California Leaders Advocate in Washington D.C.

This week, California community college leaders have taken their collective voice to elected representatives in Washington, D.C. to discuss the system’s priorities for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. They’ll also express how decisions related to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals have significant consequences for our students and communities.

In approaching the Higher Education Act reauthorization, the California Community Colleges encourage Congress to consider efforts that strengthen access, success, and equity. To that end, the PROSPER Act, the House proposal for the Higher Education Act include several provisions of concern to the League. One of the most concerning proposals in PROSPER is a provision to make 100% liable for any financial aid that your students receive but do not earn. This policy proposal has the potential to quadruple the funds that California colleges would be required to pay back to the federal government and contravenes our mission as equity-focused open access institutions of higher learning.

Help Us Calculate Your Increased Liability 
To calculate the potential cost to your institution, ACCT has provided a worksheet for you to fill out in advance of our visit. To strengthen our advocacy with empirical data, please complete the worksheet and and please share it with Ryan McElhinney at ryan@ccleague.org.

The worksheet can be accessed by clicking here.

In addition to the worksheet, we are providing the League and Chancellor's Office 2018 Federal Talking Points concerning how federal higher education policy affects our students, as well as a roster of California’s Congressional Delegation. Congressional representative will be their home district during the week of February 19-23, 2018.

We encourage you to meet with your Congressional representatives the week of February 19-23 and utilize these materials during your advocacy visits.

Get the 2018 Federal Talking Points

 Department of Finance Trailer Bill Language Released

The Budget Trailer Bill Language is the implementing statute needed to effectuate the proposals in the annual Budget Bill. The Governor’s proposed 2018 Budget Trailer Bill was released on February 1. Later this week we will provide a summary and analysis of the most-significant portions of the trailer bill language. The community college Trailer Bill proposal includes policy implementation details and requirements for three significant proposals for the California Community Colleges:

• Student Centered Funding Formula
• The California Online College
• Aligning California Community College Financial Aid

The 2018-19 budget proposes $175 million to transition colleges to a new student-focused funding formula. The intent is to propose a Student-Focused Apportionments Formula that encourages access for underrepresented students, provides additional funding in recognition of the need to provide additional support for low-income students, rewards colleges’ progress on improving student success metrics, and improves overall equity and predictability so that districts may more readily plan and implement instruction and programs.

The formula is comprised of a base grant, supplemental grant, and a Student Success Incentive Grant:

• Base Grants (50% of formula) — District base grants based on FTES enrollment.
• Supplemental Grant (25% of formula) — Supplemental grants based on the number of low-income students that the district enrolls reflecting two factors: (1) enrollment of students who receive a College Promise Grant fee waiver (formerly known as the BOF Waiver) and (2) enrollment of students that receive a Pell Grant.
• Student Success Incentive Grant (25% of formula) — Additional funding for: 1) the number of degrees and certificates granted and 2) the number of students who complete a degree or certificate in 3 years or less, 3) funds for each Associate Degree for Transfer granted by the college.
• Hold Harmless Provision — During the first year of implementation, districts would be held harmless to 2017-18 levels.

The League has released a summary chart of the Governor’s proposed funding formula. Further analysis of the proposed funding formula and other portions for the budget trailer bill will be released this week.

Extensive review of the proposed funding formula has begun. Chancellor Oakley has tasked a workgroup of the CEO to provide guidance and leadership in the development of a revised funding formula for California’s community colleges. We encourage you to follow progress on the Workgroup’s page: https://www.ccleague.org/funding-formula-workgroup.

Bills to Watch in the New Legislative Session

With the start the 2018 legislative year, Legislators returned to Sacramento and have begun to introduce a wide range of bill that will influence programs and services at your institution. The League has identified 36 pieces of legislation that will impact your college, for a full list click here. The number of bills tracked by the League is anticipated to double shortly after the deadline to introduce legislation on February 16. Below are some bills that may be of interest to you or your students:

AB 1037 (Limon): Postsecondary Education: Student Financial Aid: Cal Grant B Service Incentive Grant Program
Currently AB 540 students are ineligible to receive federal financial aid, preventing them from participating in federally funded work study programs. This policy barrier reduces their ability to support themselves while attending college and prevents them from obtaining valuable job skills. AB 1037 (Limon) would help alleviate this by providing 2,500 grants of up to $1,500 each to AB 540 students in return for community service.

AB 1935 (Irwin) Community Colleges: Tutoring
Sponsored by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office and supported by the League, this bill would allow colleges to capture apportionment for providing supervised tutoring for students enrolled in credit classes. Currently colleges can only do this for non-credit students and by extending this to all students, AB 1935 (Irwin) will provide resources for colleges to better support their students.

SB 940 (Beall) Student Financial Aid: Cal Grant Program: Foster Youth
This bill is intended to strengthen the Cal Grant program for students who are former foster youth. By increasing the amount of financial aid available to former foster youth, the bill will help former foster youth take more classes and be more academically successful. Specifically, it would:

• Permit former foster youth to qualify for the Cal Grant entitlement program as long as they are under the age of 26.
• Extend the period of time a foster youth can use a Cal Grant award from five to six years.
• Permit foster youth community college students who apply for a Cal Grant on the September 2nd deadline to qualify for the Cal Grant entitlement award.

League Offers Monthly Legislative Webinars

Every year 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.  Therefore, 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 monthly League Legislative Webinars. The 2018 schedule is below:

League Monthly Webinar Details
Meeting Link: https://www.cccconfer.org/GoToMeeting?SeriesID=38f73823-c2ef-4f65-a4d7-003e40fa6805
Conference line: 1-913-312-3202* Meeting Passcode: 343385

We hope that you will participate in these 30-45 minute monthly updates. Webinars are held the third Tuesday of every month. For the latest information on bills or budget updates by the League, visit www.ccleague.org/advocacy.

Federal Grant Opportunities

The League in partnership with Downs Government Affairs present the following federal grant opportunities for districts and colleges:

Grant: Cyber-Physical Systems
Agency: National Science Foundation
Maximum Grant Award: $7,000,000
Closing Date for Applications: May 9, 2018

Program Description: Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are engineered systems that are built from, and depend upon, the seamless integration of computation and physical components. CPS technologies are transforming the way people interact with engineered systems, and are driving innovation and competition in a range of application domains. The CPS program seeks to reveal cross-cutting, fundamental scientific and engineering principles that underpin the integration of cyber and physical elements across all application domains. The program supports the development of methods, tools, and hardware and software components based upon these cross-cutting principles, and fosters a research community that is committed to advancing education and outreach in CPS and accelerating the transition of CPS research into the real world. For more information and a list of criteria of what to include in the grant proposal click on the link below.

Link to grants.gov: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=300642

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 Liahut-Sanchez, League Fellow | fellow@ccleague.org