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Volume 7, Issue 1
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March 3, 2011
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A BOLD FOCUS ON COLLEGE COMPLETION
Dear Campaign Supporter, We began 2011 with wonderful momentum from our 2010 community college transfer reform victory. That momentum is needed as we work diligently to minimize the impact of budget cuts to college access and the need to improve college completion in California so we can produce one million additional college graduates by 2025. As many of you know, the continuing state budget crisis will likely result in deep cuts to higher education in California. A total of $1.4 billion in UC, CSU, and Community College reductions are proposed in Governor Brown's budget. We urge you to support Governor Brown's tax extension proposal - without it, we are likely to see even deeper cuts to higher education and to accept a future where the next generation of Californians will be less educated than the current one. While we recognize the need for shared sacrifice across the state, we will continue to remind our state leaders that funding our colleges and universities is an investment, not just expenditure. In fact, for every additional dollar we invest sending and graduating a student from college, the state gets three dollars in increased revenues. Avoiding future budget crises require that we remember this. In light of the budget challenges facing our colleges and universities, we call on higher education leaders to minimize the impact of these cuts to students and to prioritize the resources they have on moving students toward certificate, transfer, and/or degree completion. This year, we welcome the development of the Student Success Task Force by the California Community College Chancellor's Office. We are hopeful that the task force will offer substantive recommendations to increase student success with bold reforms and solutions that reward college completion and provide necessary flexibility for student support services. We hope you will join us in offering your own recommendations to the task force. Finally, our work on the transfer reform front is not finished. While the passage of the legislation is an enormous source of pride, it is only the first part. We will be dedicated to closely monitoring implementation efforts and will keep you informed on progress so we can ensure community college students have a clear path to a bachelor's degree. We look forward to strengthening our relationship with you and engaging you in support of higher education in our state.
Sincerely, Michele Siqueiros
Executive Director |
 DIVIDED WE FAIL REGIONAL PROFILES & ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS  In October we released a new report we commissioned by the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy (IHELP) entitled, Divided We Fail: Increasing Completion and Closing Racial Gaps in California's Community Colleges with 15 prominent organizations (listed below). The statewide report tracked over a quarter of a million degree seeking students in 2003-04 over six years and analyzed their progress and outcomes by major racial/ethnic populations. The report found that too many students fail to complete, with only three in ten students earning a certificate, degree or transferring to a four year university. For African American and Latino students the rates were even more dismal (26% and 22% respectively). The report highlighted the urgent need to improve student outcomes in our community colleges and close persistent racial gaps. In addition to the statewide report, The Campaign also commissioned thirteen regional profiles documenting the same milestone and completion metrics for local regions. The thirteen regions include: North Coast, Superior California, Upper Sacramento Valley, Sacramento-Tahoe, San Francisco Bay, Monterey Bay, Central Coast, North San Joaquin Valley, South San Joaquin Valley, Los Angeles, Orange County, Inland Empire, and San Diego-Imperial. Beginning in February and through June 2011, The Campaign is releasing these regional profiles to provide more localized data on community college outcomes by race and ethnicity and to engage community and business leaders in discussions on local and state policy solutions to improve college completion. To date, we have released the Regional Profiles for San Diego-Imperial and the San Francisco Bay regions. We strongly believe in the importance of highlighting the critical role that community colleges play in our state and maintaining attention on the importance of improving completion rates for all students. We also believe that a new funding mechanism for community colleges that provides incentives for moving students through milestones and on to completion, coupled with local flexibility to support student services, will be necessary to achieve this goal. Upcoming Regional Releases are scheduled as follows: - Inland Empire: March 21
- North San Joaquin Valley & South San Joaquin Valley: March 28
- Orange County: April 4
- Central Coast: April 18
- Los Angeles: May 2
- Upper Sacramento Valley & Sacramento/Tahoe: May 23
- North Coast: June 13
- Superior California: June 13
- Monterey Bay: June 27
Divided We Fail Co-Releasers: - Alliance for a Better Community
- Advancement Project
- Californians for Justice
- Education Trust - West
- Excelencia in Education
- The Greenlining Institute
- Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE)
- Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP)
- Los Angeles Urban League
- Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF)
- National Council of La Raza
- New America Foundation
- PolicyLink
- The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS)
- Urban League of San Diego County
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 POLICY UPDATES
Transfer Reform (SB 1440) Implementation & Oversight Committee
September 29, 2010 marked a tremendous victory for California college students when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed our historic transfer reform package, SB 1440 & AB 2302, into law. This will shape the higher education landscape in California for generations of college students for decades to come, easing the transfer pathway from community colleges to our four-year universities and helping to ensure a competitive future workforce. Immediately after the bill signing, stakeholders rolled-up their sleeves to begin the hard work of implementing the new transfer pathway (which goes into effect in fall 2011). In order to meet the ambitious timeline laid before them, the California State University (CSU) and the California Community Colleges (CCC) announced the formation of a joint committee entrusted with the implementation of SB 1440.
