Legislative Update

1 1. Congress has approved naming the Federal Building in Van Nuys for late Valley Congressman Jim Corman. Corman served for 20 years in the House of Representatives, 1961 – 1981, representing a district that included the north Valley. He was best known for his efforts on behalf of civil rights and welfare reform. He served on the House Judiciary Committee, and was instrumental in getting the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed. Corman also served on the Ways and Means Committee, where he chaired the Subcommittee on Public Assistance and Unemployment Compensation, and was a powerful force in gaining passage of two bills he authored on health and on child welfare reform. Corman was 80 when he died last January 6.

Senate Bill 468, authored by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, calling for the Van Nuys facility to be named the “James C. Corman Federal Building,” was passed on May 24. The House bill, H.R. 621, authored by Rep. Howard Berman (D – Northeast San Fernando Valley), was passed in late February.

2 2. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R – Northridge/Santa Clarita Valley) has joined 15 other House members in a “Draft Riordan for Governor” effort. According to this week’s issue of CalPeek, McKeon is “leading the charge,” which also includes 14 Republican state legislators. L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, who will be formally out of office as of July 1, has not indicated what his future plans might entail. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Bill Jones, the sole Republican in a statewide elected office and a declared gubernatorial candidate, is less than pleased at the prospect of a Riordan candidacy. Political observers say that Republicans haven’t forgiven Jones for supporting GOP presidential candidate John McCain over George W. Bush.

3 3. The crime rate is leveling off nationwide, according to FBI and Department of Justice data reported in last week’s Capital Hill Bulletin--but California is experiencing a slight increase in the number of serious crimes. The increase is small, 1.1%, but it is the first increase since 1991. A Department of Justice study indicates that California leads all other states in the number of communities reporting gang problems. Ironically, California is also the state with the highest number of safe cities. The FBI data shows that, of cities with at least 100,000 residents, nine of the top ten reporting the lowest crime rate are in California. Simi Valley ranks number one. Thousand Oaks, Santa Clarita and San Jose are the other California cities in the top ten.

More information on the FBI figures and the Department of Justice study on gangs can be accessed at the following websites:

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention: http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org
[Click first on Publications, then on New Releases, and scroll down to “Growth of Youth Gang Problems in the United states: 1970-98.]

FBI: http://www.fbi.gov
[Click on Uniform Crime Reports in the left-side panel, then on “Crime in the United States: 2000 Preliminary Figures.”]

4 4. Despite all of the bad news that has been plaguing California of late, figures from the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation reveal that the state has moved from 7th to 5th place in the size of its economy. The top 4 spots are occupied by the United States as a whole, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom. California bumped France to achieve its new ranking--and the country was not pleased according to Jack Kyser, Chief Economist for the Economic Development Corporation. Jo-Jung Chen, the Vice Consul and Press Attaché at the French consulate in Los Angeles, was quoted in the New York Times as being “philosophical” about the news, but pointing out that the exchange rate had worked in California’s favor. “We still believe we produce the best wine in the world,” he said.

In the same article, Joel Kotkin, an economist and senior fellow at Pepperdine University in Malibu, observed that “…no country has tried harder to make itself important than France, and no place has worked harder than California to screw itself up.”

The Economic Development Corporation figures also show Southern California alone as the 10th ranking global economic power (ahead of Mexico, Spain, India, and South Korea). Los Angeles County ranks as 18th, the same place it held last year.

5 5. Florida’s experience with “hanging chads” has resulted in an avalanche of ballot reform bills nationwide. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), a typical year will see 250 bills on ballot reform issues. Following the debacle in Florida after the presidential election, the figure rose to a whopping 1,700--constituting the largest focus on electoral reform in history, according to the NCSL. Despite the huge increase in reform legislation, however, very little impact is expected on the 2002 election. Of the 1,700 bills, 757 were killed, 172 were passed and signed by governors, and 8 were vetoed, according to the NCSL. A number of concerns, ranging from costs to how best to “fix” the problem, has stymied much of this legislation.

According to the NCSL, not surprisingly, the most significant reforms were enacted in Florida. As reported in StateNet’s Capitol Journal, after several months of study conducted by a special task force, “the Legislature passed--and Republican Gov. Jeb Bush signed--a $32 million bill that will ban punch card ballots, streamline recount procedures and revamp an unwieldy voter registration system.” The money will be divided among purchases for new voting equipment ($24 million), voter education and poll worker recruitment/training efforts ($6 million), and revamping the statewide voter registration system “to address reports that many Floridians were mistakenly purged from voter rolls and the names of newly registered voters never appeared on precinct lists” ($2 million).

While many states have been wrestling with reform issues, with different emphases on the nature of the problem and how to address it, there has been one constant: Little trust in moving to voting on the Internet. While there was speculation that interest in Internet voting might increase after the Florida experience, the reverse is true. StateNet Capitol Journal reported on a Wall Street Journal public opinion poll which showed 46% of voters in 1999 thought Internet voting was a bad idea, while a year later--a month following the Presidential election--that figure jumped to 72%.

In California, Governor Davis has vetoed legislation proposing pilot programs in Internet voting. On the other hand, the state did experiment with touchscreen voting in a few counties last November--with a positive response from voters. Robert Richie, Executive Director of the Center for Voting and Democracy in Maryland, predicts that “nearly every voter in the country will be voting electronically by 2006.”

6 6. Flags flew at half-mast this week for California Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk, who died suddenly of a heart attack. The longest-serving member in the court’s 151-year history, Mosk was 88. He was appointed to the high bench by Governor Edmund G. “Pat” Brown in 1964, and served for 37 years. Although known as the Court’s principal liberal, his opinions were independent and on occasion unpredictable. He wrote landmark decisions championing civil rights, for example, yet ruled all racial preferences unconstitutional in the famous Bakke vs. the University of California case in 1976. (The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Mosk’s ruling, but California voters later enacted his opinion by approving Prop. 209 in 1996.)

In addition to his long service on the state’s highest court, Mosk also served six years as state Attorney General, where, early on, he established a reputation for being proactive. He created special sections within the state Justice Department to enforce constitutional rights and consumer rights, for example, and generated controversy when he forced the Professional Golfers Association to abandon its whites-only clause.

Mosk was a prolific writer--issuing a total of 1,688 opinions during his long career on the Supreme Court--and was well-known for his clear and precise writing, and for his biting wit. My favorite of his many quotable quotes: “To a bureaucrat with a hammer in his hand, everything looks like a nail.”

Aides to Governor Davis said it was premature to discuss a replacement for Mosk. Byron Tucker, in the Governor’s press office, stated that the Governor will be “very thorough and thoughtful in finding the most qualified person possible.” No one believes that he will make an appointment anytime soon, however. Golden Gate University Law School Dean Peter G. Keane, in a Los Angeles Times quote, reflects a common view expressed by both legal and political observers: “Davis makes Hamlet look quick in making up his mind.”

On the other hand, the Governor, who was Jerry Brown’s Chief of Staff when Rose Bird was appointed as Chief Justice, will want to exercise prudence in making this important appointment. A statement from the Governor’s office the day after Mosk died, indicated that the Governor would prefer to appoint someone with prior judicial experience, “although it is not a prerequisite.” A spokesperson from his office also indicated that he would consider both Republicans and Democrats for the appointment.

Note: Bills must be in print for 30 days before they can be heard by a committee.

This Assembly Concurrent Resolution seeks to designate August 5, 2001, as National KidsDay, “to encourage and remind adults that the meaningful time they share with a child is important,” and calls upon all citizens in the state to “recognize and commend the National KidsDay Alliance organizations in California for providing their everyday contributions and commitment to improving the lives of the children and young adults in our communities….”

The measure also references efforts of the Alliance in working to establish National KidsDay as a national holiday.

This bill proposes several changes in the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, pertaining to teleconferencing. [Note: The CSU Board of Trustees and the CSUN Advisory Board are governed by this Act. The Act does not pertain to meetings of internal University committees, boards, task forces, departments, or administrative units.]

This bill provides that if a state body elects to conduct a meeting by teleconference, agendas must be posted at all teleconference locations, which must all be accessible to the public. The agenda, which must contain a brief description of the items of business to be transacted in open and closed session, must also include an opportunity for public comment and testimony.

The bill also provides that notice shall be made available on the Internet as soon as is practicable after any decision to consider additional items at a meeting has been made. [2/16/01 Legislative Update]

Status: This bill has sailed through the Assembly, passing unanimously by the policy and fiscal committees, and by the full body in mid-May. It appears the path in the Senate will be equally as smooth: The bill was passed unanimously by the Senate Committee on Governmental Organization on June 12, and placed on the Consent Calendar in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

This Assembly Concurrent Resolution, sponsored by the California Faculty Association, urges the CSU Board of Trustees to study its faculty hiring practices over the past decade in order to make improvements in those practices. It urges the Trustees, along with the Academic Senate of the CSU and the California Faculty Association, to jointly develop a plan to raise the percentage of new faculty hires who are tenured or tenure-track, among other prescribed objectives.

As amended on June 13, the Resolution seeks to raise the percentage of tenured or tenure-track “faculty to at least 75%, and would urge the CSU to provide a report to the Legislature by May 1, 2002. [5/25/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [9 - 1] by the Assembly Higher Education Committee on June 19. [Note: The sole dissenting vote was cast by Assembly Member Phil Wyman (R – Tehachapi).]

SB 216 (McPherson) California Postsecondary Education Commission: Strategic Plan for Language Development, Teaching, and Learning

This bill seeks to appropriate $140,000 from the state General Fund to the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC), for the purposes of developing a strategic action plan for preparing the state’s diverse population to become language proficient.

The bill would require “the coordinated enlistment of the state’s schools--K through University--to help prepare the people of California for the increased use of, and demand for, instruction and training in underutilized, underrepresented, and globally ‘strategic’ languages.”

As amended on June 13, CPEC must submit the plan by January 1, 2003 to the Governor, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Legislature. [2/16/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [39 - 0] by the full Senate, May 7; PASSED [11 - 0] by the Assembly Higher Education Committee, June 19, and sent forward to the Assembly Appropriations Committee on the same date.

This bill expresses legislative intent to provide additional state funding to the CSU for development of a bioscience center that would integrate research and innovation, applied workforce training, and incubation of new bioscience enterprise. Development of the center would involve a partnership among local educational institutions, the local bioscience industry, and government.

As amended on April 25, the bill specifies that the bioscience center be located in Pasadena.

As amended on June 18, the bill specifies that, subject to appropriation in the annual Budget Act, the funds will be used “for the development of a pilot bioinnovation workforce training program that bridges the gap between classroom instruction and workforce practice, using state-of-the-art instrumentation and real-world development projects.” [3/2/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [22 -10] by the full Assembly, May 10; PASSED [11 - 0] by the Assembly Higher Education Committee, June 19, and sent forward to the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy on the same date.

This Senate Joint Resolution, introduced in the Special Session on the state’s energy crisis, memorializes Congress to approve legislation that will allow a state to uniformly apply daylight saving time all year around.

A June 18 amendment adds specific detail from a report issued by the California State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, that demonstrates the amount of power that would be saved in megawatts, and the ensuing cost savings to ratepayers, should Daylight Savings Time be applied year round. [2/2/01, 5/11/01 Legislative Updates]

Status: Placed on Assembly Consent Calendar, June 18. [Note: Representative Brad Sherman (D - Woodland Hills) has introduced a bill in Congress (H.R. 704), which would allow California and other Pacific states the option of switching to daylight-saving time year-round

CAPITOL NEWS

Of the 1,538,229 registered voters in the City of Los Angeles, 556,979--or 36.21%--showed up at the polls to vote. Three races were razor thin, and underscore the importance of every vote that is cast.Dennis Zine beat his opponent, Judith Hirshberg, in their 3rd City Council race by 132 votes. In the 5th District, newcomer Jack Weiss bested former state Senator Tom Hayden by half of one percent of the vote. [Note: At this writing, both Hirshberg and Hayden have refused to concede, waiting to see if the provisional and mail-in ballots that weren’t counted on election night will change the outcome in their respective races. About 1,400 ballots remain uncounted in the 3rd District, and approximately 1,900 in the 5th District.] Former City Councilman Mike Woo fell to Eric Garcetti, also a first time candidate for office, by 3.78%. The results of this last race surprised some of the political handicappers, who bet that voters would transfer their dislike of his father, former DA Gil Garcetti, to the son.

In the Los Angeles Community College race, Nancy Pearlman, a substitute college instructor in the district, won her spot on the District Board of Trustees, by more than 25% over her opponent, Samuel “Joey” Hill, longtime chief of staff to state Senator Kevin Murray. Tuesday night’s victory was especially sweet to Pearlman, since she had run for this seat unsuccessfully three times before (1995, 1997, and 1999). Similarly, newcomer Marlene Canter ousted incumbent Valerie Field to win a seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, by a comfortable 9%--although she spent $2.7 million to do it, by far the largest amount of money ever spent on a local election.

If there was one common thread in the election, it was the electorate’s rejection of anyone who could be considered part of the existing system. The only exception was former state Senator Diane Watson’s win over Republican challenger Noel Irwin Hentschel for the 32nd Congressional District seat. In this heavily Democratic district, the only surprise in this race was that Watson won by “only” 74.8%.

In addition to the five City Council seats decided by this week’s election, two other seats will be filled later by special election: The 4th District, vacant since the death of John Ferraro, and the 2nd District, which will become vacant upon Joel Wach’s resignation, effective October 1. A total of seven out of 15 City Council seats, plus a new Mayor, City Attorney, and City Controller, promises to dramatically change the downtown political landscape--which could be transformed even further, should the San Fernando Valley’s efforts to secede from the City prove successful. The City’s future is literally on a precipice.

Mayor-elect Hahn told his supporters, after his victory was confirmed, that “Los Angeles is unlike any other city on earth; it is a city poised for greatness.” He also pledged to bring the city together and to focus more attention on bringing services to its citizens. Hahn's father, the legendary County Supervisor Ken Hahn, built his legacy on taking care of his constituents. It was said that his political philosophy was based on the premise that no need was too small--and there were no potholes to be found in his district.

The needs of Los Angeles are immense--including a severely tarnished Police Department, a dysfunctional public transportation system, traffic gridlock, an affordable housing crisis, an impacted airport, and a business environment that is more unfriendly than welcoming. Hahn will need the charisma of his father, the relentless drive of the outgoing Mayor, the inventiveness of Ben Franklin, and the courage of the Gladiator to bring this city to the level of greatness he envisions for it.

2. Senator Jack O’Connell (D – Santa Barbara) has announced his candidacy for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Incumbent Delaine Eastin is termed out of office in 2002--the same year that the term limit law forces Senator O’Connell out of his Senate seat. In addition to his 8 years in the Senate, O’Connell served in the state Assembly from 1982-1994.

Senator O’Connell has long been a champion of K-12 and higher education, spearheading the successful K-University Bond Act (Prop. 1A), passed by voters in 1998. He also served on the Education Committees in both Houses, and has chaired the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on Education since 1997. Prior to his political career, O’Connell taught high school. He is also a CSU alum, having earned his BA in history from CSU, Fullerton and his secondary teaching credential from CSU, Long Beach.

Education Beat reports that when O’Connell was asked why he wanted to run for such a low-profile office [Translation: No incumbent has ever leaped from it to the Governor’s Office], O’Connell responded, “Making public education the best it can be remains my top priority. With the energy crisis and the economic realities of today, it is imperative we don’t take our eye off the ball.”

3. Former Secretary of the Army, Louis Caldera, has been appointed CSU Vice Chancellor for University Advancement, overseeing fund-raising, alumni and public relations for the 23-campus California State University system. Caldera graduated from West Point in 1978 and served for five years in the army; he also spent a year at West Point as a minority admissions officer. He subsequently earned both his law degree and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University. After several years in private law practice, Caldera later served as Deputy County Counsel, representing Los Angeles County in state and federal court.

In 1992, Caldera was elected to the State Assembly, backed by a faction that included former Assembly Member Richard Polanco (now a state Senator) and former state Senator Art Torres. As a member of the state Legislature, Caldera was best known for legislation in the areas of child protection, gun control, and in education, where he supported increased parental involvement in the schools and innovative charter schools. Other successful bills he authored include a law limiting the number of new liquor stores in crime areas and areas with a high number of liquor licenses, and a law making it illegal for a child to ride a bicycle without wearing a helmet.

In 1997, former President Clinton appointed Caldera to head the Corporation for National and Community Service, the parent organization of Americorps, the most well-known of Clinton’s community service programs.

