Senate Budget Sub1 — 2026-03-19

Senator Sperz.

That is present. Archuleta. Here. Archuleta. Present. Okay. Chobog. Chobog. Present.

Give me a few minutes here. I'm just getting my laptop situated. Okay.

Well, good morning, Chair Perez. Members of the subcommittee, really happy to be here with you today to talk about the California Community College System budget request. So I want to start on a tremendous high note, and that is about enrollment growth off the charts. So you will remember that in 2122, right after the pandemic, the California Community College enrollments dropped from a high of 2.2 million all the way down to 1.83 million students. And there was a lot of murmurs in the state. If this is the new normal for the community colleges, given that high school enrollments were slowing down even before the pandemic. In the next year 2223, the community colleges we grew by 4.9% in 2324. We didn't tiptoe around this. We grew, we surged 9.6% in 2425, another 4.6%. And now for 2526, we are projecting a 4.8% enrollment growth. So my main point here is that it's not just a moment in time, but you can see a pattern of enrollment recovery from the pandemic. So right now we are at 2.2 plus million students. When colleges enroll students without the funding that they need, they must absorb those costs locally. And in some cases, college presidents are having to seriously consider reducing access. We have many of our districts that are carrying unfunded FTEs. My first ask to you is to consider a 3% enrollment growth for our community colleges. And just to give you a history here, in 2122 we were funded at 0.5 and again a 0.5 in 2324, another 0.5 in 2425 we had 2.28%. And in the January budget from the governor, the growth funding for enrollment is at 1.5%. So our request to you is if you could increase that to 3%. You had also requested an update on Title IX, and I'm happy to provide an update. This is an issue that is important to me. It is an issue that's important to our Board of Governors. In fact, our past President of the Board of Governors, Amy Costa and the current President, Hilde Aguinaldo. Both of them served on the Title IX workgroup that was put together in response to AB 2048. The workgroup conducted research, policy analysis and practitioner consultants over the course of the year. Overwhelmingly, our workgroup found that the Title IX coordinators up and down the state are feeling stretched thin with the sheer workload and the lack of funding, particularly given the shifting landscape on the federal level. Our office submitted the final report to the Legislature in December, so you've got a lot of details that is provided in that particular report. So I will just wrap up this section by saying that we are extremely grateful for the partnership with Assemblymember Mike Fong and the consultant Ellen Cicaretti Monroy, and we stand ready to partner with the Legislature to move this work significantly next year. Moving to the next section, Just have a few comments on the Governor's January budget. So very, very, very thankful for the administration's proposal, particularly the continued support for the Student Centered Funding formula and the cola. This was like super exciting for us. The cola funding of 2.1% for our categorical programs. You have multiple categorical programs within our system. We would ask, however, that you consider adding the Student Equity and Achievement program to the list that is already in the January budget. The dollar amount that Chris Ferguson had given me for this request, which would be ongoing, is C 62.3 million. We are also extremely grateful for several one time investments that the Governor is making in the California community Colleges. And I just want to call out a few so that you would consider supporting it as well as it goes through the legislative process. The first one is an infrastructure project that is particularly important to me as the new Chancellor when I started in 2023 because I wanted to do some significant work using new AI capabilities and do student interventions in real time. But we were not able to do it because we have 72 different systems. And coming from a local district as Chancellor of Kern, I was able to deploy immediate and quick response responses to emergent situations, which we were not able to do because we have these disparate systems. So the Common Cloud data platform. Thank you so much for funding it last year. 12 million one time. We started working on it as soon as I became Chancellor. With the blessings of the Board of Governors, we had invested an initial 10 million. And we're hoping that you will support the 36 million that's in the January budget with 5 million ongoing. So we can just expand it to all of our districts. I'm really hoping you can hold on to that funding for the first time. Okay. Just so that you get a sense of the excitement in our system. For the first time in our system's history ever, we now have real time statewide enrollment dashboard that refreshes every few minutes. You know, when I started, we would get enrollment information six to eight months after the fact. So it was really difficult to do anything in real time, let alone have information flowing to our CSU partners for our ADT transfer. However, this real time dashboard is for the small demonstration project that we currently have. With 13 districts that cover 224 colleges, we have built California's largest unified higher education data lake, capable of integrating data across major ERP systems like Banner, Colleague and PeopleSoft. So it is pretty revolutionary and it's something that's celebrated in national technology conferences. So our ask of you is that the governor's proposed 36 million and five ongoing is kind of the final tranche. Okay. We have made so much progress and we don't want to stop midstream. The final tranche needed to complete system wide integration to empower every college with real time analytics and maintain security with statewide operations. The second investment that was made in the January budget is credit for prior learning. And that's the 35 million one time and 2 million ongoing. And my ask is for you to support it so that we can make it through to the final finish line for the budget. Now I know all three of you know about credit for prior learning and this is really recognizing the skills and experience of our working learners and giving them college credit for that. And we're making significant progress now. You invested 15 million one time last year in driving this transformation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. In just two years, the number of Californians receiving credit for prior learning as part of a credential pathway. We're focused on pathways to a credential, so not these ad hoc courses. It has grown and this is like a mic drop number for me. So I keep showcasing it in every form that I can. We improve the outcomes from 30,000 Californians to more than 95,000. With your one time investment that is in the governor's January budget, we want to reach 250,000. So to go from 95,000 to 250,000. So this is not incremental. This is credit for prior learning at scale. So when students receive credit for prior learning, they can skip the first several courses that they already have skills for and start further along the pathway. For example, they could begin on the pathway at course six in the sequence rather than course one. This means they finish faster, they pay for fewer classes, and the state avoids funding those earlier courses, which reduces the overall cost to the state. So we are hoping that this becomes a standard feature once we are through this outcome space model that we're hoping to implement this coming year. Okay, now I'm moving into my next section and this is where I'm going to add on to the the Governor's January budget six additional asks. So please bear with me. Here I go. So the first ask I've already made, please fund enrollment growth and that is increased to 3%. In addition to that, you will also hear from our Executive Vice Chancellor, Chris Ferguson, that there are two more requests. I mean the 3% is like, please, please support that. In addition to that, we would ask you to consider the formula that is used is like a three year average. Okay. And if you could instead choose the best performing year in the three year average and that would help some of our districts tremendously. And then the third part of this enrollment growth is to remove the 10% growth cap, which will allow our districts not to have unfunded growth or unfunded FTEs. My second of six requests is to fund the AI Literacy Project. You know, AI is everywhere and we want California and Californians to be strong and knowledgeable and equipped with the skills in the age of AI and to be competitive. We, we don't want equity gaps to increase because of AI influencing coming into the job markets. Your community colleges are everywhere in the state of California. And if it's not a community college, it's your community college center. Right? So to be able to really get into every nook and corner in California and advance AI literacy, we're asking for $10 million one time.

