12-15-06 New Community College Legislation Introduced

Volume 19 For Publication Date: December 15, 2006 No. 26

New Community College Legislation Introduced

When the Legislature returned to Sacramento on December 4, 2006 for the swearing-in ceremonies for newly elected legislators, it was given the opportunity to introduce new legislation. The 120 members of the California Legislature introduced 143 bills during their one- day stay in Sacramento. By the time September 2007 rolls around, expect to see more than 2,000 bills introduced.

Just over ten percent of the newly introduced bills relate to education. Based on the initial percentage of education-related bills, it is likely that more than 200 bills impacting public education will be introduced during the 2007 legislative session. Many of the bills will contain recurring themes from prior legislative sessions (bills that failed passage and proposals that are being recycled).

The following is a brief summary of newly introduced legislation that has an impact on California community colleges:

AB 36 (Niello): Public Employees’ Retirement: Fraud

This bill would make it a crime for a person to make or present false material statements and representations in connection with those retirement systems’ benefits and applications, or to aid or abet someone in this regard. The bill would also make it a crime for a person to knowingly accept, with the intent to keep for personal benefit, a payment from any of those retirement systems with the knowledge that one was not entitled to the benefit. The bill would provide that a violation of these provisions is punishable by up to one year in a county jail, or a fine, or both, and restitution.

AB 80 (Krekorian): School Facilities

This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to require, as a condition of approval of state funding for new construction projects and large modernization projects for school districts and community college districts, compliance with building design standards for environmental quality and resource efficiency similar to those developed by the Collaborative for High Performance Schools.

SB 18 (Perata): Public Works: Labor Compliance Programs

This bill would add the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006 as a source of funds for a public works project that would require an awarding body, if it chooses to use those funds, to initiate and enforce, or contract with a third party to initiate and enforce, a labor compliance program.

SB 21 (Torlakson): California Community Colleges Economic and Workforce Development Program

Existing law establishes, until January 1, 2013, the California Community Colleges Economic and Workforce Development Program and also provides for the awarding of grants for this program. Existing law also requires the Board of Governors, as part of the program, to assist economic and workforce regional development centers and consortia to improve linkages and career-technical education pathways between high schools and community colleges, in a manner that, among other things, improves the quality of career exploration and career outreach materials.

This bill would require this implementation strategy to ensure that each of specified regions is granted an allocation of funds based upon the total enrollment of high school pupils and other relevant needs identified within the region by a regional advisory committee, if any, that the bill would authorize each county superintendent to create. The bill would require at least 80% of the funds appropriated for the purposes of the assistance of economic and workforce regional development centers and consortia aspects of the program to be expended on efforts to develop and implement new and innovative programs that provide multiple pathways of learning for pupils to develop career skills that also maximize their numbers of future educational options.

SB 36 (Ridley-Thomas): California Community Colleges

Existing law establishes a system for the apportionment of state funding to community college districts. This system is generally based on calculations related to the number of full-time equivalent students (FTES) in attendance at each district.

This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to reform the governance and funding of the state’s community colleges in order to increase and stabilize state support for, and to improve the performance of, the California Community Colleges.

SCA 3 (Ridley-Thomas): Public Postsecondary Education: Community College Districts

An existing provision of the California Constitution provides that the public school system includes all kindergarten schools, elementary schools, secondary schools, technical schools, and state colleges established in accordance with law, and the school districts and other agencies authorized to maintain these schools. This provision prohibits any school or college or any other part of the public school system from being directly or indirectly transferred from the public school system or placed under the jurisdiction of any authority other than one included within the public school system.

This measure would require the Legislature to provide for an independent public postsecondary education system of local community college districts as part of the public school system.

—Arnold Bray