Caldera became Secretary of the Army in 1998, after nomination to that post by former President Clinton, and confirmation by the United States Senate.

Caldera will begin his position with the CSU on June 20, at an annual salary of $210,000.

4. A CNN newscast recently reported on the exodus of American students from one state to another, and from the U.S. to Canada.The state exporting the highest number of students is New Jersey, which experiences a net loss of 20,000 of its college-age students each year. Illinois is second with a net loss of about 9,000 students, and Maryland is third with its net export of 5,000 students.

The report also indicated that record numbers of Americans are applying to Canadian colleges, primarily to take advantage of the strong U.S. dollar and an exchange rate that insures “a high-quality education at one of Canada’s top universities at a fraction of what it would cost at home.” According to a survey conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Washington, enrollment of American students at 29 Canadian universities grew from 2,246 to 3,906, or by 74%, between 1997 - 2000.

5. President Bush has nominated Bruce Cole to serve as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Cole, a professor of fine arts at Indiana University at Bloomington, sat on the National Council on the Humanities, which sets policies for the Endowment, from 1992 - 1999. According to an account in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the nomination has received mixed notices. Jerry L. Martin, President of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a group which supports traditional research, described Cole as “arguably the most distinguished scholar who will ever have served as chair,” and as a scholar “at the top of his discipline.” Others, most notably lobbyists for the humanities, are reported by the Chronicle to be “worried that Cole might cut back support for multiculturalsim and women’s studies,” since these areas are outside of the traditional disciplines.

Still others are optimistic that Cole’s strong academic background and more mainstream beliefs will enable him to garner more funding support from Congress for the NEH. In the past, both the NEH and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) have been targeted by conservative lawmakers, who have attempted to reduce--and in the case of the NEA--eliminate all funding because of their objections to the kind of unconventional projects the agencies have supported.

Cole, if he is confirmed by the Senate, will replace William R. Ferris, who was appointed to the NEH by former President Clinton in 1997. Ferris was the founder of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, and served as the Center’s director for 18 years before assuming his post at the NEH. Ferris is best known for compiling the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, published in 1989, which became a best seller.

6. Up until May 31, there were three bills in the state Legislature seeking voter approval to sell General Obligation bonds for the purpose of repairing and constructing educational facilities in California’s public schools (K - University). All three were significantly amended on that date, and when the dust settled, only one of the bills--the Assembly Speaker’s--remained with the original intent intact. (See AB 16 below.) The other two bills were amended to delete all bond language, and to state instead legislative intent to support construction and repair of educational facilities. (See AB 1299 and SB 844 below.)

AB 1299 is potentially worrisome, however, because it calls for enacting a “funding distribution formula” to address the facilities needs of the three higher education systems. A measure introduced last year (SCR 83) by Senator Richard Polanco (D - Los Angeles) sought to replace the current practice of distributing the revenue equally between the UC, CSU and the Community Colleges systems with a new approach based on enrollment growth. Both the UC and the CSU vigorously opposed this measure because the distribution it proposed would have significantly reduced the amount of money going to the two systems for their respective capital outlay needs--which could not be recovered through local bond revenue initiatives, an option available to the community colleges.

Note: Bills must be in print for 30 days before they can be heard by a committee.

This Assembly Constitutional Amendment seeks to establish the California Twenty-First Century Infrastructure Investment Fund in the state Treasury, and to require a specified percentage of revenues be transferred from the General Fund to the Infrastructure Fund, beginning in the 2002-03 fiscal year.

The measure would require the Department of Finance to prepare an annual plan to expend these funds, unless the Governor directs another state agency to carry out this responsibility. The measure would also declare that the Infrastructure Fund and its related provisions would become operative only when the Legislature enacts a statute to allocate the revenues in the fund.

The measure would require that monies deposited into the Infrastructure Fund, upon appropriation, be allocated as follows: 50% for transportation projects, 25% for education projects, 12.5% for parks projects or projects preserving or restoring natural resources, and 12.5% for water projects.

Introduced: June 5, 2001 [Note: AB 1020 (Leach - R, Walnut Creek) is nearly identical to Assembly Member Richman's measure; the essential difference is that his measure, if enacted, would place the funding plan into the state Constitution rather than into statute. The latter route would make the plan more vulnerable to future legislative tinkering.]

This bill seeks to enact a K-University Facilities Bond Act of 2002, to become operative only if approved by the voters at the March 5, 2002 direct primary election. As amended on May 31, the bill specifies the amount of General Obligation bonds to be sold: $10 million. [12/8/00 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [21 - 0] by the Assembly Appropriations Committee on May 5; PASSED [66 - 1] with an Urgency Clause by the full Assembly, June 5, and forwarded to the Senate on the same date.

AB 195 (Alquist) Student Fees

This bill would place in state statute policies regarding undergraduate student fees at public higher education institutions. The bill is sponsored by the California Postsecondary Education Commission, and is designed to reaffirm California’s commitment to maintaining affordable access to higher education by providing reasonable limits on the fees that students and their families can expect to pay.

As originally introduced, the bill sought to tie fee increases to the percentage change in the California per capita personal income. As amended on May 31, the bill now specifies that increases in student fees “should be moderate and predictable so that students and their families can prepare for the costs of college attendance.” [2/16/01, 5/11/01 Legislative Updates]

Status: PASSED [14 - 6] by the Assembly Appropriations Committee, May 31; PASSED [75 - 0] by the full Assembly, June 5, and sent forward to the Senate on the same date.

AB 521 (Koretz) Student Credit Cards

As currently written, this bill defines student credit cards, and requests the UC, CSU, the California Community Colleges, and the private and independent colleges and universities in the state to adopt policies to regulate the marketing practices used on campuses by credit card companies. [3/2/01, 4/27/01 Legislative Updates]

Status: PASSED [13 - 7] by the Assembly Appropriations Committee, May 23; PASSED [46 - 21] by the full Assembly, May 31, and sent forward to the Senate on the same date.

AB 1081 (Nation) CSU Part-Time Faculty Benefits

This bill, which is sponsored by the California Faculty Association (CFA), would allow temporary CSU faculty who work two consecutive semesters or three consecutive quarters at 40% of full time or more to be members of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), if so provided in a collective bargaining agreement. [3/29/01 Legislative Update]

[Note: Existing law provides that these employees must work at least half-time to be eligible for membership in CalPERS. CFA believes the 40% threshold more accurately reflects “half-time” teaching responsibilities for CSU lecturers, when compared to full-time faculty. The 50% load criterion is based on a full-time load that includes non-classroom responsibilities such as campus committee and/or department responsibilities, responsibilities that lecturers generally do not participate in or are compensated for.

The CSU opposes this bill because it signals to CSU bargaining organizations that the benefit it would provide is endorsed by the Legislature, and thus is an entitlement at the bargaining table.]

Status: PASSED [14 - 7] by the Assembly Appropriations Committee, May 31; PASSED [57- 20] by the full Assembly, June 4, and sent forward to the Senate on the same date. [Note: The vote in both cases was cast along partisan lines, with Democrats in support of the bill and Republicans opposed.]

AB 1299 (Leonard) K - University: Facilities Bond Act

As initially introduced, this bill sought to enact a $10 billion Bond Act, the funds from which would be used to construct new, or renovate existing, facilities or acquire sites. The Act would be placed before voters on the March 5, 2002 statewide primary ballot. The $10 billion would be divided as follows: $6 billion for K-12 and $4 billion for Higher Education. As amended on May 31, the bill now simply states legislative intent to continue to provide funding for construction and modernization of K-12 schools, and to address higher education’s facility needs by enacting a funding distribution formula that adequately addresses the needs of each system (i.e., the UC, CSU, and the California Community Colleges). [3/29/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [21 - 0] by the Assembly Appropriations Committee, May 31; PASSED [71 - 0] by the full Assembly, June 5, and sent forward to the Senate on the same date.

AB 1342 (Alquist) UC, CSU: Professional Services Certificate Program for Teachers

As initially written, this bill sought to require the University of California and the California State University to develop a Professional Services Certificate Program to produce specially trained teachers to serve as mentors, supervisors and support providers to novice professionals, especially at low-performing schools.

As amended on May 1 and May 31, the bill seeks instead to authorize the CSU and the UC to develop a precandidacy program to prepare eligible candidates for National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certification in no more than 10 campuses. The 10 campuses would be selected by the Chancellor of the CSU, in consultation with the President of the UC. The bill additionally specifies that its provisions would be implemented only during those fiscal years for which funding is provided in the annual Budget Act. [3/29/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [21 - 0] by the Assembly Appropriations Committee, May 31; PASSED [73 - 0] by the full Assembly, June 5, and sent forward to the Senate on the same date.

AB 1611 (Keeley) UC, CSU, CCC: Affordable Housing Program

This bill seeks to authorize the California Educational Facilities Authority (CEFA) to enter into agreements with nonprofit entities to finance the cost of constructing student and faculty housing near the campuses of the UC, the CSU, or the California Community Colleges. [3/29/01, 5/11/01 Legislative Updates]

Status: PASSED [14 - 6] by the Assembly Appropriations Committee, May 30; PASSED [54 - 2] by the full Assembly, June 6, and sent forward to the Senate on the same date. [Note: In both cases, the votes were cast along partisan lines, with Democrats in support of the bill, and Republicans opposed.]

SB 434 (Monteith) Distance Learning

The bill would create the Remote Access Distance Learning Incentive Grant Program, the purpose of which is to expand existing, and create new distance learning opportunities that are the product of collaborative activities among school districts, community colleges and 4-year postsecondary educational institutions.

The bill would require the program to be administered by the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC), require that the agency contract for an independent evaluation of the program, and submit a report on it to the Legislature by January 1, 2006.

The bill initially contained an appropriation of $10 million to implement the program, which was later reduced to $5 million, and then removed altogether in a June 4 amendment.

The bill also includes a sunset date of January 1, 2007, by which the program would be repealed. [3/2/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [13 - 0] by the Senate Appropriations Committee, May 31; PASSED [40 - 0] by the full Senate, June 6, and sent forward to the Assembly on the same date.

SB 554 (Vasconcellos) Service Learning/Student Academic Partnership Program

This bill seeks to establish a Statewide Service Learning Center to coordinate and develop service learning centers on the campuses of individual public and private colleges and universities. The bill would require the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) to be responsible for selecting and monitoring an entity to administer the center, and to develop a master plan for service learning. The bill includes an appropriation of $250,000 from the state General Fund to CPEC to accomplish these purposes. [3/2/01, 5/11/01 Legislative Updates]

Status: PASSED [9 - 0] by the Senate Appropriations Committee, May 31; PASSED [29 - 5] by the full Senate, June 4, and sent forward to the Assembly on the same date.

SB 593 (Alarcon) CSUN: Land Exchange TRUSTEE BILL

This bill authorizes the CSU Board of Trustees to exchange a parcel of land known as Zelzah Court” on the campus of California State University, Northridge, for the Prairie Street School site, adjacent to the campus, which is owned by the Los Angeles Unified School District. [3/2/01, 4/27/01, 5/11/01 Legislative Updates]

Status: PASSED [13 - 0] by the Senate Appropriations Committee, May 31; PASSED [40 - 0], with an Urgency Clause, by the full Senate on June 6, and sent forward to the Assembly on the same date. The bill is expected to be heard in the Assembly Higher Education Committee on July 3.

SB 844 (Chesbro) Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2002

As initially introduced, this bill sought to enact a K - University Facilities Bond Act, for an unspecified amount, on the March 5, 2002 statewide Primary ballot. The funds from the sale of the General Obligation bonds authorized by this bill would be used to construct new, or renovate existing, facilities or acquire sites.

As amended on May 31, this bill now simply states the intent of the Legislature to provide bond funds for public education facilities. [3/29/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [9 - 1] by the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 31. [Note: The sole nay vote was cast by Senator Maurice Johannessen - R, Redding.] PASSED [23 - 3] by the full Senate on June 6, and sent forward to the Assembly on the same date. [Note: The three dissenting votes were cast by Senators Tom McClintock - R, Northridge, Bill Morrow - R, Oceanside, and Rico Oller - R, Chico.]

CAPITOL NEWS

Irrespective of his reasons for leaving the Republican Party, the fact of it will have enormous impact on the Bush Administration’s initiatives and on how Congress will function.Although the Senate was divided 50/50 between the two parties, the Republicans actually controlled the upper house, since Vice President Dick Cheney, who can only vote in cases of a tie, held the determining vote.

With Jeffords’ departure, the count is now 49 Republicans, 50 Democrats and 1 Independent--which transfers power to the Democrats.They will appoint the new Committee Chairs, and control the legislative agenda, shaping and moving issues.Democrats will also have a stronger voice in another vital function of the Senate:the nomination and confirmation process of federal judges, including Supreme Court Justices.

There is dissension in the Republican Party over how the “Jeffords’ situation” was handled.Moderates, who have complained increasingly of being marginalized by their own party, expressed concern that the Bush Administration did not try hard enough to keep Jeffords on board, and that it placed more emphasis on vengeance than on collegial relations.Conservatives argued that Jeffords needed to be held in line.The New York Times quoted an unidentified Republican strategist who said that, “from Day One, the Administration’s philosophy was, ‘If you’re a Republican in a 50-50 Senate, there must be absolute party loyalty.’”

In light of Jeffords’ defection, Republicans may be forced to reconsider the hard line approach.Two other members of their ranks, Senators John McCain from Arizona and Lincoln Chafee from Rhode Island, have also chafed over being ignored by their party.

Some Republicans, rather than play the blame game--and loathe to lose control of the Senate, took a different tack: They began earnest efforts to persuade the maverick Senator from Georgia, Zell Miller, to change his party affiliation.Miller, a conservative Democrat, has been critical of his party and has been voting with the Republicans on key issues--including the Bush tax proposal--much to the consternation of the Democratic leadership.The New York Times quoted an observation from Senator Kent Conrad (D – North Dakota) that,“The White House has gone into overdrive trying to get Senator Miller to switch.I’m sure they are prepared to name an aircraft carrier after him if that will help.”Miller, however, reaffirmed his loyalty to the Democratic Party, but the pressure to switch will not likely abate any time soon.

Meanwhile, Republicans have another worry:Senator Jesse Helms (R - North Carolina), who is 79 and ailing, has not confirmed he will run for re-election in 2002.Senator Strom Thurmond(R - South Carolina), 98, is also in frail health.

What does Jeffords’ switch mean for California and for public higher education?In both cases, it’s gaining an ear on issues.Senator Dianne Feinstein, for example, has been unable to arrange a meeting with President Bush to discuss the energy crisis.With the Democrats controlling the Senate, and the President’s need to win Democratic support for his programs, he is more likely now to meet with Feinstein, and to take what some state leaders have characterized as a “cavalier” attitude toward California.

In the area of public higher education, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported the consensus of major associations, such as the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the American College of Education (ACE), that “the Democrats will give greater visibility and recognition to the proposals of the Student Aid Alliance, a coalition of college and student groups that lobby on behalf of the federal financial-aid programs.”Of particular concern to the associations has been the modest increases (or none) proposed by the Bush Administration for such important programs as College Work-Study, the Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant Program, and, in particular, for Pell Grants.

The associations also believe that the Democrats will be more supportive of scientific research--particularly the National Science Foundation.Although the Bush budget plan proposed a 1% increase for NSF, the agency’s research budget was reduced by $16 million.As quoted in the Chronicle, MIT President Charles M. Vest said that, “Modern life science cannot flourish without computer science, material science, and chemistry.”All three areas are heavily supported by NSF grants.

Finally, how did the State of Vermont react to Jeffords’ announcement?The tiny state with a population of about 600,000, has long been known for its independent and iconoclastic ways.The Los Angeles Times iterated a list of“firsts” of which the state is especially proud (in addition to being the first state admitted to the union):“First state to outlaw slavery. First state to grant the right to vote to all men, not just landowners.First state to offer troops in the Civil War.First state to commit to higher education for women.First state to launch Head Start, a program designed to prepare disadvantaged children for elementary school.First state--just last year--to extend the rights and responsibilities of marriage to same-sex couples.”

University of Vermont political science professor, Frank Bryan, characterized the state thusly:“We’ve got 10 months of winter and two months of black flies….We are a democratic state with a small ‘d.’We’re small, we’re quirky and we don’t give a damn what people think.”

With each party now controlling a house of Congress, that venerable institution can also be effectively described as a democratic body with a small “d.”