Okay, so my third request is the Rebuild LA project is what we are calling this. Last year we came to you and asked for 5 million to fund colleges in the LA area for rebuilding LA after the Eaton and the Palisades fires. Thank you so very much for your investment of 5 million in addition to. I know you've invested in many other areas, but for your community colleges you put in 5 million. We funded Pasadena City College, we funded Santa Monica, LA Harbor College and LA Trade Tech. And this will be focused on expanding construction trades graduates to get into the workforce for the rebuild LA. And we're asking for $20 million. Next ask is for our Veterans Project, which is a 14.2 million ask ongoing. And I really want to recognize there's a huge gang who's sitting behind me from the Veterans Caucus from the California community colleges, Rick McLennan, the Chancellor of Ventura, and Ryan Corner, the President of Glendale. And we've got individuals from the Veterans Resources Centers all here to talk to you as well. Now this funding of 14.2 million, Proposition 98 is to better support veterans and active duty service members. This funding will help increase staffing capacity at the colleges from the Veterans Resource centers to deploying AI enabled processes to analyze JSTs to providing technical assistance to the field. I'm almost to my last two asks. The second to the last is our Calbright funding. Calbright is a new innovative statewide online college to support our low income working Californians. And when you look at the enrollment growth, it's significant. It's off the charts. And when I started in 2023, I partnered with the president of Calbright, who you'll be hearing from in a later panel, President Ajitha Manon, who really has partnered with other community college districts, we've launched a series of non credit conferences where we're looking at low barrier entry points for these working Californians to get their foot in the door and start on that pathway to their own economic mobility. This is an innovation that we have invested over the years and we are at a point in time that that commitment and solidifying that investment is going to place us as a model nationally for our commitment to working Californians, low income Californians, and advancing our equity agenda. And my last request as I wrap up my comments is for our own office, the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges. We are a small but really a mighty team and we were so grateful to the administration for funding four positions. One of those actually is to strengthen our legal team to provide support for the colleges as we're navigating some of the complex terrain. But also with all of the various programs with AI, we have a request that totals up to to 5 million ongoing, which we feel is a drop in the bucket in a state budget. So that would really advance our capacity to move a very, very ambitious agenda for the workers of California, for the students of California. And that concludes my remarks and I'm happy to answer questions.

So I'll leave it to Chris Ferguson to give you specific numbers. Now I'll make two comments. It is going to be a significant relief for our college campuses if you were to consider changing the three year average to selecting the highest in the three years. This will position those colleges who are recovering and seeing the enrollment growth most recently, and they're seeing it into the future. That will give them the confidence to build out the programs and meet the needs. So would ask for your serious consideration of that. Most of our college campuses are growing. There are a few that are looking

redesigning or one district, for example, that I'll use as an example here is a district that has four colleges and they're looking at merging two of their college camps campuses into one to realize efficiencies. And the way they're framing it is they're pruning to grow. So our colleges are good stewards of public money. So they're not only asking for supportive enrollment growth, they are seriously focused on looking at efficiencies and how they can reduce the costs side of the equation as well. And there are three districts right now who are in the process of going through rightsizing conversations. So the signal from you as the Senate leaders in this budget space, it would be a huge boost for our entire system and those colleges to consider changing that formula. It'll give them confidence to be able to open their doors wider and serve our Californians. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you Chancellor, for coming before us. And I certainly can acknowledge the fact that she serving and representing our veterans are so very, very important. I have visited various colleges as the chair of the Military and Veterans Committee. Go to Pasadena and to Rio Hondo and Mount SAC and some of the others. And I'm really proud of what the work that is being done to help our veterans. There's no doubt. But I'd like to talk about Senate Bill 1262 that is near and dear to me because it addresses and Madam Chair, this was before you became our senator and it was an issue pertaining to the reserves that are in the budget in each and every one of them. And I'm concerned that some of the reserves in our community colleges individually go as from 70 to 80 to 90, as high as 97%. And because such high reserves are there, we're not taking care of some of the professors that we call freeway flyers. And of course these are professors that have to go from one community college to the other to the other in the course of a day and evening just to be able to sustain themselves. So I speak on behalf of them that they came before me and hence the Senate Bill 1262. And we talk about infrastructure, we talk about necessity of growth that you'd like 3% more 10 million dollar for AI. But I think we have to look at what we have because these professors that have been with you for years and years that are classified as part time that they need to be looked at and I'm hoping that you'll take a good look at them and Realize that some adjustments have to be made and that some of these campuses, as I mentioned across the board, if you analyze each and every one of our campuses, that maybe with your input and your request to tell you to in turn tell us why that 97% reserve is necessary because I think it sits too high. Some of these professors are not provided with health care. They're constantly on a part time status, maybe never ever looking to be part full time because the system just won't allow it. So I think you need to take a good look at all that and see what we could do in the future and get back with me and I personally like to hear how you're going to address that. And I would acknowledge the fact that our community colleges are there throughout California, desperately needed to open doors in education. And yes indeed, AI is important. Yes indeed, we have to take a good look. And of course in the LA county area, of course our chair is very much in tune with the fires that took place and affected Altadena and Pasadena, which obviously is Pasadena College and East LA College and surrounding areas, we need to do that. And of course the culprit, yes, the low income, we can't forget those. And campuses that need, believe it or not, the housing that is so important, a lot on the plate. But right now I'd just like to throw at you, these reserves really out of line, I think. So if you'd like to comment, I would appreciate it.

Forward.

And as a former Freeway Flyer yourself, probably didn't have insurance, health insurance for yourself and your family and now you're the Chancellor. So look back and see, my God, I am now in a position that I could change that. And if you only had three professors per year per college, imagine what that would do for morale. At least they would look forward to possibly being one of the professors who would get tenure, who would get that insurance for their family and who would receive a pay that they wouldn't have to spend two hours, three hours a day on the freeway from spot to spot. So I encourage you to please get with me. And in reference to the veterans, as a combat veteran myself with the 82nd Airborne, for the veterans that are there, I have two sons that are still serving are also veterans. I will tell you this. It is a great program. It is a great way to go when we get the mos, which is the military occupational specialty, and marry it with the curriculum in the community colleges and increase that potential to be part of the system faster, quicker and bring that experience over to the community colleges. It's a great idea. So I encourage you continue to do that. And I will be honored to be a guest speaker with your military and veterans that are there. And we'll encourage them to stay in school and go on and to be proud of the community college that they're with. So I thank you. And I'm not here to jump on the fact that we've not been able to do something, but I encourage you to work with your faculty, work with your board of trustees, get these reserves in line. Let's bring some more people on board and let's take of them and their families and their insurance. Thank you, Madam President.

In two years, we went from 30,000 Californians getting credit for prior learning to 95,000.

