Legislative Update

View the legislative bills report here. (updated February 28, 2025)

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March 21, 2025

ACCCA Well Represented During Busy Legislative Week

It was the busiest week of the year in the Legislature for the California Community Colleges (CCC) as both budget subcommittees held hearings on Governor Gavin Newsom’s CCC proposals. Additionally, there were several significant bills taken up in policy committees that would impact community college districts (CCDs). 

ACCCA was well represented in these discussions as the association’s legislative advocates submitted a letter to the chairs and members of the Assembly and Senate Budget Subcommittees on Education and provided public comment at both of this week’s hearings, outlining ACCCA’s budget priorities relative to the 2025-26 Governor’s Budget proposal. Additionally, ACCCA’s opposition argument appeared in the Assembly Higher Education Committee’s analysis on Assembly Bill (AB) 90 (Jackson, D-Moreno Valley), which has to do with overnight parking at CCC and California State University (CSU) campuses. 

Assembly and Senate Budget Subcommittees 

Both the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 3 on Education Finance, chaired by Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-San Diego), and Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Education, chaired by Senator John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), met this week to discuss the CCC proposals in the Governor’s Budget proposal. 

The Department of Finance, the Legislative Analyst’s Office, and the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office provided their perspective on the various proposals in the 2025-26 Governor’s Budget. Additionally, during public comment, ACCCA’s advocates highlighted the association’s positions on the State Budget that are highlighted in the letter sent to the budget subcommittee. The key positions of the ACCCA budget letter are as follows: 

• Supporting full funding obligated under Proposition 98 without manipulation and opposing any proposal to fund below the constitutionally required minimum guarantee for K-14 education like the Governor is doing for the current fiscal year (2024-25) 
• Supporting Governor Newsom’s proposal to apply the estimated 2.43% statutory cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to the Student Centered Funding Formula 
• Supporting the Governor’s proposal to apply the COLA to select categorical programs, but also advocating for the COLA to be applied to basic needs centers, mental health services, rapid rehousing, NextUp, MESA, Puente, veterans resource centers, Umoja, and financial aid administration
• Requesting the Legislature provide additional funding for enrollment growth to reward districts for growing their student populations through intentional and innovative outreach practices
• Requesting that the Legislature provide community colleges with a discretionary block grant similar to the one proposed for K-12 districts so that districts can have flexible dollars to address unique challenges and priorities 
• Supporting the Governor’s proposal to provide a base increase of $30 million to the Rising Scholars Network, bringing total funding for the program to $55 million ongoing
• Requesting the restoration of the $494.3 million in deferred maintenance funding that was reduced in the 2023-24 Enacted Budget

In next week’s ACCCA Update, we will provide a summary of the budget subcommittee hearings and our analysis of what the subcommittee members think of the Governor’s CCC proposals. 

AB 90 Approved by the Assembly Higher Education Committee

On Tuesday, March 18, 2025, the Assembly Higher Education Committee approved AB 90, which would require CCDs and the Chancellor of the CSU to establish a program to allow overnight campus parking by eligible students. For CCDs, the bill would require each district to include, by September 1, 2026, a plan of action in the annual campus safety plan to establish an overnight parking program permitting students to park overnight in designated parking lots and spots at each campus maintained by the CCD.

ACCCA opposes this bill and our argument was included in the committee analysis: 

AB 90 does not fix the real housing and affordability challenges that our students face. Our colleges are already launching programs to assist unhoused students, and a ‘one size fits all’ mandate does not make sense for the diverse community college system and would result in significant incurred costs and increased liability implications. We believe a safer and more feasible approach is for the state to provide additional funding to CCDs outside of Proposition 98 to construct affordable housing for our students. While we understand that revenues may not allow for additional housing investments this year, we do not believe that a mandated overnight parking program is the answer in the short term.

Assemblymember Corey Jackson accepted a number of amendments to the bill; ACCCA will review the new version of the bill and decide whether to retain its opposition position. 

The bill will now go to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, where its fiscal implications will be scrutinized.