Sacramento Road Trip – Lobbying Items – COC

2007 Higher Education Priorities

Santa Clarita Valley Community Trip to Sacramento

Issue #1 Improving Access through Concurrent Enrollment

Background:  Concurrent enrollment enables high school students to take community college classes.  More than 1,000 Wm. S. Hart District students do so every semester at College of the Canyons.  Statutory restrictions limit concurrent enrollment during the summer to 5 percent of students per school, per grade level, severely restricting access.  At the request of College of the Canyons, Senator Runner introduced legislation last year that eased some of these restrictions. Significant limitations still remain, however.  In the current legislative session, Assembly Higher Education Committee Chair Anthony Portantino introduced AB 1409 to do away with the remaining limits and expand current enrollment.  The bill:

Expresses new legislative intent that concurrent  enrollment serve to maximize the educational opportunities  available to California's secondary school pupils by  encouraging programs and partnerships including, but not  limited to, advanced-scholastic, college-level and  career-technical coursework, summer school opportunities,  California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE) preparation,  English as a second language, basic skills remediation and  dropout prevention.

Deletes the existing 5 percent limitation on summer school concurrent enrollment.

Removes the requirement that a secondary school pupil need to be recommended by the principal of the pupil's school of attendance to attend a community college and that such  attendance be limited to college-level coursework

Deletes statute that prohibits a principal from recommending a pupil unless the pupil has demonstrated adequate preparation in the discipline to be studied and has exhausted all opportunities to enroll in an equivalent course at his or her school of attendance

Requested Action:  Support AB 1409.

Issue #2 Infrastructure Development and Construction

Background: Community college construction projects are required to be built according to the provisions of the Field Act, which mandates time-consuming review of project construction documents by the Division of State Architect. This review time, combined with the rapidly escalating cost of construction, negatively impacts the college’s ability to meet student needs and perform capital improvements in a cost-effective manner. The California Community College system is the only higher education system to be bound by this code, which has generally been considered a K-12 system requirement. Senator Runner included legislation in Proposition 1D, the education construction bond on the November 2006 ballot, that gave community colleges the option to build according to the California Building Standards Code.  The safety standards are the same in the Field Act and CBSC, but allows the CC system an option in expediting the construction document approval process.  Senator Runner will introduce legislation to clarify legislative intent of language in Prop 1D and strengthen authorizing language.  This will enable community college districts to build needed new facilities faster and cheaper.

Requested Action: Support SB 588.