Yeah. So for example, one of the projects that many colleges have, and now we're trying to scale it, is our apprenticeship pathways. So at Norco College, we have a pilot with the carpenters apprenticeship program to see if we can connect with journeypersons who have completed the carpentry apprenticeship program to come onto a community college pathway. So it would be a career technical education pathway that could lead to an associate's degree or to a baccalaureate degree. Now, there are many options that they could choose. There are automation, associate's degrees. There are a variety of associate's degrees that they could get and that would then connect with potential advancement to our supervisor role for a person who's been working as a carpenter in the field. So it's very intentional. So that's one example of pathways. Another example with industry certification, we have technical certificates like Google certificates, data analytics, that's another concrete example. So we're looking at mapping those skill sets within the Google certificate, let's say data analytics onto courses in a computer studies or computer information system pathway to an associate's degree that then could lead Onto a baccalaureate degree. It could be a community college bachelor's degree or a transfer degree. So it's kind of getting them to that next credential and to the next credential. And we're doing it very intentionally. I'll give you one more which I'm super excited about, and that is the emergency EMS programs, which are provided by a third party, not by community colleges. But learning is learning wherever it happens. So by community colleges recognizing that and bringing them in and getting those credits knocked out, it saves that person money and it also gets them to the next credential faster.

So, yeah, I'm not tracking 50 million, but maybe Chris can answer that question about the 50 million. What we did with the initial investment, which what I'm tracking is about 12 million, is we've started building out the infrastructure, the platform where we can start identifying the articulation of the courses with the skills and have that visible, publicly visible. That platform is called map, which is mapping articulation project or platform. So part of the money was building that infrastructure. Part of the money 50,000 went to per community college, which again I have to shout out, senator, to our community colleges, our presidents and chancellors really make the dollar extend significantly. So, I mean, when I think about 50,000 to a college, it's almost like an honorarium to get them to invest. That's not sufficient to get them to reassign a faculty member to take on the project. So it's people investing their time to do it. That's how we distributed that funding. The new funding that we're requesting, the 35 million. We have worked out what we're calling an outcomes based model. We will tell the colleges that we're going to track how many Californians are getting transcripted for cpl. So it's not a verbal commitment. We need to see that you've got your 50 veterans have been transcripted for credit for prior learning that they got from their military. They need to be transcripted for their apprenticeship. It needs to be transcripted for the it for the ems. Once it's transcripted and we collect the data, then the colleges will get the funding. So it's an outcomes based model that we're working out and we're expanding, experimenting with it. But when I see the numbers that are increasing and I look at the data and Sandra, it sounds like you're really interested in this project. We will make a note to send the entire subcommittee a detailed report on how we have scaled it up and we can give you even specific community college examples. I think this is going to be a game changer. No state has 50 figured out how to do it systematically. They do it one college at a time, and it's done in an ad hoc kind of a way by us building out the infrastructure we can mobilize. And do, I mean, think about it, for us to be able to tell the rest of the nation, hey, an apprenticeship pathway and a college pathway in California, it's one and the same. I mean, that is like, mind blowing. So we have the potential to realize it and we're building it out. I'm sorry, I can keep talking about this, as you can see, because it's a big vision.

Can I say one more thing, Senator? The other piece that's really part of our criteria is to make sure that the pathway leads to a job and a promotional opportunity for the individual. So we're not ad hoching the pathways. It's very systematic in looking at good jobs and careers for, for our workers when they come in to get that credit and that economic mobility. So that's really built into it.

Yeah, that has been really tough, tough, tough issue that we kind of engage with and we've got a lot of press on that as well. It's been really a tough battle. Let me start with the good news first, because when fraudulent enrollment, when that phrase is put out there, people get stressed out and it's like everyone just, oh, my gosh, So I want us to just breathe into it while I go through some of the details for you. Senator, first I want to tell you the bottom line right now is that the enrollments that are going through the process and is getting reported, those are real students, okay? It's what happens from the application to the final numbers that has caused this huge amount of workload for our colleges. And the press that we've been getting has been crazy. But the bottom line is we can say confidently to the public that the final numbers that have come in are clean numbers. These are real students. These are not bots that are taking the spot of students. And these are not bots who are drawing down on the support systems, the aid, the financial aid we give our students. So that's the headline. So what did we put in place? I remember the board of Governors when all of this was coming to a head, actually we had a conversation and they provided a strong directive to the Chancellor's office. So when you think about the enrollment pipeline, the application is like picture a triangle. So when you look at applications, if we have 2.2 million students, you know we have many more millions who are applying, right? So you've got the application, then it comes down to the students being admitted into the college and then you have the actual enrollment that happens in the classes and then you have the financial aid. So it's like a funnel, like a triangle. So we have put some checks and balances into the application to provide some relief for the colleges because most of the work colleges had their registrars, their counselors, their faculty, faculty checking on students within their classes because they will see an enrollment but no student coming in. So it was all hands on. Plus we had technology. So we have put in checks and balances. In fact, we recently entered into an agreement with the DMV to use their identification verifying method to verify students before the funnel starts, making sure that no financial aid really protecting it at the last stage. So we put that in place. And Prior to the DMV contract, we were working with another EdTech partner ID me in providing the identity verification. We made that mandatory. A board of governors said, no, we have to make that mandatory. So we made it before it was optional, but then it became mandatory. We're also using AI tools. You know, there's the good news and the bad news, I guess with AI, but we're able to deploy AI tools to recognize patterns and to be able to prevent again enrollment fraudulent those bots and clean them out of the system. So go ahead.

Yeah. So we've got the application and the AI is in the second stage. We had some districts who were pioneers and champions who tried it and we tested it because our system is also very careful about student data and student privacy. So when we engage into contracts with a third party, we make sure that those contracts really keep safe our student information. So we got it deployed at the college level, not at the system application level. So at the college level we were able to do procurement that brought down the cost and have it implemented at the college level. And still we're keeping in touch with college. There's actually an audit happening right now, so we will have a report that comes out of that audit as well. So by the time it trickles down all of what you heard, we have got it much more now with the tools and the humans in the loop, we have it much more manageable in terms of what we report out. Those numbers are clean. I mean that goes into so much scrutiny that by the time we report out the numbers at the final part of the funnel we are in good shape and we can also provide we've got detailed reports on it that shows you the numbers at every step of the way we get. We are constantly connecting with our colleges who fill out surveys regularly. So we are very much have our finger on the pulse of what is happening on this issue.

Thank you very much.

Great and you all may begin whenever you're ready.

Good morning Chair and Senators Lisa King with the Legislative Analyst's Office. So this issue covers two proposed augmentations for apportionments. One is the increase in current year costs that my colleague from the Department of Finance just described and the other is a ongoing cost of living adjustment beginning in the budget year of 2.41%. We recommend prioritizing both of these apportionments proposals within available Proposition 98 funding. These proposals help districts address their core operating costs while also providing them with some flexibility to cover local conditions. As usual, the data that's used to calculate the cost of living adjustment rate will be finalized this so you'll have an updated number at the Mayor Vision. Thank you. Happy to take questions.