2. The California Secretary of State has released the most recent voter registration numbers, based on the February 10th closing date.According to the report, 72% of those eligible to vote in the state are registered (15.6 million out of a total 21.6 million)--an increase of about 2%.The distribution among parties reflects a continuing decrease in major party registration of about 1% annually since 1991.“Other” party registration declined overall by about one percent, reversing a trend of increased registration over the past decade.The most significant change is in the “Decline to State” category, which has grown to 14.4% from 9% ten years ago.

Political Party	Registered Voters	Percent
Democratic	7,099,243	45.57%
Republican	5,414,933	34.76%
Amer. Independent	347,382	2.04%
Green	141,637	.91%
Libertarian	93,360	.60%
Natural Law	54,013	.35%
Reform	74,050	.48%
Miscellaneous	134,527	.80%
Decline to State	2,248,541	14.43%

3. The “May Revise” Budget, issued by the Governor on May 14, reflected damage inflicted by the energy crisis and falling tax revenue.Compared to the Budget he presented last January, the May Revise shows cuts and shifts totaling $5.7 billion.The Governor cited reduced revenues of some $4.2 billion below forecasts and increased social services spending of about $1.5 billion over earlier predictions as major contributors to the downturn in the state’s fiscal condition.Some of the budget cuts were particularly painful to the Governor.Among the items deleted were his $27 million “Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday,” which would have eliminated the state sales tax on clothes, school supplies and computers purchased by families over a 3-day period during the last weekend in August; and $300 million that had been promised to local governments.

The Governor also: Postponed for two years a program that would have diverted all state gasoline tax revenues to transportation projects; imposed a 2.5% reduction on most state agencies; and cut the Clean Beaches Initiative to $10 million from $100 million.Overall, the revised $102.9 billion budget takes $1.4 billion from reserves, eliminates $1.3 billion in one-time spending proposals, and relies on the sale of some $7 billion in revenue bonds to repay the state for its electricity purchases over the past several months.

The CSU system suffered the loss of several of its one-time spending requests:

From the CSU’s Partnership Agreement with the Governor and Legislature, $20 million in one-time funds for critical instructional equipment were eliminated, as well as a $1 million augmentation each for biotechnology research and for the Diagnostic Writing Service (an intersegmental budget proposal, endorsed by the Education Round Table, which helps students to strengthen those skills necessary to succeed in the workforce and/or enroll in college-level work).

Major items reduced in the system’s budget include a 50% drop in employee compensation (from 4% to 2%), and a loss of $3.401 million from a proposed $5 million for technology (“Funding for Technology – Increased Network Capacity.”)

The most devastating loss to CSUN is the $20 million deletion in one-time funds for critical instructional equipment, since $4.1 million of that sum was earmarked to help equip two new buildings, constructed with FEMA funds to replace facilities destroyed in the Northridge Earthquake.Federal Earthquake Recovery funds are not available for instructional equipment.

Not all of the news was bleak.Funding for enrollment growth (3%) was maintained at the level proposed in January, as was funding for mandatory costs (benefits, new space, property insurance, annuitants’ dental benefits). Also left untouched was the $10 million for technology infrastructure buildout equipment.

An important augmentation to the CSU budget is $34.1 million to address increases in natural gas costs, including $18.6 million in one-time funds to address current year costs.

In prior years, the May Revise served as the blueprint for budget decisions made by the respective Budget Committees in each house of the Legislature.This year, the May Revise may be nothing more than figures on a yellowing newspaper.The energy crisis shows no signs of abating, and revenues continue to drop as the economy falters.The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst, Elizabeth Hill, has already cautioned that additional budget cuts of at least $4 billion need to be made to the budget in order to avoid a major deficit situation next year.

4. Standard & Poor downgraded the California State University System this week.CSU’s housing bonds were downgraded from AA- to A+, while the parking bonds, student-union bonds, and headquarters-facility bonds were downgraded from A+ to A.Outstanding bonds total $542 million.California’s General Obligation bond rating was reduced from AA to A+.The reasons cited for the downgrades, as quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, are not surprising:“[They are] due to the mounting and uncertain cost to the state of the current electrical crisis, as well as its likely long-term detrimental effect on the state’s economy.”

Standard & Poor’s last action relative to the CSU system’s bond rating occurred in September 2000, when it was upgraded--due to the “increasing credit strength of the state.”How quickly things change.

5. The California Republican Delegation made a change in leadership last week.Rep. David Dreier (San Dimas) was elected to replace Rep. Jerry Lewis (Redlands), who resigned after five years in the position.Lewis has been credited with pushing the state’s delegation to work in a bipartisan manner, including:Preparing letters with one voice on such critical issues as the FEMA-proposed rule requiring states to self-insure against natural disasters, conducting joint meetings, and hosting events.

6. Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D - Van Nuys) has established a Special Committee on Power Outage Preparedness. Members include Assembly Members Fred Keeley (D - Santa Cruz), Mike Briggs (R - Clovis), Dean Florez (D - Bakersfield), Jackie Goldberg (D - Los Angeles), Bill Leonard (R – San Bernardino), Anthony Pescetti (R - Rancho Cordova), Sarah Reyes (D - Fresno), and Patricia Wiggins (D - Santa Rosa).Hertzberg will personally chair the committee.

7. Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill has asked the Legislature to think outside the box on the issue of K-12 school construction.In a report issued by her office on May 1, “A New Blueprint for California School Facility Finance,” Hill recommended that the state develop a financing plan that is more predictable than the current one which relies on voter-approved bonds every two or three years.She also recommended that the Legislature “change its focus from funding specific school projects to funding the long-term cost of providing school facilities for children,” and proposed a model program based on a “pay-as-you-go” philosophy, in order to save (and better utilize) the money that currently goes to interest payments on bond measures.

The full report can be accessed at the Legislative Analyst’s Office website, at the following address:

Note: Bills must be in print for 30 days before they can be heard by a committee.

This Assembly Concurrent Resolution urges the CSU Board of Trustees to study its faculty hiring practices over the past decade in order to make improvements in those practices.It urges the Trustees, along with the Academic Senate of the CSU and the California Faculty Association, to jointly develop a plan to raise the percentage of new faculty hires who are tenured or tenure-track, among other prescribed objectives.

As initially introduced, this bill sought to require that an illegal alien who has attended high school in the state for 3 or more years, graduated from a California high school, and who continues his/her education at a California institution of higher education within one year of graduating from high school--on or before January 1, 2002--shall be exempted from paying nonresident tuition at the California Community Colleges and the CSU.The bill asked the University of California to provide the same exemption.

As amended on May 1, the bill now expresses instead various findings and declarations, and legislative intent with respect to the impact of student aid residency requirements and nonresident tuition payment requirements on undocumented students. [3/2/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [52 – 15] by the Assembly on May 24 and forwarded to the Senate on the same date.

In 1996, the Legislature approved AB 2613, which allowed all CSU campuses to pay vendors directly (rather than through the state Controller) until January 1, 2002.Audits of the Direct Vendor Pay Program by the state Controller’s Office and by the Bureau of State Audits indicate that the process has been successful in processing timely and efficient payments, with no peril to the system of checks and balances.

CSU is thus seeking permanent authority to pay its vendors directly. [03/16/01 Legislative Update]

Status: This bill was passed unanimously by the three Assembly policy committees to which it was referred in mid-April; on May 24, it was passed unanimously by the full Assembly and sent forward to the Senate.

This omnibus bill contains several provisions pertaining to the CSU, all relatively minor, technical items not significant enough for each to merit a separate bill.

(1) Clarification of the CSU’s procurement and contracting authority by providing a central location for procurement policies applicable only to the CSU (identical to what exists in the statutes for the UC system).

Current law allows the Trustees to approve minor capitol outlay projects without legislative approval, if the project doesn’t exceed $250,000.When the Department of Finance raises the limit that applies to other state agency projects, which are governed by another statute, the CSU has to go to the state Legislature to seek a similar increase.

AB 1719 has been amended to delete the limit altogether, and provide instead that whenever the DOF raises the limit for the other state agency projects, the CSU’s limit will automatically rise by the same amount.

(2) An amendment to the CSU Contract Law in the Public Contract Code to reflect the recent change in statute for the minor capital outlay limit (now $400,000); and

(3) Repeal of an outdated reference to the “State Nautical School,” now the California Maritime Academy. [3/16/01, 4/27/01 Legislative Updates]

Status: PASSED [75 - 0] by the Assembly on May 17 and forwarded to the Senate on the same date.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to provide students in postsecondary educational institutions with protection of their personal information.

The bill would prohibit each public, private, vocational, professional, or postsecondary educational institution in the state from disclosing to anyone not employed by these respective institutions, any directory information concerning current or former students without disclosing to them the purposes for which the information will be used.

Further, the bill would require the students’ written permission before any of their information can be disclosed.

For the purposes of this bill, “directory information” is defined as “the student’s name (or former name), address, telephone number, date and place of birth, major field of study, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, weight and height of members of athletic teams, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received, and the most recent previous public or private school attended.” [12/8/00 Legislative Update]

[Note: Current law authorizes--with permission of the student--the release of the following information: name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, major, dates of attendance, degrees and awards, work in progress and work completed, and prior institutions attended.All other information on the student is considered private and may not be disclosed.]

As amended on April 25, the bill would prohibit disclosure of information on current, but not former students. The bill also now specifies that the disclosure prohibition does not apply to a request for directory information submitted by a current student (as opposed to the above named entities).

As amended on May 22, the bill would also exempt from the disclosure prohibition a vendor acting on behalf of, or under contract with, a postsecondary educational institution, that is performing mailing services for that institution.

SB 323 (O’Connell) CSU, Channel Islands - Real Property Exchange TRUSTEEBILL

This bill would authorize the CSU to acquire approximately 75 acres of privately owned farmland adjacent to the main campus at CSU, Channel Islands, in order to develop a primary access road and athletic fields, in exchange for a portion of a 262-acre site, located eight miles northwest of the main campus.

As amended on May 14, the bill additionally provides that (1) any funds received be encumbered by January 1, 2007; (2) any expenditure of funds, which were received by the CSU as the result of this bill, be consistent with the Channel Islands master plan; and (3) through the exchange of land authorized by this bill, the CSU shall acquire land sufficient to meet the goals of the Channel Islands master plan, but shall not acquire more than 75 acres. [3/16/01, 4/27/01, 5/11/01 Legislative Updates]

[Note: The larger 262-acre parcel, was acquired by the CSU in 1995 for the Channel Island campus before the grounds of the Camarillo State Hospital, the current site, became available.]

Status: PASSED [39 - 0] by the Senate on May 21.An Urgency clause was added before the bill was sent forward to the Assembly.

[Note: CSUN’s property exchange bill, SB 593, is still on Suspense in the Senate Appropriations Committee, but it is scheduled to come off next Thursday (May 31), and proceed to the Senate Floor shortly thereafter.]

As amended on May 16, this bill would make findings and declarations concerning the urgent need for forensic scientists with the rigorous scientific backgrounds and the practical laboratory experiences necessary to perform DNA analysis. The bill would provide that the Department of Justice, the CSU, and the UC, shall work together to enhance collaborative opportunities for DNA training of university students, graduates, and existing employees of crime laboratories.

The bill would also provide that through its California Criminalistics Institute, the Department of Justice would develop and create an internship program for graduate-level students designed to prepare students to meet national standards for DNA analysis, as specified.

Status: PASSED [12 - 0] by the Senate Education Committee on May 16, and forwarded to the Senate Appropriations Committee on the same date.

1. The concentration of high tech companies in Silicon Valley helps California retain it’s number one spot in the country for this industry. Other states, however, are nipping at California’s heels. This week’s StateNet Capitol Journal notes that large metropolitan cities in other states are capitalizing on "the information technology and Internet revolution by harnessing high concentrations of college-education professionals and collaboration between local universities and New Economy entrepreneurs." The top ten metropolitan areas "whose economic well-being is most closely connected to the digital economy" is as follows:

William Hauck, 60, President of the California Business Roundtable and member of the Board of Directors for the Bob Moretti Memorial Scholarship Fund, is the reappointment. Hauck has had an interesting political career. He served as deputy chief of staff to former GOP Governor Pete Wilson, but earlier in his career, was chief of staff to former Assembly Speakers Bob Moretti and Willie Brown, both Democrats.

Hauck also served as Chair of the two-year California Constitution Revision Commission, appointed to the position by former Governor Wilson.

Most significant of all: Hauck is a CSU alum, having graduated from San Jose State University in 1963 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in social science.

Hauck has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 1993, and served as Chairman for two years (1998 - 2000).

The new appointee to the CSU Board of Trustees is Sacramento land development attorney Kyriakos Tsakopoulos.

Tsakopoulos, 31, is the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of AKT Development Corporation, a position he has held since 1997. He serves on several Boards of Directors, including the Democratic Leadership Council, the Crocker Art Museum, the Sisters of Mercy Hospital Foundation, the California Wildlife Foundation, and the Western Policy Center.

Tsakopoulos earned a BA from Columbia University and his juris doctorate degree from McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific.

3. The departure of former FEMA Director James Lee Witt did not result in the withdrawal of the Agency’s proposed rule requiring public entities to insure public buildings against natural disasters--as many had hoped. Unfortunately, as reported in this week’s Capitol Hill Bulletin, the Bush Administration resurrected the potential of the rule again in the budget proposal it submitted to Congress.

California lawmakers--city, county, state, and federal--have been vigilant and relentless in opposing the proposed rule in the past, arguing that insurance companies would not likely offer the insurance--and if they did, it would be at exorbitant cost. Resurrection of the rule has reactivated the California Congressional Delegation: Reps. Jerry Lewis (R - Redlands) and Sam Farr (D - Monterey), the Majority and Minority leaders of the Delegation, are circulating a letter opposing the latest effort to establish the rule. Forty-nine of the state’s 52 members have signed the letter.

As with the earlier letters, this one again urges the Chair of the VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee to prevent FEMA from promulgating the rule until such time as the Agency "provides Congress with an acceptable, comprehensive insurance study." As reported in Capitol Hill Bulletin, the letter specifically asks the Subcommittee Chair, James Walsh (R - NY), to raise his concerns with the new FEMA Director, Joseph Allbaugh, when the latter testifies before the Subcommittee. The letter also urges directing funds to a variety of mitigation efforts which have "proven to be a judicious use of public dollars in the wake of the Seattle earthquake."

4. Mayoral Debate to be held at CSUN. Enclosed with this Legislative Update is information relating to the upcoming debate between Antonio Villaraigosa and James Hahn, who will face each other in the June 5 run-off election. Mark your calendars and plan to arrive early. Of the 5 debates the two men have agreed to participate in, only one is located in the San Fernando Valley. Organized by the CSUN Associated Students, in partnership with the Northeast San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce and the North San Fernando Valley Community Foundation, the debate is generating a great deal of local, national and even international interest.

Status: PASSED [9 - 0] by the Assembly Higher Education Committee on April 17, and referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, where it will be heard on May 16.

[NOTE: While CSU has not formally adopted an "oppose" position to this bill, it has expressed concerns to the author on the importance of addressing student fee policies in tandem with the issue of long-term funding for public higher education. In its current form , the bill does not link these two critical issues.]

This bill would establish the Public Education Facilities Renewable Energy Generation Grant Program, the purpose of which would be to provide incentives to public higher educational institutions to generate their own electrical power systems to cover their energy demands.

As amended on April 16, the Program would be administered by the UC, the CSU, and the California Community Colleges system, rather than the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission.

As amended on April 23, the Program was changed to one which would provide loans, rather than grants to these institutions "to purchase, install, and operate eligible electricity generating systems." [3/2/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [11 - 0] by the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, April 16; PASSED [17 - 0] by the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee; the bill was placed on Suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee on May 9.

As amended on April 16, this bill would enact the CSU Housing Finance Pilot Program, which would be administered by the California Housing Finance Agency to provide home loan assistance for the CSU system to recruit and retain newly hired professors and faculty at CSU campuses.

Status: Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development, where it will stay until next January. Given the potentially hefty cost associated with implementing this bill, the author has indicated he will not pursue it further this year, thereby making it a two-year bill.

As initially introduced, this bill would establish the Trade Internship Pilot Program as a 2-year program. It would require applicants for participation in the program to be a student in good standing, enrolled at a CSU campus, be majoring in international trade, economics, business, or administration, and be able to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English.

