Legislative Update

View the legislative bills report here. (updated March 22, 2024)

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April 12, 2024

SB 1388 Opposition Template for ACCCA Members

A hearing date for the community college district (CCD) reserve cap bill, Senate Bill (SB) 1388 (Archuleta, D-Pico Rivera), has been set for Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in the Senate Education Committee.

SB 1388 would, beginning with the 2025-26 fiscal year, prohibit a CCD’s annual unrestricted General Fund balance from exceeding 16.7% of its unrestricted General Fund expenditures. A CCD would be allowed to exceed the 16.7% cap only if it met all of the following conditions:

• The CCD participates in the Part-Time Community College Faculty Health Insurance
  Program
• The CCD participates in the Community College Part-Time Faculty Office Hours Program
• The CCD has at least 75% of hours of credit instruction taught by full-time instructors

The bill also has provisions limiting CCDs from transferring unrestricted General Fund dollars to another fund. If a CCD surpasses the 16.7% cap, and does not meet the three conditions listed above, then the amount that exceeds 16.7% would be proportionally distributed to the nonsupervisory and nonmanagement employees of the district.

ACCCA has submitted an opposition letter to the author and committee, and we have created a template so that individual members can send their own opposition letter, as this bill would negatively impact districts at a time when the economy is softening, and state revenues are underperforming.

In order to make the April 24, 2024, hearing analysis, opposition letters must be submitted via the legislative portal by noon of next Friday, April 19, 2024. The legislative portal to submit your letter can be found here.

ACCCA-Supported SB 895 Hearing Postponed to April 29

In last week’s ACCCA Update we reported that ACCCA-supported SB 895 (Roth, D-Riverside) would be heard by the Senate Education Committee on April 10, 2024. However, Senator Richard Roth pulled the bill from the hearing agenda and the bill will now be heard on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. The April 24 hearing will be the last for the Senate Education Committee prior to the April 26 deadline for fiscal bills to clear policy committee. This means that SB 895 must be approved by the Senate Education Committee on April 24 in order to keep moving through the legislative process.

SB 895 would require the California Community College Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) to develop a Baccalaureate Degree in Nursing Pilot Program that authorizes select community CCDs to offer a bachelor of science in nursing. The pilot program, which would sunset on January 1, 2031, would be limited to 15 CCDs statewide and would require the CCCCO to identify eligible CCDs based on specified criteria (see last week’s update for more details).

ACCCA-Opposed AB 2277 to Be Heard on April 16

Next Tuesday, April 16, 2024, the Assembly Higher Education Committee will hear ACCCA- opposed Assembly Bill (AB) 2277 (Wallis, R-Palm Springs).

AB 2277 would increase the maximum amount of instructional hours that a part-time community college faculty member could teach at a community college from the range of 60-67% of a full-time equivalent load to 80-85%.

ACCCA opposes this bill because it would infringe upon the local authority of CCDs to collectively bargain their own paid leave provisions at the district level. Additionally, this bill would significantly increase costs for CCDs.

Two identical versions of this bill, both opposed by ACCCA, were vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2021 and 2022. The Governor cited the $200 million in ongoing funding that was provided by the 2022 State Budget Act to incentivize CCDs to provide health insurance for part-time faculty at the community colleges.

We will provide an update on this hearing next week.