Thank you, Senator Archuleta.

thank you and appreciate the questions and the conversation. The student centered funding formula is something that, you know, I, I know really well. It was one of the first things I worked on when I started working at the Campaign for College Opportunity. And so watching the slow phase in of, you know, implementation has been really fascinating and seeing it put to work, I recognize, you know, we're also troubleshooting. Right. And we were just discussing a little bit earlier some of the language around enrollment and how colleges are being underfunded despite enrollment growth and would like to know, would increased funding for enrollment push more colleges out of hold harmless instability and onto SCIF? So that's number one. And then number two, you know, now that we are in the second year where hold harmless does not receive a COLA, how is that going to impact districts in 2627?

Thank you. I think that is pretty much it. Senator Archuleta, do you have any further questions? So that is it for this item. Appreciate your presentation. So we'll be moving on to issue four regarding enrollment updates and also once again have all the same folks, so we won't be having to change. You can go ahead and get started whenever you're ready.

So along with the apportionment increases we discussed in the previous issue, enrollment growth is the other proposal that we recommend prioritizing for available ongoing proposition 98 funding. This is because half of districts are already on track to exceed their current year enrollment growth targets. And there are a number of factors that could lead to continued enrollment pressure in the budget year. One of those factors is regional demographic growth. In recent years, enrollment growth has been concentrated in a few specific regions of the state, including the central valley, the inland empire, and the north far north. These regions are projected to see continued population growth in 2026-27, potentially leading to continued enrollment pressure. A second factor to keep in mind is unemployment. The state's unemployment rate has generally increased over the past few years. If this trend persists, we could continue to see more individuals return to college while the labor market is weak. And then a third factor you could consider is the expansion of dual enrollment. If you look at enrollment trends over the past several years, this is an area where the state has seen particularly rapid growth. High school students enrolled in community college courses. We think that the enrollment pressure from the expansion of dual enrollment is likely to continue in the coming years, as currently, both school and community college districts have strong fiscal incentives to expand these programs. Ultimately, the amount of growth that the legislature funds will likely depend in part on available resources. And that amount of growth could be higher or lower than the governor proposes. Regardless of the specific amount. We do have a recommendation on the timing of that growth funding. So as the department of finance described, the governor proposes to begin a portion of it in 202526 and another portion in 2026-27. We recommend beginning the funds in 2627 without revising the current year target. This is because the state sets growth targets in part based on the amount of enrollment it has deemed it can afford. Historically, the expectation has been that districts will manage to those targets. Our concern is that the state begins to instead cover the higher costs when districts exceed the targets that it sets. That could create an incentive for districts to to disregard the state's budget constraints moving forward. Thank you. Happy to take any questions.

Great. Thank you. In regards to enrollment growth, how much unfunded enrollment from 2024 and 25 and 2025 to 2026 is there and how much do you estimate? I don't know if you plan, if you happen to have those numbers and what would be the fiscal impact of changing enrollment funding rules to eliminate the 10% cap on enrollment growth or to allow colleges to receive enrollment funding based on either the three year average or current year enrollment instead of just the three year average.

Thank you, Senator Archuleta. Did you have questions?

Did DOF have a comment? I want to say anything. Yeah. Jessica Holmes, Department of Finance I'd just like to add for context, I think it's important in this particular discussion to note where the growth is coming from in the system. So building off of what the LAO said a little bit earlier, a lot of the growth that we're currently seeing statewide, again not on a campus by campus basis, but on the statewide level, is being driven by dual enrollment, which is a different kind of program than I think we normally think of when we think of community college growth. And the state has some levers there too to incentivize dual enrollment. But I would also note that

decline in birth rates that has been happening for many years now began in 2008, which means in 2026 that first cohort is turning 18 years old. And so we do believe that we're going to start to see some of the impacts of declining birth rates moving into higher education as well. And that could also impact the uptake of dual enrollment. So I would just wanted to point out for context that there are many different factors to consider when thinking about Growth in, in the community colleges and what that looks like when we hit that point of growth and funding.

All right, do you want me to proceed?

Good morning, chair and honorable committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I'm Ajita Menon, President and CEO of Calbright College. I'm joined by Ed Lee, Calbright's Chief financial officer, as well as Calbright's Vice president Bill Rawlings and board member Pamela Haynes. Seven years ago, the legislature gave Calbright a very clear charge. Build an educational model and a college that works for and with adult learners. Today, California urgently needs institutions like Calbright that are agile and aligned with the state's evolving economic, social and workforce realities. We are equipping students with technical and durable skills that employers demand across fields like technology, health care and business. And we're delivering results, serving over 6,200 students, awarding more than 2,000 certificates and driving employment gains. Median hourly wage increases of 20 to $25 or over $8,000 annually that support career mobility and strengthen California's public higher education ecosystem. Today, Calbright serves learners in 57 out of 58 counties. 92% are over the age of 25, 3/4 come from BIPOC communities and 25% are parents or or caregivers. These are among the nearly 7 million Californians 25 plus without a college credential, but also those returning to higher education after years away looking to reskill or upskill. So we see that every day. We see that in students like Chris, who came to calbride after being laid off from retail and reskilled into his first job in it. Luana, a parent who needed a flexible online program while raising her family. And Richard, who brings to us decades of work experience but needed to demonstrate to employers that he had relevant skills applicable to today's workforce. These are the Californians we were created to serve. Calbright goes beyond online courses by removing barriers that often cause adult learners to fall through the cracks. Because our approach combines flexible technology with structured human support and human connection, this model has doubled our one year completion rates while also allowing learners the flexibility to adjust for life's challenges to take care of a sick child to pick up an extra shift at work. Our platform connects students, advisors and data through shared progress dashboards, really personalizing to what each learner needs and allowing staff to intervene early to support. This work also honors Calbright's broader R and D role for the CCC system. Testing and scaling new approaches to that better serve adult learners across higher ed. And we're seeing meaningful results. Completion rates rose 36% from 2023 to 2024 and of completers, 83% finished within a year. We do not do this work alone. Calbright works with labor, business Education workforce and other colleges to provide that value for our students. These are partnerships with companies like Ripen which embed project based employer work into cybersecurity and data analytics programs so students enter the job market with experience they can show. It reflects our recent partnership with Western Governors which creates a degree plus pathway allowing Calbright learners to accelerate certificates earned towards degree programs, broadening options for future learning and career advancement. And as we sit and we recognize the impacts of things like HR1 on our communities, collaborations with Barstow College in LA trade tech let us test basic needs enrollment strategies across both rural and urban contexts. Our partnership with seiu, UHW and Allied help launching a community health worker program combines a Calbright certificate with a healthcare staffing cooperative showing what's possible when new opportunities are co designed. We are grateful for the governor's proposed 38 million in ongoing investment which recognizes first, the demand for working age adult from working age adults and two, the true cost of operating a statewide fully online competency based public college. This investment allows us to grow our impact statewide and to help more Californians build the skills, secure better jobs and improve their economic mobility. I want to thank you for the opportunity to share our progress. Calbright is committed to continuing to work in partnership with the legislature and we welcome your questions.

