State and Legislative Issues

Whereas, The proposed California Online Community College District represents an investment in a new enterprise that expands the scope of the work of the California Community College Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) such that a regulatory agency tasked with ensuring the compliance of the colleges with regulation and law would be in competition with the colleges by potentially drawing students away from existing California community college districts and puts limited state educational resources into duplicating efforts already underway;

Whereas, The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office recently distributed a survey [1] to the system about the consolidation of categorical programs to prepare a proposal for the May revision to the Governor’s 2018-19 budget proposal;

Whereas, Categorical programs were established to guarantee support services and open access to students with disabilities and students who are educationally and financially disadvantaged;

Whereas, The assessment and placement of students into all levels of courses, including basic skills courses is an academic and professional matter that includes not only the use of assessment tests but also multiple measures, including the high school transcript data, non-cognitive considerations, and other factors, that have been evaluated by college faculty and have been selected to meet the needs of the students;

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges holds diversity as a value central to leadership and governance and, to that end, has partnered with the Chancellor’s Office to develop and promote best practices for recruiting, hiring, and retaining diverse faculty to better serve California’s diverse student populations;

Whereas, AB 387 (Thurmond, as of February 9, 2017) would require health care entities (e.g. hospitals) to pay allied health students minimum wage for time spent completing the clinical training hours that are mandated by state laws governing each discipline and that are required in order to obtain California and national licensure and/or certification;

Whereas, The implementation of the Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act in 2012, enshrined in California Education Code §76300, called for a process that revokes a student’s Board of Governors fee waiver in certain instances where the student fails to meet adequate markers of progress toward completion;

Whereas, The Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act of 2012 requires colleges to afford students an appeals process when the fee waiver is revoked but the due process procedures of colleges vary widely across the state;

Whereas, The recommendations of the 2015 Board of Governors Task Force on Workforce, Job Creation, and a Strong Economy demonstrate a recognition of the important role of career technical education (CTE) programs in supporting the overall economic integrity of the State of California;

Whereas, Recent practice has been to direct funding for CTE programs through regional consortia, which has in many cases led to uneven allocation of resources, inability to sufficiently fund some existing CTE programs, and missed opportunities for program development and improvement;

Whereas, Many students will experience a mental health condition at some point in their educational careers, as research indicates the following[1]:

Whereas, The number of undocumented students attending public institutions of higher education in California has risen since the passing of AB540 (Firebaugh, 2001), the California Dream Act of 2011, and the Federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA);

Whereas, California law established the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) as the coordinating and planning agency for statewide postsecondary education, and CPEC performed a variety of useful functions for California Higher Education, including data collection for all public segments and advising the governor regarding budgetary priorities to preserve access for students, but CPEC was defunded by the governor and ceased operations in 2011;