As amended on April 23 and April 30, the bill would establish the Trade Fellowship Pilot Program, to be administered by the Center for California Studies at CSU, Sacramento, and would require funding to be provided by private sponsors. Applicants must be a student in good standing, enrolled at, or a faculty member at, a campus of the California Community Colleges, the CSU, or the UC, who is enrolled in, or teaches, a course or courses related to business, business administration, economics, international relations, or international trade, and is able to demonstrate fluency in a language other than English.
[3/29/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [11 - 0] by the Assembly Higher Education Committee, April 17; PASSED [12 - 0] by the Assembly Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy Committee, April 24; the bill is currently in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

As initially introduced, this bill sought to establish the Affordable Student Housing Program under the administration of the Department of Housing and Community Development.

The bill would create the Affordable Student Housing Fund, and would charge the department with the responsibility of allocating monies deposited in it to finance the construction of student housing near the campuses of the CSU and the UC.

The bill would authorize the department to issue revenue bonds in an amount sufficient to produce $250 million in revenue, and it would further authorize the department to make 55-year forgivable loans to these entities.

As amended on April 16, the program was expanded to include affordable housing for faculty (thus dropping the word ‟student” from the title of the program), and to include the California Community Colleges as a participant. [3/29/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [6 - 2] by the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee, April 25, and referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee on the same date.

SB 323 (O’Connell) CSU, Channel Islands - Real Property Exchange TRUSTEE BILL

[Note: The larger 262-acre parcel, was acquired by the CSU in 1995 for the Channel Island campus before the grounds of the Camarillo State Hospital, the current site, became available.]

Status: PASSED [10 - 0] by the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 7. However, the bill was significantly amended again two days earlier to provide that (1) any funds received be encumbered by January 1, 2007; (2) any expenditure of funds, which were received by the CSU as the result of this bill, be consistent with the Channel Islands master plan; and (3) through the exchange of land authorized by this bill, the CSU shall acquire land sufficient to meet the goals of the Channel Islands master plan, but shall not acquire more than 75 acres.

[Note: The amendments made to the bill by the Senate Education Committee remain. To recap, they include: (1) elimination of specific references to the number of acres being exchanged and acquired, (2) sanction of the exchange only so long as the total compensation for the Trustees’ land is no less than the appraisal of the fair market value of the land being conveyed to the Trustees in the exchange, and (3) a specification that any funds received from the transaction be applied to the retirement of General Obligation bond debt or for construction and capital development of the property.]

As initially introduced, this bill sought to require the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) to conduct a study to determine the ways in which the UC, the CSU, and the California Community Colleges can improve admissions and outreach.

The bill would have required the study to focus in particular on ways to improve transfer rates of low-income students from community colleges to the CSU and the UC, and on ways to improve admission of low-income students.

As amended on April 18 and May 3, the bill now requires CPEC to conduct instead a study on the socioeconomic status and geographic origin of, and the secondary schools attended by, the college and university students of this state, and to provide recommendations for the improvement of the secondary school preparation and admission rate of underrepresented groups of students, including, but not necessarily limited to, low-income students, seeking admission to the UC, the CSU, the California Community Colleges, and the Independent California Colleges and Universities. [3/2/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [10 - 1] by the Senate Education Committee on April 25, and sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee on the same date.

As initially introduced, this bill sought to resurrect two bills, each introduced numerous times unsuccessfully, by former Senator Tom Hayden.

The first subject relates to establishing a statewide Service Learning Center for administering a grants program to establish service learning centers on the campuses of individual public and private colleges and universities.

The second subject relates to expanding the Student Academic Partnership Program which provides tutoring services to pupils in grades 7 to 12. (The program currently provides services to grades 1 to 6.)

As amended on May 2, the bill now establishes a Statewide Service Learning Center to coordinate and develop service learning centers on the campuses. All references to a grant program have been deleted. The bill does include an appropriation of $250,000 from the state General Fund to the California Postsecondary Education Commission to develop a Master Plan for Service Learning, and to create the aforementioned Center. [3/2/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [11 - 0] by the Senate Education Committee on May 25, and referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee on the same date.

This bill authorizes the CSU Board of Trustees to exchange a parcel of land known as "Zelzah Court" on the campus of California State University, Northridge, for the Prairie Street School site, adjacent to the campus, which is owned by the Los Angeles Unified School District. [3/2/01, 4/27/01 Legislative Updates]

[Note: Bills with a cost factor exceeding $500,000 are routinely placed on Suspense, pending release of the "May Revise," the updated estimate of revenues and expenditures that replaces the estimates contained in the Governor’s Budget submitted in January.

With this information in hand, legislators have a clearer picture of how much money will be available to apply to new and existing programs. Although the state began the year with an estimated $8 billion surplus, most, if not all of this money, has been expended addressing the energy crisis. The situation is exacerbated by the current legislative deadlock on approving $13.4 billion in revenue bonds, which would pay for the state’s emergency power purchases and restore California’s sinking credit rating.

SB 593 does not have a cost factor, since the bill provides for a simple exchange of property. Unfortunately, SB 593 became entangled in a dispute involving another similar, but unrelated bill, which raised concerns from the Department of Finance relating to the value of state land. Until these questions are resolved, the bill will remain on Suspense.]

As amended on May 8, the measure now memorializes Congress to allow a state "greater flexibility to use daylight saving time or other useful time configurations to combat the current energy crisis facing western states." [2/2/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [7 - 1] by the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, April 17; PASSED [30 - 1] by the full Senate on April 19, and sent forward to the Assembly on that date. The bill was referred to the Assembly Committee on Energy Costs and Availability, where the above amendment was made.

[Note: Representative Brad Sherman (D - Woodland Hills) has introduced a bill in Congress (HR 704), which would allow California and other Pacific states the option of switching to daylight-saving time year-round.]

1. Correction. Former City Council Member--and sharp-eyed reader-- Joy Picus, noted that in the last issue of Legislative Update, I had confused the 32nd Congressional district race with the local city election--the former being a partisan contest and the latter non-partisan. Because Los Angeles City elections are non-partisan, the winning top two candidates must face each other in a run-off election, if no candidate receives greater than 50% of the vote. In partisan races, it's the top vote recipient of each party.

My mind was out-to-lunch when I announced that the run-off in the 32nd Congressional District would be between former state Senator Diane Watson and current state Senator Kevin Murray, the two top vote recipients--but who are both from the same party. What I should have reported was the top vote recipients from each party who would face each other on June 5 (the same day for run-off elections for both the Congressional and local city races). Those candidates and their parties are as follows:

3. Names of prospective candidates are beginning to surface for the 4th District City Council seat held by John Ferraro, who died last week. The front runners include former Democratic state Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti; Mary Nichols, state Secretary of Resources; outgoing Los Angeles Community College Trustee, Beth Garfield (wife of former state Assembly Member Wally Knox--who was said to be interested in Ferraro's seat after the incumbent was termed out); Mayor Riordan's former Chief of Staff, Robin Kramer; current Deputy Mayor, Kelly Martin; former deputy to Ferraro and Mayor Riordan, Tom LaBonge; and current aide to Ferraro, Susan Yackley.

Ferraro would have been termed out in 2003. The City Council can fill his vacant seat by appointment or by calling a special election.

The 4th District includes parts of North Hollywood, the Los Feliz and Silver Lake areas, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Hancock Park, and Park La Brea. According to the 2000 Census, the District's population is 46% white, 26% Hispanic, 18% Asian, and 6% African-American.

4. Reps. Jerry Lewis (R - Redlands) and Mike Thompson (D - Napa) have announced their intention to introduce a new bill, the "Earthquake Loss Reduction Act of 2001," which will mirror one introduced recently by Senator Dianne Feinstein (S. 424) in the U. S. Senate.

The legislation seeks to reduce the damage caused by earthquakes by providing incentives to homeowners, businesses, and public sector organizations to retrofit their properties. As described in this week's Capitol Hill Bulletin, examples of some of these incentives include allowing homeowners a 50% tax credit for seismic retrofit expenses, and permitting businesses to depreciate these expenses over a five year period. For the public sector organizations, the bill would authorize a $1 billion Loss Reduction Trust fund, to provide matching grants to local governments, public and private hospitals, and institutions of higher education.

5. Growth at the ballot box. A recent study on ballot initiatives relating to growth and quality of life, shows a significant increase in the interest of the electorate in these issues.

Researchers at the Brookings Institution, which conducted the study, found that 38 states had 553 state and local ballot measures related to growth. California, with 78 measures on the November 2000 ballot, had the most. Other findings:

"1. Approximately 72.2% passed, although not every 'yes' vote indicates that citizens supported smart growth ideas and policies;
2. The measures deal with different, but inextricably related, aspects of the growth debate such as open space preservation, transportation investments, economic development and growth management;
3. Measures designed to preserve open space or build and maintain parks and recreation facilities continue to be highly popular;
4. Transportation measures received a mixed reception; and
5. Regulatory restrictions on growth were controversial and contentious."

The study is entitled, "Growth at the Ballot Box: Electing the Shape of Communities in November 2000," and can be accessed on the Internet at the following address:

6. California's place in international trade. In a report prepared for the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), by John D. Haveman of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics, it's noted that California shipped more than $105 billion worth of goods to foreign countries in 1998. Haveman also reports that international trade has grown almost 10% per year since 1993, and in 1998, accounted for almost 16% of all goods exported by the United States.

This report, "California's Vested Interest in U.S. Trade Liberalization Initiatives," can be accessed at the PPIC website at the following address: http://www.ppic.org
[The specific location is: http://www.ppic.org/publications/reports.html#cal.global]

This bill would require the CSU and the California Community Colleges, and request the UC, to adopt policies to regulate the marketing practices used on campuses by credit card companies.

The bill would also establish credit limits, authorizing increases if the student cardholder has demonstrated a good payment record for 12 months. Specifically, the bill would require that a student credit card be issued with a credit limit of $500. An increase to $1,000 would be authorized if the cardholder demonstrated a good payment record for 12 months. The bill would prohibit the credit limit on a student credit card from exceeding $1,000 until the cardholder could demonstrate income that would qualify him/her for a regular (non-student) credit card.

As amended on April 25, the bill deletes all of the provisions described above relating to credit limits on these cards. [3/2/01 Legislative Update]

Status: The bill, in its amended form, was referred back to the Assembly Higher Education Committee.

[Note: AB 521 is similar to SB 796 (Joseph Dunn - D, Santa Ana), which Governor Davis vetoed last September, stating,"Personal responsibility cannot be mandated by Government. The answer lies first and foremost with parental guidance." In his veto message, the Governor also said that the majority of the state's public and private higher educational institutions already limit credit card marketing practices on their campuses, and "these institutions are already required by federal law to provide debt education and counseling to students who receive federal student loans."]

This bill would include foundations, extension operations, or other organizational entities controlled by the CSU Board of Trustees among the defined employers who must collectively bargain with employees under the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act.

Significant amendments, summarized below, were made to the bill on April 24:

. Auxiliary employees would be granted the right to collectively bargain with their employer under the Meyer-Milias-Brown Act, a labor relations act which governs "quasi-public" agencies such as special districts and municipal utilities.

. Auxiliaries are to be considered public agencies only for the purpose of collective bargaining under this Act.

. Several categories of auxiliary organization employees are exempted from the provisions of this bill:

Status: PASSED [7 - 4] by the Assembly Higher Education Committee on April 24, and sent to the Assembly Appropriations Committee on the same date. [Note: The vote was cast along partisan lines, with Democrats voting for the bill and Republicans against it.]

This omnibus bill contains several provisions pertaining to the CSU, all relatively minor, technical items not significant enough for each to merit a separate bill.

Included in the legislation are such matters as: (1) authorization for auxiliary organization boards to meet in closed session to protect donor or prospective donor confidentiality; (2) clarification of the CSU's procurement and contracting authority by providing a central location for procurement policies applicable only to the CSU (identical to what exists in the statutes for the UC system); (3) an amendment to the CSU Contract Law in the Public Contract Code to reflect the recent change in statute for the minor capital outlay limit (now $400,000); and (4) repeal of an outdated reference to the "State Nautical School," now the California Maritime Academy.

As amended on April 16 and April 24, the provisions relating to item (1) above have been deleted, and those relating to (3) have been recast.

Current law allows the Trustees to approve minor capitol outlay projects without legislative approval, if the project doesn't exceed $250,000. When the Department of Finance raises the limit that applies to other state agency projects, which are governed by another statute, CSU has to go to the state Legislature to seek a similar increase. AB 1719 has been amended to delete the limit altogether, and provide instead that whenever the DOF raises the limit for the other state agency projects, CSU's limit will automatically rise by the same amount. [3/16/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [8 - 0] by the Assembly Higher Education Committee on April 17; and PASSED [10 - 0] by the Assembly Committee on Business and Professions on April 24. The bill will be heard next in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

SB 323 (O'Connell) CSU, Channel Islands - Real Property Exchange TRUSTEE BILL

[Note: The larger 262-acre parcel, was acquired by the CSU in 1995 for the Channel Island campus before the grounds of the Camarillo State Hospital, the current site, became available.]

Status: PASSED on Consent Calendar by the Senate Education Committee on April 18. However, the bill was significantly amended two days earlier to (1) eliminate specific references to the number of acres being exchanged and acquired, (2) sanction the exchange only so long as the total compensation for the Trustees' land is no less than the appraisal of the fair market value of the land being conveyed to the Trustees in the exchange, and (3) that any funds received from the transaction be applied to the retirement of General Obligation bond debt or for construction and capital development of the property.

Status: PASSED on Consent Calendar by the Senate Education Committee on April 18. The bill will be heard next in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

1. The April 10 Los Angeles City election turned out to be more of a winnowing exercise than a decisive outcome. Of the 11 offices on the ballot, 7 will reappear on a run-off ballot in June, including the offices of Mayor and City Attorney. In the 3rd district City Council race, the outcome of the coveted second place has yet to be determined. With about 1000 absentee ballots yet to count, Francine Oschin, a CSUN alum and currently on leave from her position as Assistant Chief of Staff to City Council Member Hal Bernson, trails Judy Hirshberg, a longtime aide to former city councilman Marvin Braude, by 164 votes.

One of the three School District Board offices will also be forced into a run-off, as will one of the three Los Angeles Community College (LACC) District Board of Trustees offices.

The nine campuses of the LACC are collectively breathing a sigh of relief at the decisive passage of Proposition A, a critically needed facilities construction and repair bond measure. The final vote was 67% to 33% in favor!

The special election to fill the 32nd Congressional seat--which featured 16 candidates, including 11 Democrats and 3 Republicans--also landed in the run-off column, with former state Senator Diane Watson and current state Senator Kevin Murray vying for the seat on June 5.

Voter turnout was miserable. Of the 1,525,350 registered voters residing within the City of Los Angeles, 480,247 voted in this election--31.48%.

The figures are worse, if total votes cast for all offices within the City and County are factored in. The total number of registered voters in the City, and in those portions of the County that voted for School Board, Community College district, and the 32 Congressional district offices is 2,126,722. Of this number 559,108 cast ballots--or 26.28%. [For more on voter registration in Los Angeles County, see item 8 below.]

In terms of those voting at the polls and those voting by absentee ballots, 76.94% voted in person, and 23.05% voted by mail.

2. San Fernando Valley voters will play a significant role in determining the outcome of the Mayoral run-off election on June 5. Forty-two percent of those who voted in the April 10 Citywide election came from the Valley. The percentages for the other parts of the City are: 23% from the Central area, 18% from the South, and 17% from the Westside. These three areas showed voters generally favoring one of the six front runners over the other five candidates. However, in the Valley, the vote was spread out more evenly: Villaraigosa - 23%; Hahn - 18%; Soboroff - 30%; Wachs - 15%, with Becerra and Connell at the low end with 5% and 6% respectively.

In early February the Northeast San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce partnered with the Associated Students to sponsor a public forum of the Mayor candidates in the Performing Arts Center on campus. The event had a tremendous turn-out from both the community and the students.

The Chamber and the A.S. are planning to collaborate again on an event in the Performing Arts Center which will bring candidates Villaraigosa and Hahn face to face. As details are confirmed, I will include more information on this event in future Legislative Updates and on my website.

3. With the results of the Citywide election nearly behind us, interest in the 2002 statewide election is beginning to stir. Candidates are already beginning to file papers stating their intent to run. Former state Insurance Commissioner and state Senator, John Garamendi, has filed to run for Secretary of State. Garamendi is a Democrat who has previously run unsuccessfully for Governor.

Another Democrat, state Assembly Member Tony Cardenas (39th District - Northeast San Fernando Valley), whom many speculated would run for Congress--in a newly drawn district resulting from reapportionment--has also filed to run for Secretary of State.