Thank you sir. Thank you Senator Archuleta. I'm, you know I'm really excited to see not just this program's implementation but to see the rapid growth and think and enrollment and you know, this is part of, you know, I think the program purpose and the desire and wanting to make sure that we have an online college for the community college system. You know, one of the things that I wanted to ask about that I think is really important as we talk about the investments that we've made and to systems like Calbright is really measuring our success and performance, but also measuring it Against. I don't want to use the term competitors, but I think in any other setting we would say competitors, but measuring against other online colleges. And so I'm not sure if that's something that we do or produce. But, you know, the cost of a Calbright degree. Right. In an online college versus the cost of an online degree for a private institution. I know that we've seen, I think, enormous growth and interest in online degrees, particularly for some of our private entities. And some of those entities are not accredited and frankly, have, you know, real issues in terms of their ability to actually deliver on their promise of training and educating students. And so I think having Calbright has become even more important to be able to offer a trusted system. Right. And a trusted option to students. So have you done any of those assessments to look at your performance and kind of compare to other institutions? Absolutely. I will start out by saying thank you for the question. What has been challenging, no doubt, is we are an open access institution, and part of what we do focuses on taking every learner that comes through our doors. And I mention that because, in particular, as we look to see and to benchmark our offering, which offers, in fact, even greater flexibility than some of the private institutions, some of the institutions that have had a history, especially in this state, of leaving students without the promise of an actual completion, and also incredible indebtedness, we are attuned to kind of looking at the ROI of institutions like that relative to the ROI that we have here at Calbright. What I will say is notably different about our offering that has been cited to us by our learners as critically important. Really, the reason that college was possible for them is the unique way in which we are leveraging a flexibly paced model. So I would actually love to invite up Bin do who leads our research and development work, to walk through the comprehensive way we look at learner outcomes, what's driving ultimate success for our learners, how we're sp. Spreading that learning across more of our programs to progressively get better at outcomes, to decrease the cost to the state, but also to provide increased opportunities to increase the effectiveness of outcomes for their learners on their schedules. Our learners start 52 times a year, not twice a semester. Our learners have moments in which they're dealing and contending with life's responsibilities, and. And so they find themselves needing to take a break or a pause. We never want that to be an incomplete off ramp off of their educational experience. We want that to just be a pause. And so in your district, if a learner started in March and completed in six months, we would treat that as a success. If a student in member Archuleta's district started in March and ended in 18 months, we would consider that to be a success because it is driven by their learner goals, the learner timeframes and the reality of their lives. And our job and accountability as an institution is to make sure not only are we showing up for them every day, but that we are scaffolding support for learners personalized to what their needs and available time is. I'm going to turn things over to Bin Doda to walk through our high level outcomes, but also to give a picture of what we're showing underneath. And then I don't think she has the ready benchmark data that you're asking for, Senator, related to other online and out of state providers. But we will certainly follow up with that. Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you President Menon and appreciate the opportunity to answer these questions here. Bin Do Vice President of Research and Development with Calbright College. And earlier in the opening remarks Chancellor Christian mentioned just a difficulty in what California's labor market is facing right now as far as like the skills gap. Something that we certainly are trying to understand and make sure that when Calbright offers our programming to students, students are able to gain those skills to fulfill this gap that California is facing right now. And we do use a number of different methodologies in order to capture career impact and upward mobility post completion at Calbright. And it does include methodologies such as program and service evaluation, ensuring that all of our programs and services provided are being up to standard to the student's expectation in meeting our goals. Regular and ongoing surveys to understand from the student voice what they are hearing, what they are saying one time targeted studies. And one of the things that we are really excited about is a recent pilot partnership launched with CredLens credential engine. CredLens is a national data trust and data platform that is able to provide not only verified employment outcomes and also give us an idea of where our students are longitudinally in a secured way post completion and what we are finding. President Menon mentioned a little bit earlier in her remarks. The results are outstanding. The wage differentials that we are that we've been able to track for our completers is roughly 20% increase from pre Calbright to post Calbright certification. It moves from about $20 an hour to about $25 an hour, roughly 8,000 annually or the cost cost of a health care premium here in California. As we look at employment rates, we are also seeing very Positive returns for our students for employment rates across all of our programs that we have reportable data that we are seeing 80% of our completers employed one year post completion. So very positive numbers here. And they're all entering into various industries aligned to our programs, such as it, health care, business and also higher education, other industries too. The other thing, and the last thing that I wanted to share here is, you know, we can't disregard the voices of the student themselves and how they have reported and shared their impact. What we know is almost 90% of our completers indicate that they have shared Calbright with a friend, encouraging friends and families to come to Calbright because of the benefit for them. 66% of our graduates say that they've gained in depth knowledge in their field. And then 70% say that they use these skills, tools and techniques that they learned in Calbright programs for their current jobs. Thank you. And just one key takeaway for me in this work and what we've learned over the past several years is it is important, absolutely, to look at the summative outcome measures or the aggregate outcome measures. What is important and what is the lifeblood of an institution like Calbright is understanding what data is governing the progress of our learners and the momentum of our learners and the skills attainment of our learners. And so we take a look at what is driving and moving the needle on the indicators in really meaningful ways and how our activities and actions and interventions as a college, our support for our learners ultimately aids in their progression. And that's why we're seeing year over year, trending upward trajectory on both completion and wage outcomes. Thank you and I appreciate that and happy to hear that you all have created this partnership that you could better track data and outcomes. You know, I remember when Calbright was first being discussed before my time here in the legislature, and folks had a lot of different feelings about it. Right? There are people that were very supportive and other folks who are not supportive. I think, you know, I really want to make sure that this is a system that's delivering on its promise, which is meeting a real need that I think many working class students across the state have for an online college that's affordable and reliable. And so I would love to continue to hear updates on some of that data and our performance metrics against, you know, other institutions. I recognize that in terms of the dollars spent per award completed, that, you know, the dollar spent is still higher than at our actual community college systems themselves. So I think there's some work to do there. And I Also want to make sure that students actually know that Calbright even exists. I think there's a number of students across the state that don't even know that the community community college system has an online system now. That's where I think frankly, you know, a lot of these private institutions have spent an enormous amount of money. And so the amount of advertising that goes into, you know, these other opportunities that are much more expensive and oftentimes non accredited is what attracts those students because they hear a short time to degree, they hear an online model that's going to work with their work schedule. But our community college system is able to offer the same thing. And so I think it's important for us to also think about that too. How do we make sure that students are informed? And that means our. We say non traditional students, but we shouldn't even use that term anymore. But that includes folks that are currently working that we need to bring back to our institutions that are looking to, that are looking to update their skills skills and are currently in the workforce that's very different than per se like a high school senior. So would be really interested in seeing what your plan is in order to better reach some of those students because that's going to look very differently than trying to reach some of our high school recent high school graduates. Thank you Senator. I appreciate the comment in particular around monitoring the ROI and the effectiveness of Calbright relative to its cost and relative to its outcomes. I think the two trajectories we're seeing within the college and if you're interested in walking further at this, I'll bring our CFO Ed Lee to kind of walk through the parameters here. As we are seeing completers and our rate of completion increase, as we are seeing enrollments increase, the cost, we are seeing the cost of our delivery also decrease. And I feel this is really important for us to consider because we often don't look at cost modeling within the context of what it takes to actually deliver an education like this. And we have spent the past few years really interrogating that question. That is one area where we observe in the galley area report, it was important for us to provide clarification on largely because that is a number that is cost is a number per student that is going to continue to decline for us. And we are able to do this work efficiently without compromising quality services or the supports our student needs. And so this is the benefit of the fact that we have an online delivery system. This is the fact that from day one what we've built from the ground up, has built the infrastructure to allow us to maximize efficiencies in delivery and focus on the questions of how do we actually influence and support something that is adaptable with changing learner needs and also with changing economic needs. So before I turn things over to Ed, your question, your comment is well taken. With respect to what folks in our communities find themselves bombarded with when they're faced with advertising targeting the promise of an educational opportunity far from the reality of what it is, I myself at the federal level spent a number of years regulating in this space in particular, to ensure not just that higher education institutions were held accountable, but that taxpayers and students were protected from institutions like this. And I point that out because we think very carefully about how we deepen our presence within regions and within communities. And so if you look at a list, at our look at the list of our supporters and partners, you, you'll start to see folks on there that are connected into their communities, whether they be libraries, community based organizations, economic development groups, business groups like the LA Chamber of Commerce, the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, the Rural County, Rural Representatives, County Coalition. These are all a core part of doing two things for calbright. One is ensuring that we are at the table listening and learning from communities directly about how our delivery needs to evolve and adapt to meet local community needs, regional needs specifically, and also because it is critically important that there is awareness about Calbright, as you pointed out, and that we are tied into the talent development strategies of regions and of localities. And so we both sit in those conversations and have been deepening those conversations, especially in recent years, to ensure that as things are shifting in our communities, as there are greater challenges, as you point out, to folks needing to come back to Reskill, to not feel the threat of displacement in their work, that we are rising with regions to respond to those needs with the piece of the puzzle we hold and alongside the critical work that our sister institutions do in the bricks and mortar setting and in the important presence and role they play in their local communities.

