April, 2018

In This Issue:

  • CEO Workgroup Releases Formula Principles & Framework
  • Join the May League Webinar
  • 2018 Legislative Session Update
  • Grants for Undocumented Students Across California
  • Federal Grant Opportunities - Presented by Downs Government Affairs
  • Upcoming Events

CEO Workgroup Releases Formula Principles & Framework

Last week, the CEO Funding Formula Workgroup shared a set of recommendations to Chancellor Oakley in an effort to provide guidance around Governor Brown’s proposal for a new California Community Colleges funding formula. The recommendations are intended to influence the ongoing negotiations with the Department of Finance and the Legislature in the final weeks of the budget process and advance a model that supports access, equity and success for all students.

The concepts provide certainty in the short term and leave room for thoughtful analysis in preparing for the long term. The framework and recommendations are available here.

The state’s current enrollment-driven formula fails to capture the comprehensive mission of California community colleges and has the unintended consequence of running counter-cyclical to the economy. This is evidenced by the fact that 32 of 72 districts are currently in stability and 18 of 72 districts are in restoration, with many expecting budget cuts in 2018-19 as a result of not meeting enrollment targets. The issue is exacerbated by housing prices in urban areas and declining populations in rural and the central coast areas of the state.

To create a new funding formula that promotes quality, budget predictability, access, and success for all students, the CEO Funding Formula Workgroup highlights several essential elements, including:

  • Recognizing the necessity of building institutional capacity to improve student outcomes by significantly increasing community college base funding prior to implementation of a new funding formula;
  • Providing two years of program transition funding (where no district receives less funding than it receives in fiscal year 2017-18) at a new, higher base level with COLA while the formula metrics are analyzed and refined to ensure their efficacy in advancing student access, equity, and success; and
  • Enhancing funding predictability with a three-year average for enrollment, uncaps growth to further student access, and assign Summer FTE to the fiscal year in which instruction was held.

In releasing the recommendations, the Workgroup emphasized that they do not advocate for implementation of this, or any, conceptual framework without rigorous simulations and the opportunity to refine a new formula before implementation.

In recognition of the urgency to address the deficiencies of the current formula and in support of the concepts outlined in the CEO Workgroup recommendation, the Chief Executive Officers for California Community Colleges (CEOCCC) Board approved a letter supporting the framework.

The Governor’s desire to update the funding formula for community colleges is without question the most important issue facing California’s community colleges this year and the League will continue to advocate for the fiscal health of all districts in the state.

Join the May League Webinar

The League's Government Relations team engages in advocacy efforts at the state capitol on bills and budget proposals that are of critical importance to colleges. Our advocacy efforts are multifaceted and include committee testimony, capitol visits, and in-district legislative meetings. Active participation and engagement from college leaders is the most effective approach we can take.  To ensure that at every step of the legislative process college leaders are aware of the most pressing issues, the League offers a series of legislative update webinars held at key junctures of the process.

Save the dates and join us for the League's monthly Legislative Webinars. Upcoming Webinars include: May 22 at 10:00 AM and June 19 at 10:00 AM

May League Legislative Webinar:
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
10:00 – 10:45 AM
Making Sense of the May Revision

Webinar Details
Link: https://www.cccconfer.org/GoToMeeting?SeriesID=38f73823-c2ef-4f65-a4d7-003e40fa6805
Dial your telephone conference line: 1-913-312-3202
Passcode: 343385

For more information, please contact Lizette Navarette at Lizette@ccleague.org.

2018 Legislative Session Update

The League is currently tracking 89 bills pertaining to community colleges.  The majority of these bills have until the end of April to be heard in its first policy committee. The committees with greatest impact on community colleges during the legislative process are the Senate Education Committee, the Assembly Higher Education Committee, and the Appropriations Committees, but League tracked bills will also be heard in policy committees overseeing retirement, local government, and taxation. 

AB 2443 (Arambula) –  Governing Boards: Elections
This bill would change the date of an election for board member of a community college, school district or county board of education from the first week of December to the second week. Currently, county election officials have until the first week of December to certify an election result, which means that under current law, a board could take office before the election results are certified.

AB 3101 (Carrillo) – Community College Applications
The bill would require the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, on or before July 31, 2019, to revise the CCCApply application and enrollment process so that only data that is required by the federal government, or that is otherwise necessary is collected during the process. AB 3101 pursues important and much-needed modifications to the current CCCApply application.