Former state Assembly Member Keith Olberg (34th District - Victorville), who was termed out in 2000, is said to be interested in running on the Republican side.

The incumbent Secretary of State, Bill Jones, a Republican, will be termed out in 2002. He has indicated plans to run against Governor Gray Davis, but he has not officially filed yet.

4. The future looks rocky for California's economy, according to UCLA economic forecasters. Edward Leamer, Director of the UCLA Anderson Business Forecast, stated during a presentation of the California Forecast at a recent all-day conference on the campus, that the state is on the edge of a recession, and warned that "monetary medicine from the Fed won't stop the pain this time."

Tom Lieser, author of the California Forecast, expects "a weak expansion in employment through 2002, with a corresponding rise in unemployment rates," and a "substantial slowdown in the California service sector, normally a mainstay of the state's economic growth."

5. President Bush released the detail on his proposed Budget for FY 2002 on April 9. There is good and bad news for public higher education.

The Supreme Court remanded the case to the U.S. District Court to rule on the University's revised system for distributing mandatory student fees to campus groups, and that Court determined that the method of allocating the revenue did not meet the Supreme Court's standard. That decision, in effect, disallowed use of student fee revenue for "political purposes."

This week the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would not hear a case involving an Oregon community college's mandatory student fee system. By declining to consider Hollingsworth vs. Lane Community College, the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will stand.

At issue is whether it is constitutional for a college to use student referendums to decide whether certain groups can receive money generated by mandatory student fees. Lane Community College uses such referendums to support the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group, a political and environmental advocacy group. The Ninth Circuit, after reviewing the "viewpoint neutral" decision of the Supreme Court, decided that the referendum process used by Lane met the standard because no student group that had ever pursued funds through that process had been denied funds.

In the Wisconsin case, the Supreme Court questioned the use of referendums, stating that that method appears to "substitute majority determinations for viewpoint neutrality."

These two cases, with rulings from two different jurisdictions, places colleges and universities within the Ninth Circuit under one standard, and institutions in the rest of the country under another.

7. President Bush has announced he will nominate Dr. Joseph J. Jen, Dean of the College of Agriculture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, as Undersecretary of Agriculture for Research, Education and Economics. Dr. Jen was appointed Dean of the College, which has the fourth largest undergraduate agriculture program in the country, in 1992. He was born in China, grew up in Taiwan, and received his B.S. in Agricultural Chemistry from National Taiwan University, his M.S. in Food Science from Washington State University, and his Ph.D. in Comparative Biochemistry from UC, Berkeley. He has served as a consultant to the United Nations, to American food companies, and to foreign governments. He is currently a member of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture.

8. The U.S. General Accounting Office recently conducted an examination of the voting age population and the number of registered voters in each of the 40 largest U.S. Counties--nine of which are located in California. As reported in this week's Capitol Hill Bulletin, the figures revealed that in Los Angeles County, the largest in the country, only 3.9 million of the 6.7 million voting age population, or 58%, were registered to vote. The next four largest counties in the country showed the following percentages of registered voters:

Interestingly, California probably has the widest number of locations for people to register to vote- including most county buildings, city halls, fire stations, libraries, state Motor Vehicle offices, public assistance offices, and post offices. In addition, thanks to legislation introduced by Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, approved last year by Governor Davis, the length of time for registering to vote before an election has been shortened from 30 to 15 days. Registration forms are also available in six languages other than English.

The issue is obviously not one of availability, accessibility or convenience.

9. California, by far the most populous state in the union, with 33,871,648 people, does not rank first in per capita "pork" or special appropriations. According to the Washington, DC-based Citizens Against Government Waste, a non-profit organization that tracks such things, that distinction belongs to...Alaska, with $766.11 pork per capita. California ranks 35, with $15.36--and Connecticut is at the bottom of the heap, with only $7.69 pork per capita.

This Assembly Concurrent Resolution recognizes April 2001 as California Community College Month.

This bill would exempt from the state sales tax any textbook purchased by a K-12 public school or school district, or an accredited private school or institution of higher education. [3/2/01 Legislative Update]

Status: FAILED PASSAGE [2 - 3] in the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee on April 4. The author requested and was granted reconsideration, but no re-hearing date has been established yet.

1. Judge John C. Shabaz of the U.S. District Court has ruled unconstitutional the University of Wisconsin's newly revised system for distributing mandatory student fees to campus groups. Use of student fees for political purposes has been the subject of conflicting judicial opinions for the past eight years.

To recap: The Wisconsin case (University of Wisconsin vs. Southworth), involved a challenge to the University's mandatory-fee policy by several self-described conservative Christian students, who objected to their fees supporting activities of such student organizations as the UW Greens (an environmental group), the International Socialist Organization, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Campus Center. The students argued that the mandatory fees violated their First Amendment rights to free speech, free association, and free exercise of religion by effectively forcing them to support groups counter to their religious or ideological beliefs.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit agreed with the students and struck down the fee policy as unconstitutional in 1998. The University of Wisconsin appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, and last March the High Court ruled that state institutions can continue to use mandatory-fee revenues to finance campus groups and organizations, even if some students oppose the beliefs and activities of those organizations.

However, the Supreme Court based its opinion on the assumption that the process utilized by the University in allocating the student funds was "viewpoint neutral"--and thus would assure that the funds were being used to inform about ideas, rather than advocate for a specific point of view. At the High Court's direction, the lower court mandated the University to modify its fee distribution system accordingly.

In the decision handed down March 16 by Judge Shabaz, the University's changes--adding an appeals process for student groups denied funding, and requiring student leaders to take an oath to be viewpoint neutral in distributing funds--were ruled insufficient to meet the Supreme Court's requirement of viewpoint neutrality.

Judge Shabaz stated that creating a "viewpoint neutral" system was complicated for the University only because of its competing objectives to "fund diverse student speech" with "[empowering] student government to be the arbiter of that funding."

Jorna E. Taylor, President of the United Council of University of Wisconsin Students, in expressing her disappointment with the Judge's decision, told the Chronicle of Higher Education, "Student governments take their jobs very seriously, they don't just fund their friends. It's definitely not done with any sort of political or ideological agenda in mind."

The student organization has not determined yet whether it will appeal Judge Shabaz' latest ruling.

2. Pell Grant awards may increase significantly if a bill introduced this week by House Democrats is approved. The proposal, "The 21st Century Higher-Education Initiative," would raise the current maximum of $3,750 to $7,000 over a three-year period. (President Bush also proposed increasing the Pell Grant maximum, but by a much smaller amount, $150 to $200. His proposal would also provide the increased grants to first-year university students only.)

Included in the Democrats' proposal are increased funds for programs that serve historically black institutions ($370 million from $180 million), "Hispanic-serving" institutions ($140 million from $68.5 million), and tribal colleges ($45 million from $15 million). President Bush had proposed increases for these programs as well, but by 30% over the next four years.

Funds to increase federal work-study programs, GEAR UP and TRIO programs, are also proposed in the Democrats' initiative, which, despite differences with the President's proposal, has the interest, if not the support, of some Republican House members. The most prominent of these is the Chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Rep. John A. Boehner (R - Ohio).

3. Governor Davis' Education Secretary (and former state Assembly Member) Kerry Mazzoni has announced a plan for putting the state's teacher preparation programs through the same rigorous assessment and evaluation process as that fashioned for the state's K-12 schools. As reported in Education Beat, her plan, which is supported by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, would involve annual evaluations solicited from recent graduates of private and public teacher training programs, with the results made public. As with the K-12 assessment process, if a particular program fails to demonstrate adequate results, the school would not receive financial assistance. Further failure to improve would result in loss of the program's accreditation.

4. This edition of Legislative Update completes the report on bills introduced by the February 23 deadline. During the energy crisis, Senate committees have been meeting, but with relatively light agendas, and until very recently, Assembly committees haven't been meeting at all. Since the Legislature is driven by a variety of ever looming deadlines, committees in both houses will be working at full tilt over the next few weeks. There is talk that the Spring Recess will be canceled in order to provide more time for hearings and deliberations. Stay tuned!

This bill seeks to authorize the State Public Works Board to finance the acquisition of sites and the construction, renovation, and equipping of student, faculty, and staff housing facilities on UC, CSU or California Community College district sites, and to lease or lease-purchase any of these facilities back to the respective entity.

Introduced: February 23, 2001. The bill has been scheduled for its first hearing on April 17, in the Assembly Higher Education Committee.

This bill provides that "temporary faculty of the California State University who work 40% or more shall not be excluded from membership in the Public Employees' Retirement System, if so provided in a collective bargaining agreement."

Introduced: February 23, 2001. This bill will be heard on April 4 in the Assembly Committee on Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security.

This bill would establish the Trade Internship Pilot Program as a 2-year program. It would require applicants for participation in the program to be a student in good standing, enrolled at a CSU campus, be majoring in international trade, economics, business, or administration, and be able to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English.

Introduced: February 23, 2001. This bill has been scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Higher Education Committee on April 17.

This bill would exempt college textbooks from the state sales and use taxes.

(Note: The bill specifies that this exemption does not apply to local sales and use tax transactions.)

This bill seeks to enact a $10 billion Bond Act, the funds from which would be used to construct new, or renovate existing, facilities or acquire sites. The Act would be placed before voters on the March 5, 2002 statewide primary ballot.

The $10 billion would be divided as follows: $6 billion for K-12 and $4 billion for Higher Education.

[Note: AB 1299 is one of three bills that seeks to place a facilities Bond Act before voters for the purpose of funding construction and repair projects at the state's public educational institutions. The other two bills are AB 16 (Hertzberg), described in the December 18, 2000 Legislative Update, and SB 844 (Chesbro), reported on below.]

AB 1342 (Alquist) UC, CSU: Professional Services Certificate Program for Teachers

This bill would require the University of California and the California State University to develop a Professional Services Certificate Program, consistent with the standards of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, to produce specially trained teachers to provide California with a cadre of experienced high quality teachers to serve as mentors, supervisors and support providers to novice professionals, especially at low-performing schools.

Introduced: February 23, 2001. The bill has been scheduled for its first hearing on April 17, in the Assembly Higher Education Committee.

This bill would require that, if in any fiscal year, a majority of the funding of the auxiliary organization is received from student fees collected on a campus or systemwide, at least a majority of the board of directors of that auxiliary shall consist of CSU students with full voting privileges on that board.

[Note: CSUN has 5 auxiliary organizations, all of which are legally separate 501(c)3 entities established to support the overall mission of the University. All are managed as self-supporting business units, whose revenues are derived from the sale of goods and services, student fees, the receipt of gifts and grants, interest earnings, or other income sources. The 5 are the Associated Students, the University Student Union, the University Corporation, the CSUN Foundation, and the North Campus-University Park Development Corporation.]

Existing law (California Public Records Act) provides that the home addresses and home phone numbers of state, school district, and county education office employees are not public records.

Existing law prohibits a state agency, school district, or county office of education, upon written request of any employee, from disclosing the employee's home address or home telephone number to an employee organization.

Existing law also requires the agency, upon written request of any employee, to remove the employee's home address and home telephone number from any mailing list maintained by the agency, except if the list is used exclusively by the agency to contact the employee.

Introduced: February 23, 2001. This bill will be heard in the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization on April 16.

This bill would declare that statutes providing a minimum level of benefits and rights would only be superseded where terms of a memorandum of understanding provide benefits or rights in excess of the statutory minimums.

Current law allows the CSU the flexibility to bargain terms which are different from statutory requirements. Under AB 1441, the statutory minimum requirements would become a floor, and the CSU would bargain with unions only over their proposals for terms in excess of this floor.

[Note: AB 1441 is a reintroduction of one provision contained in the original version of SB 860, authored by former Senator Teresa Hughes, in 1999. CSU strongly opposed this bill. After several amendments, which deleted most of the bill's content--including this provision--SB 860 was passed by the Legislature, but vetoed by the Governor. Another bill, SB 1175, described below, also seeks to reintroduce portions of SB 860.]

This bill would enact the California Graduate and Professional Studies Debt Limitation Act, to be administered by the Student Aid Commission, with a long-term policy of minimizing the student debt accumulations of its participants.

Applicants for a grant under this bill would be required to be a California resident, and be an admittee to, or a student in, a postbaccalaureate graduate or professional studies program, leading to a degree at an accredited college.

Introduced: February 23, 2001. This bill has been set for its first hearing on April 17 in the Assembly Higher Education Committee.

This bill would establish the Affordable Student Housing Program under the administration of the Department of Housing and Community Development.

The bill would charge the department with the responsibility of allocating the monies deposited in the continuously appropriated Affordable Student Housing Fund, as established by the bill, to finance the construction of student housing near the campuses of the CSU and the UC.

This bill seeks to enact a K - University Facilities Bond Act, for an (as yet) unspecified amount, on the March 5, 2002 statewide Primary ballot. As with AB 16 (Hertzberg) and AB 1299 (Leonard), the funds from the sale of the General Obligation bonds authorized by this bill would be used to construct new, or renovate existing, facilities or acquire sites.

Introduced: February 23, 2001. This bill will be heard in the Senate Education Committee on April 25.

Under existing law, students receiving a Cal Grant T award must agree to teach for one year in a low-performing school.

This bill would provide instead that in order to receive an award, a recipient would be required to teach for at least 4 years in a subject area that is designated as a current or projected shortage area by the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, or at a school that serves a large population of low-income families, has 20% or more teachers holding emergency permits, or is a low-performing school.

This bill, which is sponsored by Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, seeks to establish a coordinated statewide information dissemination and outreach program about college under the administration of the Student Aid Commission.

The goal of the program would be the dissemination of detailed information about academic and financial planning for students and their families.

This bill would require public and private institutions of higher learning that offer programs of professional preparation, to permit the student teaching component of the institution's program to be conducted in whole or in part, at the student's discretion, at any private elementary or secondary school in the state.

Introduced: February 23, 2001. This bill has been scheduled for its first hearing on April 18 in the Senate Education Committee.

This bill would authorize the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to penalize an employer or an employee organization for repeated unfair practices of a substantially similar nature, and specify that a penalty may include a requirement that a violator pay all costs of litigation of an opposing party.

[Note: SB 1175 is a reintroduction of the only surviving provision in SB 860 (Hughes), which Governor Davis vetoed. (See AB 1411 above.) In the Governor's veto message, he stated that "This bill will inappropriately shift the venue for unfair labor disputes from the State's court system to PERB."]

Introduced: February 23, 2001. This bill has been set for its first hearing on April 18, in the Senate Education Committee.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution proclaims April 22 - 28, 2001, as California Nonprofits and Philanthropy Week in California, to recognize the importance and value of nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.

1. Sacramento has a new education lobby, EdVoice. The high profile Board which will direct the efforts of the new organization includes four former state Education Secretaries--Marian Bergeson, Maureen DiMarco, Gary Hart, and Pete Mejas--and the current president and vice president of the state Board of Education, Reed Hastings and Susan Hammer, respectively. Former state Assembly Member and former Chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, Ted Lempert (D - San Mateo), will serve as Chief Executive Officer.

As reported in this week's Education Beat, the new lobby won't lack resources. An operating budget of more than $1 million, contributed by a number of wealthy and prominent businessmen, including the aforementioned Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Reed Hastings, and John Walton, Director of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Hastings has spearheaded a number of education initiatives on recent statewide ballots, including last November's Prop. 39, which changed the voter approval threshold for local school bonds from 2/3 to 55%. Hastings told Education Beat that the group would initially concentrate its efforts on four issues: "Recruiting, training and retaining great teachers and principals, supplying schools with more resources and flexibility, strengthening academic accountability, and supporting successful charter school models."

2. Only 33 states are reporting revenues on target or above estimates, according to a new survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures. As reported in this week's StateNet, that number is down from 44 states just two months ago. The newsletter reports that Indiana, a state which boasted a $2 billion surplus two years ago, is now worried about finding $900 million to pay its bills on time. Texas, which had predicted a $300 million surplus this year is now grappling with a $700 million deficit; Minnesota is delaying a proposed income tax cut and a reduction in vehicle license fees out of a concern for its dropping revenues; and Virginia is looking at a $421 million deficit.

Dark clouds are on the horizon for California and for many of the western states because of the energy crisis. Rosy estimates of a $6 billion or more surplus of just a few months ago have all but evaporated in California. The $10 billion in revenue bonds that was intended to pay back the General Fund will likely be gobbled up, along with additional GF monies. One-time funding items in the Governor's Budget are particularly vulnerable to diversion to the energy crisis--not difficult to understand when the state is spending $45 million a day for power.