I think the LAO and DOF had comments.

I think the Calbright team has provided a detailed overview of their progress during the startup period. So I'll focus my comments on the question for the legislature right now, which is how to fund the college moving forward. The governor's proposal would provide 38 million ongoing on top of the existing 15 million base. So that would bring Calbright's ongoing funding level to 53 million. And we do have a couple of concerns with this proposal proposed approach. First, we don't think there's been a clear rationale provided for the proposed funding level of 53 million. And we would note that it's about 23% higher than the estimated current year spending level at Calbright. Second, and more fundamentally, the proposed funding isn't linked to any specific expectations for the college. So under the proposal, Calbright would continue to receive this amount, adjusted for COLA moving forward, regardless of what happens with its enrollment or its outcome. As you know, this approach is very different from how the state funds other community college districts under the student centered funding formula. Our recommendation is to transition Calbright onto the student centered funding formula as we think this would better link its funding level to enrollment expectations, provide a known funding rate per student, addressing some of these cost effectiveness concerns and also just treat it consistently with other community college districts. We understand there are some implementation issues that would likely need to be worked through. So one approach you could consider is bringing Calbright onto SCFF beginning in 202728 and providing a smaller amount of one time funding in 202627 to sustain services in the meantime. One last thing I'll note about this recommendation is that all of Calbright's programs are non credit and under the student centered funding formula, there actually is no performance based credit component for non credit programs, unlike for credit programs. In the future, the legislature could consider revisiting this broader approach to noncredit funding under the formula in order to create better incentives for all colleges, including Calbright, to improve student outcomes on the non credit side. Thank you, thank you. Appreciate those comments. I'd love to hear actually from the Calpert folks about your thoughts around that. You know, as I mentioned before, I worked on the SCIF and so part of establishing that was making sure that we had metrics for measuring outcomes, production of ADTs at various colleges that we'd have a success metric. And we also included an equity metric that, you know, took into account the number of low income students that were being enrolled at an institution because we recognize that low income students, those that are the first in their family to attend college, traditionally needs more supports in order to ensure their success. And so what are your thoughts around creating some accountability metrics and incentives similar to the SCIF for Calbright? Absolutely. Thank you so much for the question. I think we welcome the conversation around accountability to be an ongoing conversation. And I did want to thank LAO for acknowledging the ongoing need for Calbright and the additional funding for the college. We do think that the college should have comparable funding and investment from the state. And what I would like to note though is that we have not historically and have not historically and do not now receive the many funding streams available to other community colleges for ongoing operations, including cola. We appreciate the value around taxpayer accountability. What the challenge is in the LAO recommendation is that it fails to account for the structural differences in Calbright's delivery model that is anchored in our statute. Those are the nuances that were critical to preserve because those are the things that 70% of our learners tell is the reason why college was possible so structurally being flexibly paced, 52 start dates a year, flexibility on timeframes for completion, scaffolded with student supports integrated, not separate categorical programs, not in separate corners of the institution. But integrated into the delivery experience. And the most important one, which is that it is based on mastering skills progression progress success is based on mastering skills, not time spent in classroom which is primarily what is measured and funded under the FTEs based funding under Schiff. So I do want Ed to walk us through some of the specific considerations and challenges in implementing such an approach with respect to long term funding for the college. And also just maybe point point out that the state statute, the state law does anticipate that funding can be separately calculated for Calbright specifically because of its unique statewide online and competency based workforce aligned model, that it is distinctive in terms of the structural change, the structural difference between that model and the way that traditional credit based model is delivered.

