State and Legislative Issues

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;

Whereas, President Obama has recognized both the importance of community colleges in higher education and the need to reduce financial barriers to higher education by proposing free tuition for students who attend community college;

Whereas, SB373 (Pan, February 24, 2015) seeks to lock districts into their 2015-2016 Full Time Student Equivalent (FTES) for part-time faculty and the FTES overload taught by full-time faculty unless the college exceeds the 75% full-time to part-time ratio;

Whereas, Districts going through enrollment growth or decline could find themselves unable to offer classes or provide students with critical support services because these limitations greatly restrict their flexibility to expand or contract; and

Whereas, High textbook prices are an increasingly significant barrier to student success, as many students cannot afford and thus do not purchase necessary course materials without which their performance in the corresponding courses is impeded;

Whereas, Open Educational Resources, when reviewed and selected by discipline faculty for their own courses, can in many cases offer appropriate low-cost alternatives to published textbooks for students;

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has passed numerous resolutions supporting progress toward the goal of 75% of courses taught by full-time faculty (13.01 F14, 19.03 F06), hiring full-time noncredit faculty (7.01 F14), and funding for part-time faculty office hours (19.01 F01, 6.02 S97, 12.04 F92);

Whereas, The Chancellor’s Office is sponsoring AB 288 (Holden, as of March 23, 2015)[1], legislation that seeks to address some commonly recognized barriers to the local implementation of dual enrollment and to expand opportunities for dual enrollment through the creation of agreements between college and school districts that are approved at public meetings of the college and school district boards in order to establish seamless pathways from high school to community college for struggling and at-risk high school students;

Whereas, Legislators have recognized the importance of improving student transitions from high school to community college, commonly referred to as career pathways, since 2005, which has led to local, regional, and state investments serving middle schools, high schools, and colleges (SB 70, 2005, Scott; SB1070, 2012, Steinberg; AB 86, 2013, Blumenfield; and the California Pathways Trust Fund, 2013-2018); 

Whereas, California law establishes the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) as the coordinating and planning agency for statewide postsecondary education, but CPEC was defunded by the governor in 2011 and its statutory functions did not include oversight of higher education;