Legislators who were thinking of appropriating funds for special programs or projects in their districts, or who were looking at big issue items, such as expanding health care coverage to California's seven million uninsured, are looking at empty prospects. Assembly Member Dion Aroner told the Los Angeles Times this week, "Where's it going to end? When you see millions and millions of dollars going out every day, just to keep the lights on, it's scary. And what becomes of all the other pressing needs we face?"

On Monday, all 23 of the California State University campuses sent delegations to Sacramento to talk to legislators about their respective budget priorities--and, ironically, to express appreciation for one of the best state budgets a governor has ever proposed for the state university system. Our collective efforts were geared primarily towards protecting the Budget, as proposed, from being drained away to cover electricity costs.

3. California roads again fare poorly in the most recent study prepared by The Road Information Program (TRIP), a Washington, D.C. non-profit organization that conducts research on highway transportation issues. According to the study, the state's roads rank third worst in the nation, with only Louisiana and Missouri ranking lower--or higher, depending on one's perspective. The national average of roads in poor or mediocre condition is 28%. California weighs in with 47% of its roads being substandard, while Louisiana and Missouri come in at 52% and 47% respectively.

California also performs poorly in terms of miles of major roads in various states of deterioration (15,000!), and in terms of vehicle operating costs per motorist (the fourth highest, at an annual $354 per motorist).

The number of miles traveled on California roads has increased 93% in the last twenty years, and the study projects they will increase another 70% by 2025. With the state's population growth estimated to be 53%--49 million people by 2025--the roads will be taxed even further.

4. A Congressional bipartisan effort is underway to provide more incentives for charitable giving. Senator Charles Grassley (R - Iowa) and Senator Max Baucus (D - Montana) plan on introducing legislation that will permit individuals to take money from their IRAS and donate it to charitable organizations--including colleges--without paying taxes.

The Senate Finance Committee heard testimony this week on this proposal, along with others relating to prepaid tuition programs, modifications to the student loan interest deduction, and to the exclusion from income of employer-provided education assistance.

In regard to the last proposal, currently the IRS allows an annual exclusion of $5250 for employer provided undergraduate educational assistance, a benefit that will expire on December 31, 2001. The proposal reviewed by the Senate Finance Committee would make this exclusion permanent, and extend it to include graduate education.

The Committee also considered another tax measure with potential benefit for colleges and universities, one which would allow taxpayers who don't itemize deductions to deduct charitable contributions from their taxable income.

For more information on these proposals, please visit the Senate Finance Committee's website: http://www.senate.gov/~fin-leg.htm

5. Interesting Trivia file.StateNet reported this week that Michigan Governor John Engler-- "despite threats of a pox upon his house"-- vetoed a bill that would have established a poet laureate for his state. In case anyone was wondering, 36 states have a poet laureate. Charles B. Garrigus has been California's since March 23, 1966.

6. Governmental Affairs is moving. This edition of Legislative Update is somewhat abbreviated this week due to the fact that the office of Governmental Affairs is relocating: We are vacating our trailer and moving into a real building! Our phones and computers will be silent temporarily until we are re-established in our new quarters.

Existing federal law provides for the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), administered by the federal Corporation for National Service, under which projects throughout the state receive federal and nonfederal funds. The purpose of the program is to help individuals 55 years of age and older, who are willing to share their experience, abilities, and skills, find opportunities for volunteer service in their community.

Volunteers serve as tutors and mentors to at-risk youth, among other things.

Many of the RSVP projects operate with minimal staff, often with only a director and part-time coordinator to supervise an entire local program of approximately 800 volunteers on average.

SB 186 would appropriate $1.4 million from the state General Fund to the California Department of Aging to allocate funds equally to each RSVP project operating in the state, for the purpose of increasing the number of volunteer participants.

As amended on March 14, the bill modifies the Older Californians Act to include RSVP as one of the state-funded senior programs, and specifies that funding will be administered by the California Department of Aging through the Area Agencies on Aging--without the possibility of redirection to other programs. [2/16/01 Legislative Update]

Status: PASSED [8 - 1] as amended, on March 14. [Note: The dissenting vote was cast by Senator Ray Haynes (R - Riverside).]

In 1996, the Legislature approved AB 2613, which allowed all CSU campuses to pay vendors directly (rather than through the state Controller) until January 1, 2002. Audits of the Direct Vendor Pay Program by the state Controller's Office and by the Bureau of State Audits indicate that the process has been successful in processing timely and efficient payments, with no peril to the system of checks and balances.

This omnibus bill contains several provisions pertaining to the CSU, all relatively minor, technical items not significant enough for each to merit a separate bill.

Included in the legislation are such matters as: (1) authorization for auxiliary organization boards to meet in closed session to protect donor or prospective donor confidentiality; (2) clarification of CSU's procurement and contracting authority by providing a central location for procurement policies applicable only to the CSU (identical to what exists in the statutes for the UC system); (3) an amendment to the CSU Contract Law in the Public Contract Code to reflect the recent change in statute for the minor capital outlay limit (now $400,000); and (4) repeal of an outdated reference to the "State Nautical School," now the California Maritime Academy.

SB 323 (O'Connell) CSU, Channel Islands - Real Property Exchange TRUSTEE BILL

This bill would authorize the CSU to acquire approximately 75 acres of farmland adjacent to the main campus at CSU, Channel Islands, in order to develop a primary access road and athletic fields, in exchange for a portion of a 262-acre site, located eight miles northwest of the main campus.

[Note: The larger 262-acre parcel, was acquired by the CSU in 1995 for the Channel Island campus before the grounds of the Camarillo State Hospital, the current site, became available.]

This bill, at the moment, contains only general language relating to the state's obligation to ensure that "a sufficient number of affordable, high quality opportunities to obtain the applied doctoral degree in education (Ed.D.) shall be made available to interested candidates to meet the current and future demand for education leadership in California's schools, colleges, and universities."

The Legislature's Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan for K- University Education has already begun to hold hearings on this issue. The CSU anticipates that SB 713 will be amended at a later date, authorizing the state university system to offer the Ed.D.

1. State Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill is predicting an unstable budget condition for 2001, due to the energy crisis and a slowing economy. In her annual analysis of the state Budget, she recommends that the Legislature put the brakes on spending the $2.3 billion that has been slated for [non-energy-related] initiatives. There is no certainty that the state won't be hit by higher energy costs beyond the $1 billion the Governor has pledged, and, she believes that the situation with the "teetering utilities" is too unpredictable.

2. On the federal scene, details on President Bush's Budget are slowly becoming available, with the complete plan expected to be available on April 3. Overall, the President's budget proposes an 11.5% increase (or $4.5 billion) for the Department of Education to $44.4 billion. From documents released this week, the current issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education highlighted the following increases and incentives relating to public higher education:

. A $20 million, or 6.4%, increase (over 2001) in support for historically black colleges and institutions with large Hispanic enrollments for a total of $318 million;

. An expansion of existing student-loan forgiveness limits to $17,500, from $5,000, for math and science majors who teach those subejcts for 5 years in schools with large numbers of disadvantaged students;

. An increase from $500 to $5000 on the annual cap for contributions to tax-free education savings accounts that families use to pay for college;

. A proposal allowing people to take money from traditional IRAs and give it to charitable organizations, including colleges, without paying taxes;

. An extension of the deduction for charitable contributions to the approximately 80 million taxpayers who do not itemize their taxes;

. An increase of $1 billion for Pell Grants. (It is not clear yet whether the President intends to provide the increase to first-year college students only, as he initially planned, or if he would extend the increase in Pell grants for all college students, as he has been heavily lobbied by the higher education community to do.)

3. Quote file: "Educational liberals are self-esteem people. Their objective was to make kids happy. My objective was to make them literate." --From Nancy Ichinaga, whose appointment by the Governor to the state Board of Education, was confirmed last week by the state Senate. Ichinaga, former principal of Bennett-Kew Elementary School in Inglewood, is known for her "no nonsense" remarks and approach to education. Bennett-Kew, according to the profile on Ichinaga in this week's issue of Education Beat, "was not only one of the poorest in the state (99% of its students qualify for reduced price lunches), but structure was nonexistent. Students made candy, cookies and gelatin instead of reading."

Within five years of her arrival, student scores rose from the third percentile to the 68th--"and the students were reading world literature."

Education Beat reports Ichinaga has been offered several promotions over the past several years and has turned down each one.

4. The University of Tokyo will make history in April, when Satoshi Fukushima assumes his new position at the University's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology. Professor Fukushima has been blind since the age of 9 and deaf since the age of 18. As reported in Academe Today, the on-line edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education, he will be the first deaf blind professor at the University in a country where it is extremely rare for faculty members with disabilities to be hired.

5. Cell phone menace. According to this week's StateNet Capitol Journal, 35 state legislatures have introduced bills so far this year either restricting cell-phone use in automobiles to the "hands-free" or "voice-activated" type phones only, or banning their use in cars altogether. California is not one of the 35.

6. Tidal Wave of legislation. Lawmakers have been so focused on the energy crisis that new bill introductions were as uncommon as rare bird sightings. Legislators, however, did not lose track of the deadline date for introducing bills that can be heard this year. During the three days preceding the February 23 deadline, over 2100 bills were introduced! Those of interest to public higher education, the CSU, and CSUN will be described over the next several weeks.

Of the bills I've reviewed to date, the most important is SB 593, introduced by Senator Richard Alarcon, which is described below. The bill facilitates a land exchange that will enable CSUN and the Los Angeles Unified School District to proceed with plans to develop a small, model "Academy High School" on the CSUN campus. Although the proposed school will offer as comprehensive a program as any other high school in the district, it will have a special emphasis on preparing students for college and future teaching careers. Within that context, the school will have subject tracks in the visual arts and media, and in health and human services.

The Academy High School will be the first new LAUSD high school built in the San Fernando Valley in 30 years, and it will also be the first LAUSD high school located on a university campus.

The proposed school will operate on a year-round schedule with a maximum 1,200-student total enrollment, but no more than 800 students in classes at any one time. It is anticipated that construction would begin in 2002 and be completed by 2004.

This bill would add an additional member, a nonfaculty employee, to the membership of the CSU Board of Trustees. This member would be appointed by the Governor from a list of two individuals "furnished by an employee organization consisting of representatives of all of the exclusive representatives of employees of the California State University."

The appointment would be for two years. The nonfaculty member of the Board would not be able to participate on any subcommittee of the Board responsible for collective bargaining negotiations. [Note: The same restriction applies to the faculty member on the Board.]

[Note: AB 307 is a reintroduction of SB 1604 (O'Connell - D, Santa Barbara) from the 2000 Legislative Session. SB 1604 had passed both houses of the Legislature and been enrolled, when it was withdrawn by the author in late August 2000.

The Governor determined that he did not want additional appointments to the Board over which he did not have full discretion. Since the offending provision--that the nonfaculty member be appointed from a list of two persons provided by the employee organization--is contained in AB 307, this bill is not likely to be greeted with any more enthusiasm than its predecessor.]

This bill would require the CSU and the California Community Colleges, and request the UC, to adopt policies to regulate the marketing practices used on campuses by credit card companies.

The bill would also establish credit limits, authorizing increases if the student cardholder has demonstrated a good payment record for 12 months.

[Note: AB 521 is similar to SB 796 (Joseph Dunn - D, Santa Ana), which Governor Davis vetoed last September, stating ,"Personal responsibility cannot be mandated by Government. The answer lies first and foremost with parental guidance." In his veto message, the Governor also said that the majority of the state's public and private higher educational institutions already limit credit card marketing practices on their campuses, and "these institutions are already required by federal law to provide debt education and counseling to students who receive federal student loans." ]

This bill would require that an alien precluded from establishing California residency because of federal law, but who has attended high school in the state for 3 or more years, graduated from a California high school, and who continues his/her education at a California institution of higher education within one year of graduating from high school--on or before January 1, 2002--shall be exempted from paying nonresident tuition at the California Community Colleges and the CSU. The bill requests the University of California to provide the same exemption.

This bill requires the CSU to adopt a standardized system of eligibility for facilities to be defined as permanent, state-supported offsite campus centers, offering educational programs in the upper-division undergraduate and graduate divisions.

The bill would require that the system be in place on or before June 1, 2002.

This bill would expressly apply the minimum wage requirement to student assistants of the Univ. of California, and the California State University.

This bill seeks to enact the Quality of California State University Services through Contractor Accountability Act of 2001. It would prohibit the CSU from making a privatization contract unless the university and the contractor comply with prescribed procedures, including the submission of a written statement of services proposed to be the subject of the contract, and the solicitation of sealed bids for the contract.

The bill would also impose prescribed wage maintenance standards on the operation of a privatization contract, and prohibit the term of the contract from exceeding 2 years.

[Note: This bill is a reintroduction of AB 1935 (Wildman - D, Glendale), which was later amended to require the CSU to prepare a detailed report with specified information about the system's auxiliary organizations. Governor Davis vetoed the bill last September, stating there was no need for the bill, since the CSU had already agreed to do such a report. I am informed by CSU Governmental Affairs in Sacramento that the report is nearly completed and is expected to be released next week.]

This bill seeks to establish the Teachers for Low-Performing Schools Renewable Grant Program, whereby postsecondary institutions with teacher preparation programs approved by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing shall be eligible to participate in a grant program administered by the Commission.

This bill would continue the practice begun a decade ago to restrict the level of student fees that can be charged to the level established for the 1991-92 fiscal year, adjusted annually by increases in the California Consumer Price Index.

This bill would prohibit the UC, CSU, or any community college district from requiring mandatory systemwide fees or tuition of a full-time peace officer who is a California resident, is employed on active status, and whose principal duties consist of active law enforcement service.

This bill would require, when the position of Chancellor or of campus President is being filled, the field of candidates to be narrowed by a search committee to 3 finalists or, if only one or 2 qualified candidates have applied for the position, to one or 2 finalists, respectively.

The bill would require that the names of all finalists be disclosed to the media in a press release or otherwise, as appropriate, and prominently posted in a public place at the CSU Headquarters in Long Beach, or in the case of a campus president, posted in a public place on that campus.

This Assembly Constitutional Amendment seeks to modify the current term limit law. Currently state Senators are limited to two 4-year terms and Assembly Members to three 2-year terms. ACA 3 would extend the term of a state Senator to three 4-year terms, and of an Assembly Member to six 2-year terms--bringing the total maximum years of service to 12 for members of both houses.

[Note: This measure is perennially introduced by Assembly Member Papan, who believes that the current term limits don't allow sufficient time for a legislator to learn the ropes and become effective. None of his past efforts have survived passage in his own house of the Legislature.]

Two years ago, Senator Chesbro introduced a bill to waive CSU and UC tuition and fees for surviving children of firefighters and law enforcement personnel employed as a contractor, or as an employee of a contractor, performing services for a public agency. That bill was approved by both the Legislature and Governor, with the proviso that the waiver would apply until January 1, 2002.

[Note: The impetus for the initial legislation was rooted in a situation that developed at Humboldt State University. Calder Johnson, an entering freshman, enrolled with the understanding that his tuition and fees would be waived, since he was the son of a man who was killed while fighting wildfires in Humboldt County in 1987. However, because the elder Johnson was a civilian pilot working under contract for the Department of Forestry, and was not a public employee, his son was ineligible for the fee waiver.

Without the waiver, the son could not afford to pursue his college education and his ultimate goal of becoming a doctor. The press got wind of the story, and it was featured in every major newspaper in the state. In the resulting outcry, a local family in Humboldt stepped forward and provided the son with money from its family trust to support his education while he was enrolled at Humboldt State.

Senator Chesbro, whose district includes the university, introduced a bill to extend the spirit of the law to the letter of the law, so that Calder Johnson would qualify for the fee waiver. SB 311, by extending the fee waiver indefinitely, would apply to other students in similar situations.]

This bill states the intent of the Legislature to provide funds for all learning disabled pupils to be properly diagnosed and treated early in their education.

The bill also makes legislative findings and declarations with regard to pupils with disabilities who require extra time accommodation when taking the SAT.

[Note: In 1999, one million dollars was appropriated to the CSU to conduct a study assessing the feasibility of creating a multi-use technology innovation and training center that could serve as an anchor and catalyst for biotechnology enterprise growth in the Los Angeles region. SB 327 is a "spot" bill, pending what is happening with the development of the biotechnology center in Pasadena--Senator Scott's district. "Spot" bills are placesavers for content that will be introduced at a later date.]

This bill would require the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) to conduct a study to determine the ways in which the UC, CSU, and the California Community Colleges can improve admissions and outreach.

