Sacramento – Assemblymember Anthony Portantino announced today the successful passage of his higher education reform package by the State Assembly.  If enacted, Portantino’s higher education legislation would return $400 million dollars of federal pell grants to community college students, increase access to community colleges for high school students, increase access to federal and state financial aid, reform the way the CSU system is governed, and ensure California is equipped to meet the workforce needs of a global economy.

“I am very excited by our progress.  When I campaigned last year, my major focus was education.  In particular I talked about expanding our traditional K-12 model to create a seamless K-14 experience for our children.  By passing a concurrent enrollment bill and expanding financial aide, we can benefit thousands of students and families and keep California at the forefront of higher education.”

“I am very grateful to the Speaker for giving me the opportunity to Chair the Assembly’s Higher Education Committee.  I am also very pleased that my first education bills address many core issues within California’s higher education system:  access, affordability and expanding educational opportunities for our most needy students.”
                                                                        -Assemblymember Anthony Portantino

Portantino’s higher education bill package includes the following bills:

AB 1409 – Creates a K-14 education through High School and Community College Concurrent Enrollment.  AB 1409 follows through on Assemblymember Portantino’s primary campaign promise to expand our education from a traditional K-12 higher education model to a seamless K-14 experience.  Currently, California Community Colleges are allowed to admit a limited number of high school students as "special admits." AB 1409 seeks to create strong local partnerships between high schools and community colleges in order to make better use of facilities, promote greater participation for advanced education than currently allowed, offer high school students the opportunity to study career technical and vocational classes and makes enrollment simpler.   The bill would break down the barriers between high school and community college and offers all students the opportunity to accelerate their academic and vocation choices.  It levels the playing field between suburban students with multiple advanced placement options and those rural and city students in high schools with limited curriculum choices.  By creating partnerships, career technical education, basic skills and remediation, high school exit examination preparation, drop-out intervention, instruction in English as a second language and introduce students to the higher education who may not have envisioned it in their future become available to all our students.  Passed the Assembly 78-0.

AB 668 – Maximizing federal and State financial aid for community colleges.   AB 668 seeks to leverage a $5 million state investment to return $400 million in unused federal grant money.  California community college students receive Federal Pell Grant at a rate significantly below the national community college average and at a rate significantly below UC and CSU undergraduates.  Californians pay federal taxes to support the Federal Pell Grant program but the grants are not returning to California in sufficient numbers.   Oftentimes the problem is simply that students do not know about all the various financing options available to address the full cost of education.   AB 668 will provide more notification to students of their financial aid options, increase funding at the Chancellor's office to allow staff to spend extra time with economically disadvantaged students, and create training modules for community colleges counselors on up-to-date financing options.   As mentioned above, conservative estimates have AB 668 returning $400 million to our community college students.  Passed the Assembly 56-23.

AB 365 – Council on Workforce Needs.  Our workforce preparation has not kept pace with our workforce needs.  Study after study shows that we are facing and will continue to face a severe shortage of trained professional and non-professional workers.  Between 30-40% of California's workforce requires some college-level education.  At the same time, the fastest growing segments of our population are those least likely to attend college.  In order to meet this workforce demand and keep our economy and society vibrant, it is essential that the state's higher education institutions, labor community and employers work collaboratively—but there is no mechanism to do so.  AB 365 creates this mechanism by charging the California Postsecondary Education Commission and the Labor and Workforce Development Agency to convene a task force of stakeholders to 1) determine California's workforce needs, 2) align those needs with the capacity at our state's higher education institutions, 3) and establish a permanent authority to ensure that our colleges and universities are prepared to meet the state's future workforce needs.  Passed the Assembly 73-6.
 
AB 1413 California State University Governance Reform - At the same time the CSU has dramatically raised student fees, it has been rocked by scandal and secret executive compensation deals.  These governance issues have been exposed in a series of news accounts and have undermined the credibility and stature of the largest college system in the nation.  AB 1413 seeks to restore the public’s trust in the CSU system by shedding light on the way the CSU Board of Trustees conducts its business.  It forces the board to make decision in public and calls for any executive or college president who receives compensation from the public university to actually have to perform a service for this compensation.  Passed the Assembly 73-1.