Governor Brown's budget presupposes an extension of existing taxes amounting to $6.2 billion in revenue and he is pressing for an election that would give voters the opportunity to vote on extending existing taxes until 2014-15. In the meantime, his budget proposes a temporary extension with the May Revise including a way to phase out the tax extensions if voters fail to approve them. Assembly Republicans also recently released a budget proposal that does not include any additional cuts to public higher education.

The Campaign strongly supports putting the tax extension issue before voters to prevent further cuts to our colleges and universities.  We urge you to do the same by sending a letter to your legislator.  We also call upon all three segments of higher education to minimize the impact of cuts to students and prioritize their resources for students who are on certificate, transfer, or degree completion tracks.

You can read Governor Brown's complete May revision proposal here, and view the Republican proposal here.

The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) non-partisan analysis of Gov. Brown's Proposed 2010-2011 Budget can be found here.

Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is hosting a live internet town hall on Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 7 p.m. to discuss how the state budget will impact school district  and community college funding across California.  To watch the event and submit questions to Senator Steinberg and his guests, Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, click here.

For more thoughts on the budget and its effects on California higher education, read the

Campaign blog post by guest writer, Steve Boilard, Director of Higher Education for the LAO.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRANSFER REFORM IMPLEMENTATION UPDATE 

Do you wonder why we are so passionate about improving community college transfer reform?  We have the data that speaks to how important this issue is, but it is the stories of college students like Reid Milburn that keep us focused on making a clear transfer pathway from community college to university possible.  Read her story here. 

Securing a major community college transfer reform victory was only the first step.  In order to meet the ambitious implementation time line by this fall, community college and California State University (CSU) leaders have been hard at work developing the statewide implementation process for SB 1440 through the SB 1440 Implementation & Oversight Committee (IOC).

To date, there have been five IOC meetings and a great deal of progress has been made. The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has facilitated a statewide approach to developing Transfer Model Curriculum (TMC) that will work for the majority of CSU campuses. Four of these transfer pathways (Sociology, Psychology, Communications Studies, and Mathematics) have been approved and community colleges are being encouraged to develop their degrees to align with them. In this spirit of collaboration, Articulation Officers, Transfer Center Directors, Counselors and students want to ensure that the new Associate Degrees for Transfer are flexible enough to meet the needs of community college students.

Both Chancellor Jack Scott of the California Community College system and Chancellor Charles Reed of the CSU system continue to work together to ensure that the new SB 1440 pathway becomes the preferred transfer pathway. We commend them for their leadership, especially the assurance that:

• All CSU and CCC campuses must participate in SB 1440
• In addition to priority local admission, SB 1440 students will receive an admissions priority via a GPA "bump" to out-of-area impacted campuses and impacted majors
• The CSU will establish a priority registration process for SB 1440 students

Recognizing the complex nature of wide-scale transfer degree implementation, SB 1440 author Senator Alex Padilla has remained actively engaged in watching the implementation process and plans to host a hearing this summer to solicit feedback from community college stakeholders across the state (details to be announced).

The SB 1440 IOC meetings remain open to the public. We encourage you to participate in the meetings and in the legislative hearing later this summer.  The Campaign for College Opportunity will continue to monitor the implementation process to ensure the streamlined community college transfer pathway is enacted effectively in order to meet future workforce needs and help more students reach their college dreams.

For more information, or a calendar of upcoming SB 1440 IOC meetings, please contact Cynthia Craig.