Current Higher Education Budget & Legislation
College Completion Efforts
Improving college completion is an economic imperative for the state of California and community colleges play the most critical role in meeting future workforce needs with over 2.6 million students enrolled in one of the 112 colleges across our state.
Last year, legislation enacted by former Governor Schwarzenegger called upon the community college system to convene the Student Success Task Force to develop a plan for increasing student completion. We believe that the recommendations proposed demonstrate a commitment to eliminating barriers to student success.
Key recommendations include:
- Start students off right: Adopt common assessment, placement, mandatory orientation, education plans, and declaration of a program of study for all incoming community college students, including a mandatory student success course for underprepared students;
- Make progress to completion earlier: Prioritize enrollment that supports students on pathways to transfer, CTE, and basic skills;
- Share information: Implement and publicize a student success score card offering transparency on progress across milestones and toward degree, certificate completion or transfer—with data disaggregated by race for each college;
The Public Policy Institute of California projects that by 2025, the state will be one million baccalaureate degrees short of meeting workforce demands. These reforms will significantly increase community college completion rates and help us stave-off this staggering projected shortage ensuring the state’s future economic prosperity and allowing students the opportunity to reach their goals.
Read the full report of the recommendations. Join us in endorsing these recommendations, send a letter of support to the Board of Governors.
Budget
On June 30th, Governor Brown signed the first on-time budget in years. Unfortunately, the new budget includes deep cuts to the budgets of the California State University (CSU) and the University of California (UC) systems by $150 million each on top of the $500 million cut to each system approved earlier in the year. California Community Colleges received $400 million in cuts and a student fee increase of $10 per unit. There are additional payment deferrals to our community colleges and the University of California by billions more, all threatening the state's future economic prosperity.
Furthermore, the new budget relies on another $4 billion in revenue projections. In December the Director of Finance will have to determine if sufficient revenues have come in and, if they haven't, the CSU and UC will receive another $100 million in further cuts and the community college system would be forced to make a mid-year fee increase, raising fees to $46 per unit and face up to $72 million more in cuts to their apportionment funding.
These new cuts to higher education not only prevent eligible Californians from accessing our colleges and universities, but those already in college will have a harder time finding the courses they need to complete their education and may struggle to finance their studies. This budget will further weaken the ability of our state to produce an educated workforce (including the one million more college graduates California will need by 2025) and will ensure that we have a generation of young people that is LESS educated than we are.
The Campaign strongly supports generating new revenues to support higher education in California. We also call upon all three segments of higher education to minimize the impact of cuts to students and prioritize their resources for students who are on certificate, transfer, or degree completion tracks.
Read Governor Brown’s complete enacted budget here: http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/.
Cuts to higher education pose a threat to the state's future by Michele Siqueiros
July 10, 2011 | Sacramento Bee
Recent Higher Education Legislation
Below is a listing of bills that the Campaign supported that were signed in to law in 2011.
Assessment
AB 743 (Block - D): Community colleges: student assessments: California Community Colleges: common assessment system.
Bill Text & Status | Passed
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. This bill would require the board to establish a common assessment system with specified objectives, that seeks to create a centrally delivered system of student assessment to be used as one of multiple measures,consistent with specified law, for the purposes of community college placement and advisement.
Affordability
AB 130 & AB 131 (Cedillo - D): California DREAM Act of 2011
Bill Text & Status | Passed
These bills allow students that meet the in-state tuition requirements to apply for and receive specified financial aid programs administered by California's public colleges and universities. Additionally, they allow students that meet the in-state tuition requirements to apply for and receive Cal Grants by California's public colleges and universities.