Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 1 on Education

Senator Laird here. Senator Min. Senator Smallwood-Cuevas here. Senator Ochoa Bogh here.

We have a quorum. Thank you very much. And on the subject of the hearing today, on April 26, the Senate Democratic Caucus released a Protect our progress plan that included broad priorities for budget priorities for 2023 and 24 and beyond. The plan for Higher Education reflects one recurring theme that we heard from stakeholders in our earlier Subcommitee hearings, as well as the follow up letters of concern, the need to prioritize the state's commitment to increasing affordability, necessity, accessibility to higher education.

Therefore, today's Higher Education Subcommitee hearing will cover one item, the Senate's Protect our progress plan for higher education. We have Jennifer Pacella here from the Legislative Analyst present office to present this item with Paul Steenhausen from the LAO, available for additional details or responses. And I've mentioned the participant number. We will, after presentation and any questions or discussion, we'll take public comment in the room. Public comment on the phone.

It doesn't look like there's going to be excessive public comment in the room, but if there is on the phone, I might choose to limit it based on the number of people that are there. So let me please welcome our panelist to the Committee. And the floor is yours.

Good morning. Jennifer Pacella, legislative analyst office. Many of the higher education components of the budget plan are in your agenda. As you can see in the agenda, the plan includes additional spending for financial aid as well as each of the three public higher education segments. We were just asked to provide a high level summary of this plan. So in the area of financial aid, the plan includes more funding for the middle class scholarship program, also includes more financial aid specifically for foster youth.

For the three public higher education segments, the plan includes additional funding for student basic needs, rapid rehousing programs, and student mental health services at the universities. The plan also includes additional funding for support for programs, I'm sorry, for programs that support students with disabilities. The plan has several segment specific proposals. The plan, for example, provides a COLA for UC's Agricultural Natural Resources division. It provides funds for more student Calfresh outreach at CSU and at the colleges. It provides more funding for enrollment retention strategies.

It also sweeps some unearned enrollment growth funding for the community colleges from a couple of years ago. Lastly, the plan rejects nearly all of the governor's proposed budget solutions, his funding cuts and delays. Virtually all of those were in the area of capital, were for capital projects. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And I would just make the comment that on each of these items, we have heard them already, and on each of these items, we expressed some concerns, and these in General in the plan reflect the direction of the concerns that were expressed.

And we are hearing it today to make sure that this part of the plan has given the public an opportunity to comment and that we have at least had it in front of us before the May revise comes out and the negotiations begin with the other house and with the Governor. And so I appreciate the presentation. It goes over what is there. And let me ask if there are any other comments from any Members of the Committee or questions.

I don't see any questions from two normally very inquisitive people. So that is a statement in itself, seeing that, we will move to public comment. So let me ask if there's any public comment from anybody in the room. We're going to figure this out. Do you want to try it now?

Thank you, Chair and Members, Mark Mcdonald, MGI Advocacy on behalf of the Los Angeles, Contra Costa, Peralta, San Diego, San Bernardino Community College districts in support of the plan. I particularly want to call out the funding for basic needs, the funding for LGBTQ plus students, and then on behalf of the Los Angeles Community College District, support for the East Los Angeles Business and Entrepreneur center, and then on behalf of the Palo Verde Community College District, in support of the 5 million for their Child Development center. It's really the only child development center in that area, so thank you for including that.

Thank you very much. Are there additional comments in the hearing room? Seeing none, we will move to the teleconference system and the operator. And just to remind the participant number is 877-336-4436 the access code is 725-2315 Moderator welcome to the hearing, and let us know if there's anybody waiting to be able to make comments.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do have a comment from line number 10. Line number 10 welcome to the Committee.

Hi there. My name is ... I'm speaking on behalf of the Institute for College Access and Success, also known as TIKA. Wanted to call in in support of equitably prioritizing financial aid reform via the Cal grant reform. We thank the Legislature for the steps they're taking towards strengthening college affordability in the recent years by increasing need based state financial aid.

But the creation of the California Community College Expanded Entitlement Grant Cal Grant Program in 2021 and the adoption of the Cal Grant Reform act in the final 20222023 state budget, pending a revenue trigger, will help more students get through and do college. However, we need to finish the job. Dean keeps the promise made to the thousands of Low income Californians who are still unable to access aid due to existing eligibility barriers. For this reason, we respectfully recommend the Legislature prioritize any financial aid expansion dollars on Cal grant reform before any other programs, including the middle class scholarship. Thank you.

Thank you. Moderator Any other callers?

There is a comment from line number 11. Your line is now open. Welcome.

Thank you. Chair and Committee Members, this is Zachary Wooden, Vice President of legislative affairs with the Student Senate for California Community Colleges. I just wanted to call in to thank the Committee Members for the Protect Our progress plan for community Colleges. It looks great, but I also do want to emphasize on behalf of the community college students that Cal Grant reform is emphasized. A lot of our students would benefit from the committing to Cal grant reform funding for the May 2024 trigger.

And I also want to thank this Committee for looking over student housing as a priority for our community colleges, especially opposing the delays to community college housing and to student housing in General is critical for housing our most in need students. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Moderator Any other callers?

There are no further comments, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. We appreciate your service today. I'm going to bring the matter back to the Committee. We have no action to take. This was to be held open. I would ask if there are any final comments from any Members of the Committee.

I just want to thank the proposals. I'm grateful that many people are very excited about this, and I'm grateful that from the Committee, we often hear how some of us don't have an opportunity to discuss or comment on the budget. And I'm personally grateful for the opportunity to have a chair that gives me an opportunity to comment and discuss the issues at hand and make it known and have a collaboration between stakeholders to make sure that they're accommodated. So thank you.

Thank you. That's too much credit but Senator.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. And I am agreement with my colleague from San Bernardino about lifting up our chair in this moment. It was a very dense process to get through. We have a tough budget year, and I think we went through each level of our educational infrastructure here in the state to make sure that we are doing all that we can to ensure that the workers who keep our educational systems thriving are made whole in this very difficult economic time.

And also looking at the disparities and seeing how we really make our institutions be a multiplier of opportunity, whether it's building housing, whether it's making sure our students and communities are Fed, making sure that we are providing adequate mental health services. Just want to say that we had a difficult job in front of us. We're not all the way there yet, but we are making good progress. And I think what we see here in this package is a part of that. So just wanted to add those comments to the record.

Thank you. I really appreciate the comments of both my colleagues, and the toughest part is about to happen. But we have done a good job of airing this and trying to channel the extensive public comment, and it's reflected in what's in front of us. We're trying to be responsive, and I think it takes us into the negotiations in a good position. So, seeing no further comment, I'm just going to thank everybody who participated today.

And if you are not able to testify or you wish to extend your comments, you can write them to the Budget and fiscal Review Committee, or you can visit our website and provide comments. They are important to us. We want to include that testimony in the official records. We appreciate those that did participate. So in an unusually brief meeting of the Subcommitee, we have concluded our business and our agenda, and we will stand adjourned.