By Assemblymember John Laird, chair of the Assembly Budget Committee

We have a unique opportunity to support health care services for community college students across California. The current health fee exemption for Board of Governors (BOG) fee waiver students creates an ironic and unfair situation for Cabrillo College. The health fees that are waived are not backfilled in the budget in any way. As a result, colleges, like Cabrillo, that serve larger numbers of low-income students have less revenue available for health services.

Because poverty is often related to increased need for health services, this situation has created an inequity: As districts and colleges continue to do a better job of financial aid outreach, the number of students eligible for the waiver is growing. As a result, existing law inadvertently penalizes colleges, like Cabrillo, that are more successful in assisting low-income students.

I have authored a bill, AB 982, that addresses this issue by removing the provision in the law that exempts students who receive BOG fee waivers from paying a campus health center fee. I've received strong support for my bill from students across California—including the Associated Students of Pasadena City College and the Associated Students at Moorpark College.

Many students depend on the services provided by the campus health centers to access basic health services. Though the cost of running health centers has continued to rise over the years, funding for the centers has decreased. In some cases, health centers have been forced to reduce hours, lay off staff, and cut back on important services like HIV/AIDS testing—at Cabrillo, hours of operation have been reduced by 10 hours per week and a half-time nurse practitioner has been lost.

In an ongoing survey of California community college health centers, 40 reported reducing staff or services while 31 reported reducing hours of operation. Specific examples include:

• Elimination of nursing positions at fourteen colleges
  
• Reduction in nursing services at thirteen colleges
  
• Reduction in physician services at eleven colleges
  
• Reduction in mental health services at seven colleges
  
• Elimination of mental health positions at four colleges
  
• Loss of HIV testing and counseling services at two colleges
  
• Loss of smoking cessation program at one college
  

This bill alone would not raise sufficient revenue to adequately support community college health centers in the future. But it would provide authority to provide a portion of what's needed long term.

With this bill, I'm presenting the state legislature with the opportunity to make a choice between two conflicting values: student access to the community college system and student retention in the system by providing access to health care. I believe student retention is the more immediate need. By eliminating the exemption for the BOG fee waiver students, Cabrillo would have flexibility to create solutions that address the specific funding crisis at the college.

I'm pleased that my bill has passed the Assembly. It now moves on to the Senate for consideration. For more information, please visit my Website at http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a27/.

Assemblymember Laird is a former two-term member of the Cabrillo College Board of Trustees, serves as chair of the Assembly Budget Committee and represents the 27th Assembly District.