The bill would require the study to focus in particular on ways to improve transfer rates of low-income students from community colleges to the CSU and the UC, and on ways to improve admission of low-income students.

The bill contains an appropriation of $10 million to implement the program, and a sunset date of January 1, 2007, by which the program would be repealed.

This bill would require the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) to consider the development of facilities to be used by more than one segment of public higher education, and to recommend to the legislature criteria and processes for the different segments to utilize bond funds for the joint-use facilities.

This bill would exempt from the state sales tax any textbook purchased by a K-12 public school or school district, or an accredited private school or institution of higher education.

This bill seeks to resurrect two bills, each introduced numerous times unsuccessfully, by former Senator Tom Hayden.

[One version of Hayden's bill died in committee, another was abandoned by the author himself, and the third was vetoed by former Governor Wilson on the basis that it duplicated existing service learning programs, and that it gave the California Postsecondary Education Commission administrative responsibilities inconsistent with its primary function as an advisory body.]

[Note: The two earlier Hayden bills on this subject died in legislative committees, due primarily to the cost involved in implementing the proposed expansion.]

1. California Energy Crisis. In its newsletter this week, CSU's Governmental Affairs Office in Sacramento has included an update of the state's energy crisis. It's an excellent summary of a very complex issue; I've appended it to this edition of Legislative Update.

2. California is Number One in manufacturing jobs. Capitol Hill Bulletin reports this week on data released recently by the U.S. Commerce Department's Census Bureau, that reveal "almost 2 million people were employed in manufacturing jobs in California in 1998. This is higher than any other state and almost 1 million more than in the two next highest states, Ohio and Texas, with 1 million people respectively."

The report also indicates that, of the nearly 2 million workers in manufacturing jobs, 19.7% were in computer and electronics, and 9% were in transportation equipment (including aerospace products) manufacturing.

Both the CSU and the UC systems include with registration and employee recruitment material a form requesting this information--which is optional and not required of the recipient to provide. However, federal law currently requires public universities that wish to remain eligible for NSF, NIH and Department of Education grants, to prepare an annual report containing this information for the U.S. Department of Labor. Presumably Connerly's initiative would have to carry the same caveat as contained in Prop. 209, which provided for exceptions in order "to comply with federal law or the United States Constitution."

While Connerly is cognizant of the fact that providing information on race, ethnicity and national origin is optional, in an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education, he said that he wants "to get universities out of the mode of classifying people by race. It's none of their business if someone classifies themselves [sic] as this or that."

The Chronicle article included reaction from CSU Director of Public Affairs, Colleen Bentley Adler: "We're very proud of the diversity of our [CSU] campuses, and if we can't collect that information, it hinders our ability to monitor diversity. Prospective students also look at the racial makeup of the campus when deciding where to apply and enroll. They want to go to places where students look like them. If we can't provide that information, we're not going to attract a diverse student body."

The language of the proposition, which will be known as the "Racial Privacy Initiative," is currently awaiting review and approval by the state Attorney General and Secretary of State. In order to qualify for the March 2002 ballot, Connerly must obtain approximately 700,000 signatures from registered voters.

4. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved a plan proposed by Committee Chair John Boehner (R - Ohio), this week to reorganize the jurisdictions of the Committee's five subcommittees. The vote was 24 - 21, with all Republicans on the Committee supporting the plan, and all Democrats opposing it. The portion of the plan relating to the two subcommittees addressing higher education issues set off a maelstrom of controversy.

Under the new plan, the new Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness [reported on in the last issue of Legislative Update] will deal with general higher education matters, including student financial aid, pre-service and in-service teacher training; science and technology programs; and all welfare reform programs, including work incentive programs, welfare-to-work requirements, and childcare services.

The new Subcommittee on Select Education Programs will deal with historically black colleges and institutions with large Hispanic enrollments, in addition to programs involving juvenile delinquency, child abuse, and domestic violence.

Reaction from the higher education institutions affected by the plan has been tumultuous. They see it as segregating them from the rest of the higher education community.

As quoted in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education, Rep. Major R. Owens (D - New York), said, "We see the 21st Century Competitiveness Subcommittee as the place where we will primarily deal with higher education. Moving Hispanic-servicing institutions and historically black colleges into the select education subcommittee is segregating them from other higher-education concerns." He argued that the new structure could lead to a second-rate consideration in the federal-appropriations process for these institutions. Concern was also expressed over the implication that these institutions are "a social ill," by combining them with social service programs.

Rep. Hilda Solis (D - El Monte), who gave up her state Senate seat to run successfully for Congress last November, is a recent appointee to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. In a press release she issued this week, she expressed vigorous opposition to the plan, stating, "We should not marginalize minority institutions, but insure that they are at the table as equal partners in the debate on Higher Education. The exclusion of these institutions sends the wrong message."

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R - Michigan), who was appointed Chair of the Subcommittee on Select Education Programs, argued that the plan benefitted the black and Hispanic institutions because his subcommittee authorizes direct aid to colleges serving primarily minority populations, while their students will continue to receive financial aid through programs handled by the other Subcommittee. These institutions, he believes, would receive more attention, not less, since there would now be two subcommittees addressing their needs.

Democrats, in a protest to the plan, have thus far refused to name members to the five sub committees--creating a dark cloud on the horizon for efforts to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Republicans have thus far reacted to the boycott with little concern. David Schnittger, Communications Director for the parent committee, told the Chronicle, "The [full] committee is officially organized, we've got work to do, and we're going to get started. We'd like to have Democrats participate...and move forward with what members were elected to do."

The Democrats have vowed to press their case, having written a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R - Illinois), and indicating they will bring their concerns to President Bush.

5. The Educational Testing Service has agreed to stop flagging test results of disabled students who are given additional time or other accommodations when taking tests administered by the Service. The decision is an outgrowth of a settlement from a lawsuit filed in 1999 by Disability Rights Advocates, an Oakland-based disability rights group.

The case involved a student with no hands, who took the Graduate Management Admission Test with two accommodations: a computer-tracking ball and 25% more time. Testing industry practice is to flag test scores whenever extra time is provided to anyone taking a test. When the student was subsequently denied admission into two different business schools, he sued ETS under the Americans with Disabilities Act, claiming that his flagged score ignored his disability.

ETS's new policy will take effect next October 1, and will apply to the Graduate Record Examination, the Test of English as a Foreign Language, the Praxis tests, and the Graduate Management Admission Test. (The new policy does not extend, however, to the SAT, because it is owned by the College Board, not by ETS, although ETS administers it.)

In a related matter, a blind student, backed by the National Alliance of Blind Students, is leading a protest against the ETS for not offering available technology to blind students taking examinations it administers. ETS provides a Braille and a computerized version of its exams, with the latter using a "ZoomText" software that enlarges print, but has no speech output.

ETS has responded to the criticism by stating it offers blind students readers or writers, allows extra time, and provides a private room upon request, in addition to the computer screen magnification option.

6. Rep. Brad Sherman (D - Woodland Hills) will introduce a bill in Congress to extend Daylight Savings Time. Senator Karnett (D - Long Beach) introduced Senate Joint Resolution 1a on January 24 to memorialize Congress to take this action, since only Congress can make changes in the Uniform Time Act, which governs Daylight Savings Time. [See February 2, 2001 Legislative Update.]

Daylight Savings Time was first adopted during World War I, in an effort to conserve power for military use. Congress extended Daylight Savings Time once again during the gas shortage, also for the purpose of conserving power.

The bill also provides that notice shall be made available on the Internet as soon as is practicable after any decision to consider additional items at a meeting has been made.

AB 195 is a "spot" bill, meaning it has been introduced to reserve a "spot" for future changes in a specified code section of law, that may be proposed at a later date, after the deadline has passed to introduce bills.

The code section of law that AB 195 specifies relates to state policies regarding mandatory undergraduate student fees at the California Community Colleges and the California State University system.

Introduced: February 7, 2001 [Note: I will monitor this bill and report on the author's proposed changes, if/when they are made.]

This bill is interesting because it appropriates $2 billion from the state General Fund to the state Superintendent of Publication to allocate to K-12 public schools, for the purpose of constructing new schools.

[Note: Normally, the Legislature proposes General Obligation Bond Acts, voted upon by the electorate, for school construction, repair and renovation projects. Republicans argue that using the state surplus for such projects, rather than waiting to pass a bond measure in the future, is not only cost effective, but will put school construction on a faster track.]

There is currently a regional "Jobs for California Graduates" program that seeks to help eligible at-risk youth complete their secondary education and acquire the skills necessary to transition successfully into the workforce, or to enroll in postsecondary education.

AB 251 seeks to expand "Jobs for California Graduates" into a statewide program, and appropriate $2.5 million to the state Department of Employment Development to fund it.

Volunteers serve as tutors and mentors to at-risk youth, among other things.

Many of the RSVP projects operate with minimal staff, often with only a director and part-time coordinator to supervise an entire local program of approximately 800 volunteers on average.

SB 216 (McPherson) California Postsecondary Education Commission: Strategic Plan for Language Development, Teaching, and Learning

This bill seeks to appropriate $140,000 from the state General Fund to the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC), for the purposes of developing a strategic action plan for preparing the state's diverse population to become language proficient.

The bill would require "the coordinated enlistment of the state's schools--K through University--to help prepare the people of California for the increased use of, and demand for, instruction and training in underutilized, underrepresented, and globally 'strategic' languages."

CPEC must submit the plan by January 1, 2004 to the Governor and the Legislature, as well as to the leaders of the political parties of both houses of the Legislature, the chairs of the Education, Higher Education and Local Government Committees of both houses of the Legislature, the President of the University of California, the Chancellor of the California State University, and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges.

1. President Bush unveiled his education reform proposal last week, to guide Congress as it takes up the Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. (Congress adjourned last fall without coming to an agreement on the legislation.)

The $47.5 billion plan sets down in general terms the President's priorities: (1) initiatives directed toward assessing pupils' reading and math skills, and holding public schools accountable for pupil learning and achievement; (2) incentives to schools and school districts to move non-English speaking pupils into English immersion classes within three years of their enrollment; (3) increased authority for teachers to deal with violent or disruptive students, and permission for parents of pupils in "persistently dangerous schools" to transfer their children to safer schools; (4) grants to states for teacher training (particularly in the areas of math and science); (5) expansion of technology in the classroom, particularly in rural and low-income schools; and--the most controversial part of the plan--(6) federally funded vouchers, averaging $1500, to low-income families with children in failing schools.

Because of the high volatility of the word "voucher," the President used the word "options" in announcing his plan. David Schnittger, spokesperson for the new chair of the House Committee on Education (Rep. John Boehner, R - Ohio), referred to the voucher proposal as "parental choice." As quoted in the Congressional Quarterly Daily Monitor, Schnittger said, "A voucher is something that has become so demonized over the years that it has become ineffective."

Reactions to the voucher portion of the President's plan, which would allow parents to use the federal funds to enroll their children in another public school, a charter school, or a private (including religious) school, were predictably along partisan lines. Generally, Republicans supported the plan, favoring vouchers as an option for parents "whose children are trapped in dangerous, failing schools."

Democrats oppose vouchers, worrying that they will result in the further deterioration of the country's public schools. The fear is that upper and middle income families would opt to supplement their voucher to send their children to private schools, leaving behind low-income families who could not afford the private school option. Inclusion of religious schools in the choice of private institutions is another flashpoint for Democrats, who believe federal support of these schools violates the Establishment Clause [separation of church and state] in the First Amendment.

In general, President Bush's education reform proposal mirrors a plan proffered by Senator Joseph Lieberman (D - Connecticut) initially introduced last year. Lieberman's proposal, which also emphasizes standards and accountability (but which does not contain a voucher provision), calls for increased spending of $35 billion over five years.

Now begins the minuet of party leaders around which elements of the educational reform plan will survive. Also put to the test: Pledges of bipartisanship expressed by both parties after the wreckage of the presidential election.

2. CSUN's Congressman, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, will continue to chair a key House sub committee on postsecondary education. McKeon has chaired the House Subcommittee on Post secondary Education, Training & Life-Long Learning for the past six years--bumping up against a voluntary "term limit" imposed by the GOP leadership in 1995 on all committee chair positions.

McKeon, who shepherded the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1998 during his tenure, is very popular with his colleagues and highly respected by the higher education community, all of whom were loathe to see him step down. Rep. John A. Boehner, the new Republican Chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which oversaw the subcommittee, came forward with a solution: He dissolved the postsecondary subcommittee and created a new Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness, with principally the same jurisdiction. In addition to higher education issues, the new subcommittee will address teacher training, student financial aid, and welfare-to-work initiatives.

3. Lynne Cheney, wife of the Vice President, has decided to buck tradition and return to her private sector job, rather than embrace the role of official Second Lady and hostess, as her predecessors have done. Mrs. Cheney had been rumored as a possible nominee for the Secretary of Education, but the President selected Houston Superintendent of Schools, Roderick Paige.

Mrs. Cheney, who holds a doctorate in 19th Century British Literature from the University of Wisconsin, has had a varied career: She has lectured extensively (although she's never held an academic position at any university), written two novels, been a magazine editor (Washingtonian Magazine ), and also served two terms as Chair of the National Endowment of Humanities--an agency she argued should be dismantled. She has frequently been the subject of controversy for her strong conservative views. As head of the NEH, she was accused of denying grants to scholars whom she felt had liberal agendas. During the Presidential campaign, detractors have referred to her as the "Republicans' personal Dr. Laura stand-in."

After the nomination of her husband as Vice President, Mrs. Cheney took a leave of absence from her position as resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank based in Washington, D.C. In announcing her return to that position, she told USA Today , "It wouldn't make sense that, having had a career for my entire life...that somehow overnight I would turn into a pumpkin or something."

4. The Governor's proposed "Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday" is being met with increasing opposition from municipal governments in the state. According to Los Angeles City Controller Rick Tuttle, the city stands to lose as much as $400,000 if it participates in the plan (which would be implemented for one 3-day weekend at the end of August). L.A. County Chief Administrator, David Janssen, has also expressed reservations, pointing out that the County's budget, unlike the state's, does not enjoy a huge surplus.

Ventura County reacted similarly. Harry Hufford, the Interim Chief Administrative Officer, told the Los Angeles Times , "No way.... There are too many other demands at the local level without the resources to address them." Spokesmen for Orange and Riverside counties also expressed reservations.

The state sales tax varies from county to county, with the state's cut being a flat 4.75%, and the remainder going to the local governments. The cost to the state in lost sales tax revenue is estimated at $27 million.

The Governor's proposal would "forgive" the sales tax on purchases of up to $200 on back-to-school shoes and clothing, and up to $1,000 on computers and related items.

Supporters of the proposal point to the success of similar "tax holidays" in 8 other states, indicating that elimination of the tax stimulates additional sales.

5. Number of Ph.Ds drops. According to a study conducted by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, the number of Ph.D degrees awarded by American research universities in a single year (1999) has decreased for the first time in 14 years. The decrease, 3.6%, is the second highest since the survey was initiated 40 years ago. (The highest was 3.7%, from 1976 to 1977.)

More startling, however, were the specific fields suffering the decreases: Engineering (9.8%) and the physical sciences (6.2%). The smallest decreases occurred in the humanities, another surprise, since conventional thinking has been that jobs in the humanities are generally scarce. The study reports, however, that the number of degrees awarded in the humanities over the past five years has risen overall by 15.3%--the largest percentage increase of any of the seven major fields surveyed.

The complete document ("Summary Report 1999: Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities") is available on the Internet, at the following address:

This bill would require every public library that receives state funds for public libraries and provides public access to the Internet, to purchase, install, and maintain computer software for use on all computers that provide Internet access, for the purpose of prohibiting access to obscene matter on the Internet.

[Note: There have been several attempts to enact legislation that would require filtering software to be installed on computers located in public libraries. Most of these bills have been directed to city and county public libraries, and not to state university libraries. (Because of the section of the Education Code that AB 151 seeks to amend, it does not appear this bill applies to university libraries. CSU's Governmental Affairs office has requested an opinion from General Counsel.) Applicability aside, First Amendment issues and cost factors have prevented similar past bills from being successful.]

This bill was introduced under the special session called by the Governor to address the state's energy crisis. Assembly Member Sally Havice (D - Cerritos) introduced this bill to protect the children and staff in K-12 and preschool programs from disruptive and potentially dangerous involuntary electric service interruptions.

The bill would exempt these schools from such shut-downs, and would declare a violation of this exemption to be a crime, subject to penalty.

