employers with a record of hiring participants of the
program with similar skills education upon their release
from prison; and
v) If applicable, information about preapprentice and
state-certified apprenticeship programs with a record of
hiring participants of the program with similar skills
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education upon their release from prison.
c) Appropriates, in 2014-15, $2,000,000 from the Recidivism
Reduction Fund within the CDCR, to the CCC Chancellor of
which $300,000 is to identify the components essential for
creation of an ICTE Grant Program and administer the
program; the metrics upon which programs are to be
assessed, and the remainder for up to 20 competitive grants
of up to $100,000 each, for CCC in 2014-15.
d) Requires ICTE Grant Programs to be consistent with the
performance metrics upon which programs will be assessed,
and to consider the availability of existing equipment and
resources of the partner prisons upon which to build
courses. Authorizes funds to be used for purchase of
instructional materials and equipment in preparation for
the receipt of implementation grants in 2015-16.
e) Provides that from funds provided in the Budget for
fiscal years 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and
2019-20, there shall be funded up to 20 ICTE Grant Program
implementation grants.
f) Provides that funds not expended, an amount not to
exceed $150,000 per year may be used by the CCC Chancellor,
for the identification of best practices and the on-going
administration and evaluation of the grant programs.
g) Requires, by July 1, 2015, CDCR and the CCC Chancellor
to develop administrative guidelines for CCC education
programs operating in prison facilities, including academic
priorities; conditions; faculty to inmate ratios; time
reduction credits; suspension of courses during lockdowns;
participation preferences; authorized equipment; and other
guidelines as appropriate.
h) Requires, by January 1, 2020, the Office of the
Legislative Analyst to conduct a comprehensive evaluation
of the ICTE Grant Program and other inmate education
programs for purposes of making informed policy decisions
and for cost benefit analysis of the investments made in
inmate education.
EXISTING LAW prohibits CCCs from claiming state funding for
classes that are not open to the public; however an exemption is
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allowed for inmate education in city, county and federal
correctional facilities. Such courses are funded at non-credit
rates. Under the exemption, funding is not allowed for CCC
classes in state correctional facilities.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS : Purpose of this bill . In 2013, the Rand Corporation
released a study entitled: Evaluating the Effectiveness of
Correctional Education. According to the report, a common
thread among instructional delivery methods is that programs
with courses taught by college instructors, programs with
courses taught by instructors external to the correctional
facility, and programs that have a post-release component can
connect inmates both directly and indirectly with the outside
community. In addition, college instructors and instructors
external to the correctional facility can potentially infuse the
program with approaches, exercises, and standards being used in
more traditional instructional settings. Programs with
post-release components can provide continuity of support that
can assist inmates as they continue on in education and/or enter
the workforce in the months immediately after they are released.
According to the author, CCCs have a great deal of experience
with career technical education; faculty is both experienced in
the field and classroom. CTE faculty have established programs
and a good understanding of the work world, the economic needs
of the communities and a wide network of workforce
development/economic development contacts. In many cases, CCCs
are closely aligned with WIA funded one-stop shops and will also
be linked with the 13 new pre-release centers developed as part
of the realignment effort and early release to ease the
overcrowding. This bill contains two changes regarding inmate
education.
Open course requirements . Current law specifically prohibits
CCCs from collecting funds generated by attendance hours for
programs that are not "open to the public". According to the
author, because inmate education is not "open", CCCs have been
hamstrung on the types of education offered inmates. The author
believes that correspondence courses and television/video
courses cannot substitute for in-person, hands on, experiential
courses; especially when the goal is to provide work-world
skills that lead to jobs upon release of the inmates. This bill
would remove the "open course" requirements for courses offered
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in correctional facilities.
Credit funding per Full-Time Equivalent Student (FTES) is
currently $4636, and non-credit funding per FTES is $2788.
According to the CCC Chancellor's Office, districts provided
credit courses for 1,769 FTES in correctional facilities in
2006-07, the most recent year from which this data is available.
The majority (1,588 FTES) already receive full credit funding
as distance education courses that are open to the public.
Under the provisions of this bill, the remainder (181 FTES)
would receive credit apportionment.
CDCR is funded to provide inmate education in state correctional
facilities. According to the CDCR Office of Correctional
Education (OCE), academic courses through the 12th grade are
available at 32 institutions, and 15 different vocational trades
are taught within CDCR facilities. To ensure against
supplanting of existing CDCR programs, this section of the bill
establishes that these provisions shall not provide a source of
funds to shift, supplant, or reduce the costs incurred by CDCR
in providing inmate education programs.
ICTE Grant Program . This bill creates the ICTE Grant Program,
with $2,000,000 of funding provided through the CDCR Recidivism
Reduction Fund to the CCC Chancellor's Office (funding provided
in the 2014-15 Budget bill) to provide, in coordination with
CDCR, up to 20 grants of $100,000 to CCCs for educational
collaboration in state correction facilities. The funds are
intended to support courses leading to high-skill, high-wage
employment opportunities for inmates upon reentry into society.
As previously noted, the CDCR OCE is funded to provide inmate
education through 12th grade. Service Employees International
Union (SEIU), Local 1000 represents members that include
academic and vocational teachers working in CDCR. SEIU has
expressed some concern regarding the grant program established
in this bill potentially supplanting the instruction currently
offered by their members.
Suggested amendments . To ensure that CCC programs funded
through the ICTE Grant Program supplement, rather than supplant,
CDCR OCE programs, the author may wish to consider:
1)Explicitly clarifying that grant funds are intended to
supplement, not duplicate or supplant, adult education courses
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currently offered in facilities by CDCR OCE;
2)Authorize funds for equipment and instructional materials to
also be used to improve existing equipment and facilities;
3)Clearly require that equipment and materials purchased with
ICTE Grant funds be used for the purpose of inmate education
programs;
4)Require that units earned be transferrable to other CCCs, in
addition to CSU and UC, to the extent campuses offer related
programs; and
5)Require the LAO to include in the report a review of any
impacts of CCC program offerings on CDCR OCE program
offerings.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Alliance for Boys and Men of Color
Friends Committee on Legislation of California
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Kern Community College District
Los Angeles Community College District
Los Rios Community College District
Peralta Community College District
Rio Hondo Community College District
South Orange County Community College District
West Kern Community College District
Yosemite Community College District
Yuba Community College District
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
SB 1391
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