The joint committee, co-chaired by Ephraim Smith, CSU executive vice chancellor and Erik Skinner, CCC executive vice chancellor, is charged with ensuring transfer pathway coordination between the CSU system and California Community Colleges. We are pleased to share that Campaign for College Opportunity Board Member and President of Long Beach City College, Eloy Ortiz-Oakley, was named to the SB 1440 Implementation & Oversight Committee. To date, the joint committee has held three meetings and unveiled their first three proposed Transfer Model Curriculums (TMCs). The meetings are open to the public and it will be critical for coalition members to attend and monitor progress in the coming months. We will continue to monitor the implementation process to ensure the streamlined transfer pathway is enacted.
For more information, or a calendar of upcoming meetings, please contact Cynthia Craig ccraig@CALSTATE.EDU.
Keeping the Promise: Celebrating Historic College Transfer Reform in California
On February 3, 2011, The Campaign for College Opportunity hosted a joyful transfer reform victory celebration at the Los Angeles City Club in downtown. Close to one hundred key allies from across the state joined us to honor the champions who helped make this legislative victory a reality for college students in California. Honorees included State Senator Alex Padilla (Author - SB 1440), Assembly Member Paul Fong (Author - AB 2302), California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott, California State University Chancellor Charles Reed, the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, and the California State Student Association.
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from left to right: California State Student Association President Chris Chavez, Michele Siqueiros, Senator Alex Padilla, Assemblymember Paul Fong, CSU Executive Vice Chancellor Ephraim Smith, Reid Milburn, California Community College Chancellor Jack Scott, Jessie Ryan, Student Senate for California Community Colleges President Alex Pader
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Coalition partners shared their optimism that the passage of the transfer reform legislation would simplify the pathway from community colleges to our four-year universities. Campaign for College Opportunity Executive Director Michele Siqueiros shared, "Even in difficult budget times, we must celebrate important victories that make college access and success in California more attainable. This victory was possible because of the courageous leadership of our honorees and the hundreds of coalition partners that supported transfer reform. Dramatically improving the transfer pathway will play a vital role in meeting our demand for one million additional college graduates by 2025 and help more students
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from left to right: Campaign Board Member and Long Beach City College President Eloy Ortiz Oakley, Roberto Ramirez from Making a Difference, Michele Siqueiros, George Pla of the Cordoba Corporation
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reach their college dreams." Senator Alex Padilla put the celebration in perspective, noting that just as important as the legislative victory, is ensuring that the promise of a streamlined transfer pathway comes to fruition, stating in Spanish, "Ahora a cumplir!" Now to keep the promise. We could not agree more.
A special thanks to George Pla from Cordoba Corporation who served as our corporate sponsor for the event.
