State and Legislative Issues

Support for AB 204 (Medina, as of January 23, 2017)

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;

Direct Strong Workforce Funding to Districts

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;

Provisionally Support Creation of Office of Higher Education Performance and Accountability

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;

Placing Limitations on Overload Assignments

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

Support College Textbook Affordability Act

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;

Support Legislation on Full-time Faculty Hiring, Full-Time Noncredit Hiring, and Part-Time Office Hours

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);

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