Maybe just one last takeaway that feels really important in this moment is that, you know, the 38.1 million ongoing proposed governor's budget would allow us to maintain our current servicing levels as the college exits its startup period and exhausts its one time funds. And I think that point is really important because this is the transition moment for us to, to move from this kind of startup period into a steady state operating organization. So the scalable institution that we have built under that envelope, we are able to continue serving the more than 7,000 learners across 10 programs and also engage in managed growth over the next few years in response to what is demonstrated statewide demand. So we can see our footprint remaining in alignment with the funding request while also expanding our reach to additional learners and meeting what is in the pipeline already, which is a number of other programs that were by statutory requirement designed and validated but are in a different sequence of launching over the next couple of years. So that piece feels very important to acknowledge because we are like, like Pinocchio, a living, breathing boy now and require ongoing, stable support as every other institution in the system receives. And then finally, I think I will also just mention that it has been critically important to ensure that we have support for the continuity of our operations over time as we seek to, to further reach and meet the needs of learners across California as those needs are changing. So to continue to evolve the model and to continue to deepen the work that we're doing in regions and statewide. Thank you. I appreciate. I'm sorry, I would be remiss if I didn't mention it does feel important. Please, we just have a couple more items on the agenda. Absolutely. So what were you going to. I was just going to say we have been for the past several years annually reporting to the legislature much more comprehensively than typically what other districts are responsible for doing. So we look forward to continuing to share annually the data and the information around our outcomes and around our progress as an institution. Okay, thank you. No, I appreciate that and want to continue the conversation around, you know, obviously a model and metrics that work for you all. You mentioned something earlier, which is that the SCIF doesn't include a measurement of kind of, you know, ongoing movement through the system and rather just like the final outcome. And it does include completion of first year English and first year math as a metric of success and within the student success metric. So I just want to highlight that, but can appreciate that Calbright is different as a model and so we'll need to figure out what that looks like. Thank you all so much. We're going to go ahead and move on to our next item, which is item number six for an update on the community college higher education student housing program. And you may begin whenever you're ready.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair. Ali Waldman with the department of Finance. I'll just if I may, give a brief Update on the 11 projects that are part of the state public works board lease revenue bond financing Finance continues to work with the chancellor's office and the community college districts to establish the lease revenue bond financing for those 11 projects. At this time, two projects are complete, Sierra and Lake Tahoe, and due to be included in bond sales in the spring and fall of this year. Three are in construction, four are in working drawings and two are in preliminary plans. Happy to take any questions. So unlike the other community college issues on your agenda today, this one is supported by non proposition 98 general fund. Currently, the state has authorized a total of 805 million in bond authority for projects supported through the state lease revenue bond. There are a number of projects, two, perhaps three, that have since withdrawn from the program, as well as a sum of 81 million that has not yet been allocated to another project project. And so at this time, one of the legislature's key questions with this program moving forward is what to do with the available unallocated funds. The $805 million in total bond authority was based on the amount of funding that the legislature intended to provide for community college student housing projects back in 2022, 23, at a time when it had a large general fund surplus. As you know, the budget condition has since changed with the state now facing a structural deficit. And so one option you could consider is as projects withdraw from this program, reducing the total amount of bond authority rather than allocating those additional funds to new projects. That option would lead to lower ongoing non proposition 98 general fund costs moving forward. Thank you.

All right. Thank you for that presentation. I know that we have a few of these projects that are currently open to students right now and just want to know if there's any updates. How are campuses responding to having students living on campus. Are the projects fully occupied? How are things going?

And I know there were two districts that ended up foregoing the state funding that they were awarded. So does the chancellor's office have any plans on how they're going to be utilizing and applying some of that funding and that unallocated project funding?

Yes. You have a comment? I. Thank you. I would just add that at this time, the administration isn't proposing any use of the unallocated authority because. Because it would represent additional general fund impacts. Okay,

Well, that's it for this item. We'll go ahead and move on to issue number seven, which is the final item for today. The remaining proposal is the Governor's budget.

As the Department of Finance noted, there are many proposals covered in this issue and in the interest of time, I'll focus my comments on three proposals proposals that we have concerns about and that's the Healthy School Food Pathways program, the Common Cloud data platform and credit for prior learning. Regarding Healthy School Food Pathways, this is the first time it's coming up in this hearing, so I'll just provide a little bit of context. This is a set of Training programs for K12 School Food Service staff that's operated by a nonprofit organization. The state has provided some one time funding for this program in the past. This year the governor is proposing to provide 14 million in ongoing funds, making this one of the few ongoing proposals outside of COLA and growth in the community college budget this year. We do have a few concerns with this proposal. The first has to do with the costs in the Healthy School Food Pathways program. Of the state funds that have been sent to date, the majority has gone toward administrative costs such as marketing and management, with a relatively small share going toward direct training. When we spread those total costs across the number of participants, the cost particip cost per participation has been notably higher in this program than in other pre apprenticeship or apprenticeship programs that the state supports. The program has also had some mixed outcomes focusing on the pre apprenticeship component in particular, completion rates have been below the statewide average, with a relatively small share of completers continuing onto the full apprenticeship. Finally, the program does have a significant amount of unspent state funding, about 27 million as of last month. We think this would be more than enough to cover its cost costs in 2026-27 without an additional augmentation and so for those reasons, we recommend rejecting the additional 14 million ongoing for this program. The next proposal I'll discuss is the Common Cloud data platform. In short, we think this proposal may be premature. As we discussed earlier this morning, the state provided 12 million one time for this IT project in last year's Budget Act. Those funds were intended to support certain activities through 2027. 28. At this early stage, there is uncertainty around how those previously supported activities will unfold, both in terms of their technical viability and in terms of how many districts will choose to participate. There's also uncertainty around the scope and cost of further activities beyond those already funded. So given those issues, we recommend rejecting the proposal to provide additional funding in 2026 27, strengthening of the reporting requirements associated with the funds providing last year, and potentially revisiting this in a future year when more information is available on the outcomes of those previously provided funds. Finally, regarding credit for prior learning, we have a similar set of concerns with this proposal. Last year, the state provided 15 million one time and 5 million ongoing for the same purpose. These funds also were intended to support activities over the next few years. With the Chancellor's Office reporting on the outcomes of those activities. Activities by January of 2028. We think it would be premature to provide additional funding for this purpose before information is available on those outcomes. Thank you. I'd be happy to take questions on these or any other proposals covered in this issue.

Great.

Right now the program itself is undergoing an evaluation by a third party and I think we just received the result of that. But we can share that with you later. And as for the metrics, the program is ramping up and so we're kind of at a transition period and there have been changes and they've been a common, you know, kind of adapting to them, such as the thoughts. In the beginning they thought that the pre apprenticeship program was going to involve more outside folks and instead it's involving more folks that are workers that are already involved at the school food program. But if I could jump in really quickly with some background. So since its launch in 2022, we've engaged over 80 school districts. There have been nearly 800 pre apprentices engaged, 150 apprentices engaged, 33 fellows. So we're building a strong pipeline of trained professionals and the program addresses a meaningful workforce shortage in school nutrition programs. So from our perspective, again at that system level, providing these types of opportunities that are industry connected, oftentimes have apprenticeships or other work based learning opportunities. Absolutely critical for those that may have seen it. At our recent board meeting in February, we did lay out a plan to try and determine how we can advance internships, externships and these work based learning opportunities for all of our students across California. So absolutely this is in line with that overall goal. Thank you.