California Community College Chancellors Office Launches Student Success Task Force
On January 18, 2011, Chancellor Jack Scott announced the formation of a 21-person Student Success Task Force. The task force, chaired by Board of Governor's member Peter MacDougall, is charged with boosting community college completion rates by examining strategies for improving student outcomes and developing a funding model to incentivize completion. The group was created as a result of SB 1143, finance reform legislation introduced last year by Senator Carol Liu (originally altering the community college funding formula to be weighted on both third week of enrollment and course completion). SB 1143 calls upon the community college system to adopt a plan for increasing student success by 2012 and authorizes the creation of a student success task force. The task force has already held two meetings and will continue to meet regularly over the course of the next 12 months before presenting its final recommendations to the legislature. These meetings are open to the public and we highly encourage coalition partners to attend.
For more information or a list of upcoming meetings please contact jessie@collegecampaign.org.
California DREAM Act On January 11, 2011, Assemblymember Gilbert Cedillo reintroduced the California DREAM Act (AB 130) in the State Assembly. The proposed law would allow students that meet the in-state tuition requirements to apply for and receive specified financial aid programs administered by California's public colleges and universities. Eligible students include those that meet all of the following criteria: - Secondary school attendance in California for three or more years; at least one year of which shall have been at a California high school.
- Graduation from a California secondary school or attainment of the equivalent thereof.
- If undocumented, the filing of an affidavit with the college or university stating that they have applied for a lawful immigration status or will apply as soon as they are eligible to do so.
The Campaign for College Opportunity strongly supports passing the California DREAM Act to ensure California can produce the competitive workforce necessary to strengthen California. |
HIGHER EDUCATION BUDGET UPDATE
On January 10th, newly sworn-in Governor Jerry Brown unveiled his 2011-12 budget proposal. Governor Brown's budget requires sacrifice from virtually every area of state government, including a significant reduction in funding for California Community Colleges (CCC), the California State University (CSU) system, and the University of California (UC) system totaling $1.4 billion dollars.
Governor Brown's budget proposes a $500 million dollar cut to the CSU and $500 million dollar cut to the UC. It also includes a $400 million funding cut for CCCs and a fee increase from $26 per credit unit to $36 per credit unit for students that will result in $110 million in revenue for the CCC system.
Governor Brown's budget presupposes that voters will, in a June special election, extend existing taxes for 5 more years. If the initiatives fail to be put on the ballot or are rejected by voters, this could force deeper cuts to higher education. The Campaign supports the five year tax extension in order to prevent this. We also call on all three segments of higher education to minimize the impact of these cuts to students and prioritize their resources on students who are on track towards certificate, transfer, or degree completion.
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FROM OUR PARTNERS
The Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy has released a new study that examines four high-wage, high-need career pathways in the California Community Colleges as a basis for exploring the Career Technical Education mission and its role in the college completion agenda. See their findings in The Road Less Traveled: Realizing the Potential of Career Technical Education in the California Community Colleges.
The California Hospital Association has produced a new study showing that California hospitals may face a critical shortage of clinical laboratory scientists and other allied health professionals within the next five years because of looming retirements in the existing workforce. Read Critical Roles: California's Allied Health Workforce.  UCLA IDEA has produced breakdown data on college preparation by legislative district that highlights the lack of opportunity for students to high quality teachers, AP courses, etc. Check out their 2010 Educational Opportunity Report. |
NEWS & NOTES FROM THE CAMPAIGN
- The Campaign received generous new funding in support of our mission to increase access and improve student success in California higher education. Thank you!
- We are pleased to announce that our Sacramento office has relocated. We are now sharing space with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), one of The Campaign's co-founding organizations. Our new contact information is:
1512 14th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-443-1681
Fax: 916-443-1682
- The Campaign has switched over to a new online contact management system. We hope that in the coming months, this will prove to be a more efficient system. In the meantime, if you have previously opted out of receiving our emails and have received this message, please accept our sincere apologies and follow the link below for opting out. Thank you for your understanding during this transition period.
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