The bill contains an Urgency Clause, meaning it would take effect upon the Governor's signature, rather than on Jan. 1, 2002.

This bill, introduced in the special session on the stat íÍ .Ý ìÎ`s, would cre ê, the Interruptible Program Contingency Revolving Loan Fund, to provide loans to school districts, community college districts, and private postsecondary educational institutions, for the purpose of paying unexpected energy costs.

The bill does not currently contain a sum of money, but simply authorizes the "transfer of an unspecified sum from the General Fund."

This Assembly Concurrent Resolution recognizes February 2001 as Black History Month. It urges all citizens to join in celebrating the accomplishments of African-Americans during Black History Month, and it also encourages the people of California to recognize the many talents, achievements, and contributions that African-Americans make to their communities.

Introduced: January 31, 2001, and adopted by the Assembly Rules Committee on the same date. The measure will be taken up next by the full Assembly.

SB 19A (Haynes) Educational Institutions: Interruptible Energy Service Contracts

This bill, introduced in the Special Session on the state's energy crisis, seeks to authorize public and private K-12 and postsecondary educational institutions to cancel an interruptible service contract if compliance with the contract would present an unreasonable restriction or interference with the entity's normal conduct of business.

[Note: This bill, and AB 14a above, may prove unnecessary, given the decision by the Public Utilities Commission this week to suspend the interruptible rate program. This program was established before the energy crisis, and allowed large companies and agencies to voluntarily curtail their energy use when power is short, and, in exchange, receive reduced power rates.

One of our sister campuses, Cal Poly Pomona, chose to participate in the interruptible rate program--and was forced to close early on several days in December. In mid-January, the University canceled all of its classes once, in compliance with an order from Southern California Edison, the campus' power supplier. When a second order was issued, the University refused to shut down--an act of non-compliance which made the campus vulnerable to some $85,000 in fines. Campus President Bob Suzuki told the Chronicle of Higher Education, "You can't stay in business as an education institution shutting down every other week." Cal Poly has a number of research facilities and programs, such as Agricultural Biology and Animal Science, which are dependent on power-controlled environments.

Until fairly recently, the DWP, which supplies power to CSUN, did not offer an interruptible service program. When it became available, CSUN chose not to participate in it.

The PUC's decision--and/or this bill, should it pass the Legislature and be approved by the Governor--will protect those educational institutions that did elect to participate from having to choose between endangering valuable programs and paying hefty fines.]

This Senate Concurrent Resolution proclaims the month of February 2001 as Library Lovers Month, and urges all Californians to visit a library and thank a librarian for services provided by libraries and librarians.

Introduced: January 29, 2001, adopted by the full Senate on the same day, and sent to Assembly for consideration.

This Senate Joint Resolution, introduced in the Special Session on the state's energy crisis, memorializes Congress to approve legislation that will allow a state to uniformly apply daylight saving time all year around.

[Note: A similar resolution was passed by both houses of the Legislature last year, but was ignored by Congress.]

1. Governor Gray Davis unveiled his 2001-02 Budget last week. According to the Sacramento Bee, the $104.7 billion expenditure plan, which includes a $1.9 billion emergency reserve and $1 billion to resolve the energy crisis, is larger than the combined state budgets of Texas and New York.

While the state's energy crisis tops the list of priorities for both immediate and long-term concerns [see item 2 below], K-12 education remains a close second. The Governor proposed an increase of $3.5 billion in total resources for K-12 over the last fiscal year, bringing the amount to a record $53.3 billion. Per-pupil expenditures will rise from $8,850 in 2000-01 to $9,267 in 2001-02. Funding for the following new initiatives is also included in his Budget proposal:

The Governor's proposed Budget for Public Higher Education emphasizes affordability and access, as well as "one of the most ambitious scientific research initiatives ever undertaken by the State of California." It proposes an increase of 4% each for the University of California and The California State University, and 7.7% for the California Community Colleges.

Student fees: The budgets of the University of California and The California State University were augmented by $21.5 million and $16.6 million respectively to avoid increases in mandatory systemwide student fees. Fees at the state's community colleges will remain at $11 per unit.

Year-Round Operations: The Budget includes $20.7 for the University of California to fund the full cost of existing summer enrollment at the Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara campuses, and $12.4 million for The California State University to convert the San Diego, Fullerton, Long Beach and San Francisco campuses to year-round instruction. (Previously, all of these campuses operated self-support summer programs.)

California Institutes for Science and Innovation: In 2000-01, the Governor proposed allocating to the University of California $75 million annually for 4 years to develop three world-class centers for cutting-edge research in science and technology. While the proposal called for 2 to 1 matching funds from non-state sources, the UC announced that the match will actually be closer to $3 for every State dollar allocated. In a University-wide competition, the following three Institutes will be funded by the Governor's initiative:

California NanoSystems Institute: UCLA (in collaboration with UC, Santa Barbara) will focus on the design and construction of functional devices and materials with components that measure no more than a billionth of a meter;

California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology: UC San Diego (in collaboration with UC, Irvine) will develop innovative new materials and devices to expand the capacities of communications and information infrastructures; and the

California Institute for Bioengineering, Biotechnology and Quantitative Biomedicine: UC, San Francisco (in collaboration with UC, Berkeley and UC, Santa Cruz) will bring together scientists in biomedical research, engineering, and physical sciences to seek breakthroughs in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease.

The Governor's Budget also includes an additional $33 million as the first increment in a 3-year plan to develop a fourth institute, A Center for Information Technology, at UC, Berkeley.

New campus funding. The Budget includes $160.4 million for the new (10th) UC campus at Merced, $158.6 million to construct library, lecture, laboratory and support facilities and the first phase of infrastructure, plus $1.8 million for planning instructional and faculty office facilities. In addition, $2 million is provided for start-up expenses associated with recruiting faculty. The Merced campus is scheduled to open in fall 2004.

The Budget also proposes $13 million for the new (23rd) CSU, Channel Islands campus, $3 million to fully fund permanent fixed costs for start-up of the campus, and $10 million to help plan a science complex.

2. California's energy crisis consumed the lion's share of the Governor's State of the State Address last week. In a dramatic declaration that California can "never again allow out-of-state profiteers to hold Californians hostage," nor ever again "allow out-of-state generators to threaten to turn off our lights with the flip of their switch," the Governor offered several long- and short-term proposals:

3. The new Biennial Session of the California State Legislature got underway on January 3, with no shortage of issues to tackle. The anticipated $10 billion state surplus is a great deal of money, but when applied to the list below, it shrinks by comparison to no more than a few coins:

Former Assembly Member Kerry Mazzoni has been appointed Secretary of Education. Mazzoni represented a northern California district (Sonoma) for 6 years before being termed out of office in December. She began her career in public service in 1987 by being elected to the Novato Unified School District Board, serving for two terms. During her tenure in the Assembly, she served as Chair of the Education Committee, and was the architect of numerous teacher training bills. She is a 1971 graduate of UC, Davis, earning a bachelor's degree in child development.

5. On the national scene, appointments of interest include Rod Paige, President Bush's nominee for Education Secretary. Paige, 67, is the first African-American to be nominated to the post. A well regarded, highly respected educator, he has served for the past 7 years as the Superintendent of Instruction of the 210,000-student Houston Independent School District.

Paige is given credit for successfully spearheading dramatic reforms in the district by emphasizing accountability and achievement. His efforts included tying principals' job contracts to student performance; recognizing schools based on student achievement, dropout rates and attendance (with data separated by race and income in each category); phasing in a program to end social promotion; and directing substantial district resources toward reducing the number of limited-English-proficient students. Paige also oversaw the opening of 20 charter schools and a limited school voucher program. (The latter program allows students in the district's worst performing schools to apply state money toward non-sectarian private schools.)

His reform efforts have resulted in sharp increases in test scores. As an example, the percentage of 10th-graders passing the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills Test in both mathematics and reading increased from 37% to 73% between 1995 and 2000.

Largely because of his reputation for restoring public confidence in the Houston public schools, Paige was actively recruited by the search committee looking for a superstar to head the troubled Los Angeles Unified School District. The Houston district countered the LAUSD offer with one Paige couldn't refuse, and he chose to remain in Texas.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that several members of the higher education community were concerned about Paige's lack of experience in higher education, and whether he would be an equal advocate for the nation's colleges and universities. The paper noted that Paige has at least two decades of experience working in various public higher education institutions--as head coach, athletics director, full-time faculty member, and finally as Dean of the School of Education at Texas Southern University.

In addition to nominating Paige, President-elect Bush also established a 31-member advisory committee to provide guidance on education issues during the presidential transition period. The members include a wide assortment of government leaders, business people, and educators:

Lamar Alexander, former Secretary of Education and former Governor of Tennessee
Norman R. Augustine, retired Chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation
Keith Bailey, President of the Williams Companies
Frank Brogan, Lieutenant Governor of Florida
John Chambers, President of Cisco Systems, Inc.
Sharon Darling, President of the National Center for Family Literacy
Williamson Evers, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace
Chester Finn, President of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
Floyd Flake, a former Congressman and the senior pastor of the Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Queens, N.Y.
Howard Fuller, founder of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning
Lisa Graham Keegan, Superintendent of Public Instruction in Arizona
Eugene Hickok, Secretary of Education in Pennsylvania
Phyllis Hunter, a consultant with the Texas Reading Initiative
Robert King, Chancellor of the State University of New York System
Reid Lyon, Chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health
Modesto A. Maidique, President of Florida International University
Bruno Manno, a senior program associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation
John McKernan, former Governor of Maine
Charles Miller, Chairman of Meridian Advisors Ltd.
Darla Moore, President of Rainwater Inc.
Lynne Munson, a research associate at the American Enterprise Institute
Diana S. Natalicio, President of the University of Texas at El Paso
Susan Neuman, Director of the Center for Improvement of Early Reading Achievement at the University of Michigan
Hugh B. Price, President of the National Urban League
Diane Ravitch, a research professor at New York University
Ed Rust, Jr., Chairman of the State Farm Insurance Companies
Ted Sanders, President of the Education Commission of the States
Andrew Sorenson, President of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa
Paul Vallas, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools
Maris A. Vinovskis, a senior research scientist at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan
Mark Yudof, President of the University of Minnesota

Although Bush has not done too much talking yet about his education initiatives, he has expressed support for increasing spending on Pell Grants (raising the maximum from $3750 to 5100 for first year college students only, and providing an additional $1000 to Pell recipients who took college level math and science courses in high school). He also has stressed the importance of education and scientific research, and indicated support for retaining such Clinton initiatives as the AmeriCorps national-service program, and the Hope and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits.

On the other hand, higher education leaders believe that direct lending (which provides loans directly to students through their colleges, eliminating the role of banks and guarantee agencies), affirmative action, equity in sports, and embryonic-stem-cell research, may all be in jeopardy under the new President.

Despite the concerns, lawmakers generally see education as a bridge to bipartisanship in the Congress and with the President.

6. Californians win significant appointments in the new Congress. The three plum committees in the House are the Appropriations, Rules, and Ways & Means--and Californians head two of them and maintain a ranking position in the third.

Rep. Bill Thomas (R - Bakersfield) was appointed Chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which deals with such issues as taxation, medicare, social security, employment, welfare, and trade issues. Thomas, who has a Master's Degree from San Francisco State University and taught political science for nearly a decade at Bakersfield Community College, is considered to be an expert on medicare issues.

Rep. David Dreier (R - San Dimas), who just completed his 10th term in the House, remains as Chair of the influential Rules Committee, which controls the flow of legislation and sets the terms of floor debate.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R - Redlands) is the third ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, and will continue as Chair of the Defense Subcommittee. Lewis just completed his 11th term in Congress.

Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon (R - Northridge) rises in seniority from 8th to 6th in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Rep. Gary Miller (R - Diamond Bar) jumps from 22nd to 13th in seniority on the House Budget Committee.

In the upper house, Senator Barbara Boxer gave up her seat on the Senate Budget Committee for a seat on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. She retains her other committee assignments: Foreign Relations, and Environment and Public Works. Senator Dianne Feinstein will join the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, an assignment she sought in order to assist in addressing the energy crisis in California and the Pacific Northwest. She will retain her assignments to the Appropriations, Judiciary, and Rules Committees.

7. The new Congress will be nearly evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, making bipartisan cooperation a necessity or gridlock a certainty. The Senate is, in fact, evenly divided, with 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats. The House currently has 221 Republicans, 210 Democrats, 2 Independents, and one vacancy, due to the sudden death of Rep. Julian Dixon (D - Los Angeles) in December.

The party leadership in the Senate voted to provide an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on all of its committees, and to provide an equal share of the money to run the committees--a move which the New York Times noted as a first in modern history. A push for party co-chairs of the committees, however, did not succeed.

The House saw a number of changes in committee chairs, but none in the manner nor mode in which business is conducted. Expectations that the new committee roster would contain a woman chair were not realized. Rep. Marge Roukema (R - New Jersey) was in line to chair the newly reconstituted Financial Services Committee, which handles the banking, securities and insurance industries. However, the House GOP leadership instead appointed Rep. Michael G. Oxley (R - Ohio), described by the Washington Post as "a prominent ally of the credit card and insurance industries." The paper also reported that the GOP leadership had spoken to the Bush transition team about appointing Rep. Roukema U.S. Treasurer, but that she had rejected the offer.

8. Rep. John A. Boehner (R - Ohio) was appointed Chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, replacing the widely respected Rep. William F. Goodling (R - Pennsylvania), who retired in December. The higher education community is split on the choice, with some educators expressing support instead for Rep. Thomas E. Petri (R - Wisconsin), the senior ranking member who had been in line for the chairship. They worry that Boehner will be too ideologically driven and less receptive to compromise. It is likely that Petri's reputation as an independent thinker and his support for several of Clinton's programs--in particular, direct lending, which the majority of conservative Republicans fought to eliminate last year--are responsible for his being passed over.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that officials in the student-loan industry are much more enthusiastic with the Boehner appointment, since they see Boehner "as a stronger leader than Mr. Petri, and believe him to be more sympathetic to their views."

9. Rumors that Bush would not appoint any Californians to his Cabinet proved ill-founded, when the President-elect nominated Norman Mineta, former Democratic Congressman from San Jose and the current Secretary of Commerce under the Clinton Administration, to be Secretary of Transportation; Ann M. Veneman, former California Secretary of Food and Agriculture under former Governor Pete Wilson, to be Secretary of Agriculture; and Condoleezza Rice, former Director and Senior Director of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council in the senior Bush administration, and former Provost at Stanford University 1992-99, and a member of the faculty at that institution since 1981, to National Security Advisor.

10. California leads all other states in immigrant population. According to a recently released report by the Center for Immigration Studies [CIS] called, "Immigrants in the United States - 2000: A Snapshot of America's Foreign-Born," the number of immigrants in the United States has increased 43% to 28.4 million in the last decade. Of this total, 30.9% or 8.8 million immigrants, reside in California. The next five states with significant immigrant population are: New York, 12.8%, Florida, 9.8%, Texas, 8.6%, New Jersey, 4.3%, and Illinois, 4.1%. Added together, these 6 states hold 70.5% of the country's immigrant population.

Those interested in reading a full copy of the report can access it on the CIS website, at
http://www.cis.org/

11. Last but not least, there is interesting news on the local scene: State Senator Richard Polanco (D - East Los Angeles) has decided to run for the 1st District seat on the Los Angeles City Council. (Incumbent Mike Hernandez will be forced out in April due to term limits.) Polanco, who served in the state Assembly before being elected to the state Senate in 1994, is the fourth state legislator to announce plans to run for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council. Former Senator Tom Hayden, termed out in December, is running in the 5th District; Scott Wildman, who lost his bid for the 21st state Senate District against Assembly Member Jack Scott, has his sights set on the 13th District; and Assembly Member Carl Washington, who will be termed out in 2002, is running in the 9th District.

AB 101 (Alquist) Fee Waiver Programs for Gerontology and Nursing Gerontology Students

This bill seeks to require the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to administer grants to postsecondary educational institutions that establish fee waiver programs for students who enroll in programs leading to degrees in gerontology or nursing and gerontology.

The bill would also authorize the office to administer grants to medical residents who complete a fellowship in geriatrics.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution would proclaim March 2001 as "Arts Education Month," as a symbol of the Legislature's support "of the value that arts education brings to the pupils' education and to the economic development within each community of this state."

The measure directs the Secretary of State to transmit a copy of the resolution to each school district in California and to the arts education associations for their individual action in support of "March 2001 as Arts Education Month."