SB 1224 (Glazer) – Statewide Longitudinal Education and Workforce Data System
This bill would establish a statewide longitudinal education and workforce data system to include data on California students from enrollment in kindergarten to their entry into the workforce. The bill would require DOE, the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, and the California State University, and would request the University of California, to set up a data collection system to track student data and would require the Labor and Workforce Development Agency to provide workforce program data for those students.

Improve Cal Grants for Low Income Students – TAKE ACTION NOW!
Legislators in both the state Assembly and Senate have introduced various pieces of legislation that would strengthen the Cal Grant program for both low income and community college students.  The League supports the below three bills and strongly urges your district to click the below links, fill out the draft letters and send them to your legislators and either the Assembly Appropriations or Senate Appropriations Committee.  All three bills have until May 25th to pass out of the committee or they will be finished for the year.

AB 2306 (Santiago) – Increased Time for Community College Students

  • Increases the amount of time a community college student can utilize a Cal Grant from four to six years.
  • Many community college students do not utilize their Cal Grant award at a community college due to concerns over being able to use them once a student transfers.
  • Will result in more students using their Cal Grant award at a community college.
  • Sponsored by the Los Angeles Community College District.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE SUPPORT LETTER

Send via Fax to: (916) 319-2181

SB 940 (Beall) – Cal Grants and Foster Youth

  • Increases the amount of time a former foster youth can use a Cal Grant from four to eight years. 
  • Permit low income former foster youth to qualify for Cal Grant entitlement as long as they are under the age of 26.
  • Will significantly increase the ability of former foster youth to participate in the Cal Grant program.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE SUPPORT LETTER

Send via Fax to: (916) 327-8817

SB 1471 (Hernandez) – Competitive Cal Grants

  • Increases the number of competitive Cal Grants from 25,750 to 30,000.
  • Currently 300,000 qualified applicants must compete for those 25,750 awards.
  • Easier to get into UC Berkeley than it is to obtain a competitive Cal Grant.
  • Competitive Cal Grants overwhelmingly go towards community college students.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE SUPPORT LETTER

Send via Fax to: (916) 327-8817

Grants for Undocumented Students Across California

A coalition of funders, including the Chavez Family Foundation, Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, Grove Foundation, Hellman Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, Weingart Foundation and others have formed the Catalyst Fund. The California Campus Catalyst Fund is a multi-million dollar, three-year grant making initiative to expand support for undocumented students and their families across the state’s three public higher education systems: California Community Colleges, California State University, and University of California. Grants will focus on our grant support on campuses with new or nascent efforts to serve undocumented students and provide an opportunity for campus leaders to develop creative strategies to respond to the needs of large numbers of undocumented students and their families. Average grant amounts will be $125,000 for the first twelve month cycles. Initial applications are due May 1, 2018.

To learn more about how to apply, visit CaliforniaCatalystFund.org.

Federal Grant Opportunities 

For a full list of federal grants available to community colleges,  visit our Federal Grants page at: www.ccleague.org/federal-grant-opportunites

Agency: National Science Foundation
Program: Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure grants
Estimated Total Program Funding: $12,000,000
Closing Date for Applications: June 4, 2018

Program Description: The objective of the Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure (CICI) program is to develop, deploy and integrate security solutions that benefit the scientific community by ensuring the integrity, resilience and reliability of the end-to-end scientific workflow. CICI seeks three categories of projects: 1. Secure Scientific Cyberinfrastructure: These awards seek to secure the scientific workflow by encouraging novel and trustworthy architectural and design approaches, models and frameworks for the creation of a holistic, integrated security environment that spans the entire scientific CI ecosystem; 2. Collaborative Security Response Center: This single award targets the development of a community resource to provide security monitoring, analysis, expertise, and resources research and education cyberinfrastructure staff, regardless of physical location or organization; and 3. Research Data Protection: These awards provide solutions that both ensure the provenance of research data and reduce the complexity of protecting research data sets regardless of funding source.

Link to grants.gov: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=301333

Upcoming Events

  • Annual Trustees Conference, May 4-6, Valencia, CA
  • ACBO Spring Conference, May 21-23, Santa Rosa, CA
  • League Legislative Webinars, May 22

For more information, contact the League's Government Relations and Communications staff:

Lizette Navarette, Vice President lizette@ccleague.org
Ryan McElhinney, Legislative Advocate ryan@ccleague.org
Laura Murrell, Communications Manager laura@ccleague.org
Gerson Light-Sanchez, Legislative Fellow fellow@ccleague.org

Empty