I'd have to get back to you on the specific source. This was provided by my team, and I'm not sure if they pulled it from a specific report or pulled it from our existing surveys of districts.

Certainly. And just to confirm, staff quickly sent me a note. It was done as part of our memorandum of understanding when the program was established. So that is why we have that information available.

One of the. One of the reasons that we're requesting additional funding at this time, Even though that 26 million hasn't been spent, is the time required to build district partnerships in order for Chef Ann to start. Begin their process with. And they're trying to expand into additional districts. They need advance time and they need to know that they have that money in hand before they, you know, execute any contract with the. With the district. And then also sometimes when they go into these districts, they realize that there's quite a bit of additional infrastructure need that has to happen. And so they would like to have kind of a. The ability to start doing that process as well before they. To ramp up, before they start bringing in the pre apprentices and apprentices.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Jonathan Lightman. On behalf of the Community College League of California, we strongly support growth at 3% and also endorse allowing credit FTEs to be calculated, the higher 3% or 1% average and a lifting of the 10% cap on funded FTEs. Our districts worked incredibly hard to regain enrollment and stand by the principle that all students should be funded. We would like to see the COLA extended to more categoricals, particularly the Student Equity and Achievement program. We strongly restore support restoring the funds to Strong workforce program and also endorse the one time proposals for the Student Services Block Grant Deferred maintenance. And on that note, if there are additional funds in May, we would encourage increasing that amount as the backlog is over $2 billion. Finally, we do object to the settle up proposal. It's not within the spirit of Prop 98. And encourage a modernization of the statutory split between community colleges and TK 12 from the current statutory 1989. 1990. Thank you.

to more than 800 in the most

Meeting this provision requires a highly skilled

The Healthy School Food Pathway program was

We're full with wait lists.

because we need more hours, more help, but we don't have the funding to open more classes and we're turning away the very students who want to take our classes. We are asking for universal cost of living adjustment. We're asking that next year all stakeholders be brought together to come up with a new funding formula that is not based on punitive measures. Thank you. Good afternoon Chair Perez and members. My name is Zia Sidhu and I'm a full time student at Las Vasillas Community College in Livermore. And despite us being one of the fastest growing community colleges in the area and having record numbers of enrollment, the current funding formula does not support my peers. Because of the cost pressures that the student centered funding formula places on our college. Las Vegas is having to cut the budget on the things that students are coming to a college for classes. It is becoming harder and harder to find classes that are open and has hindered my peers timeline for transfer. It becomes challenging for students like me whose goal is to transfer within two years. Because each semester I'm in fear of not getting into my required transfer courses and having to completely replan my education plan in order to accommodate three years at community college. The student centered funding formula is not student centered and because of this, I am asking to reform the budget formula next year. Thank you, Chair Perez, Darby Kernan, on behalf of the California association of Food Banks, we're here. We are the original co sponsors of the school's Meals for All and we're in strong support of the Governor's proposal for funding Healthy School Fund Pathway program. Millions of students rely on California meals as a consistent daily source of nutrition. But access alone is not enough. They have to be healthy meals. They have to be meals that they'll eat. And this program is delivering that in a new way than before. Thank you. We ask for your support. Good afternoon Chair Perez and members. My name is Tyson Tew and I'm

Hello Chair Perez. My name is Tala Gander and I'm a student at Las Positas College. I'm also a worker and the head of my family.

students who need the most support. We're maintaining a system that benefits those with resources and overlooks those who are working hard just to stay enrolled. Students who are eager to learn are being turned away because of limited space and funding. I myself had to plead with professors in order to be let into classes due to limited funding and limited spaces. Community colleges should not be penalized for supporting students that are working to survive.

five years to transfer from a two year community college according to LPC's Institutional Planning and Effectiveness Committee and in hindsight would cost more than a two year student with full support and class availability. I ask for the stakeholders to come together next year to create a new budget formula. Thank you. Good afternoon. Chair Anna Matthews. On behalf of the California Community College Independence Union Regarding the SCIF hold, harmless colleges are being asked to increase their enrollment without COLA or growth funding. But realistically, like these students have mentioned, they're being forced to cut classes and shrink at the expense of students. So with increasing costs, COLA for hold harmless colleges would be extremely helpful. We appreciate Senator Archuleta's comments on reserves and in the and the inadequate support for part time faculty. The SCIF's instability is incentivizing colleges to accumulate reserves and let go of part time faculty when times are tough. So we'd appreciate a full reevaluation of the scif. Lastly, since other colleges teach online, serve many more marginalized students, meet metrics and are also starved for resources, we hope to see a reallocation of the 38 million ongoing for Calbright. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Sabrina Means speaking on behalf of Pasadena City College. Pasadena City College wishes to thank you Senator Perez for your continued hard work and support for the college and the region. PCC supports the governor's proposed 2.1% cost of living adjustment. It also supports the additional funding for enrollment growth and the additional 1.1% for the 2526 enrollment growth for community colleges. And lastly, PCC supports the 100 million one time increase for the Student Support Block Grant to enhance existing student support programs and career pathways and more. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Bella Kern on behalf of Santa Monica College. Santa Monica College supports the proposal mentioned earlier by Chancellor Christian to count the higher of the three year average or the current year enrollment growth for the funding formula. We appreciate the proposal to build upon last year's appropriation for the Student Support Block Grant and we encourage the Legislature to increase that proposal to to $250 million in the 2026 Budget Act. Santa Monica College in particular is still faced with difficult decisions to continue providing these at risk programs or funding recovery efforts from the devastating Palisades fire last year. Thank you.

of a new route.

Good afternoon. Rachel Shakloon on behalf of El Camino College, we would like to express our gratitude for the inclusion of the College's Interdisciplinary Disciplinary Science Center Project into the proposed 2026 budget allocation for Prop 2 funding. We look forward to seeing this remain in the final Budget Act. We would also like to express our support for the distribution of additional one time prop $98 equitably across the 72 community college districts through an increased categorical COLA, additional one time adult education funding and one time discretionary grants. Finally, El Camino College supports the proposal to count the higher of the three year average or the current year enrollment growth for the funding formula mentioned by Chancellor Christian thank you

Chair Perez and the members of the Subcommittee My name is Marina Varela and

Veteran and the manager of the Student Veterans Resource center at Diablo Valley College Region 3. I'm here today representing VRC management and

budget request to support VRCS and the

and military connected students. At our center, we are stretched beyond capacity. I'm operating with just one staff member

While our numbers continue to increase every semester, we provide a wide range of

programming, VA benefits and the connections to campus and community resources all while working

Behind the scenes, I am constantly struggling

the programs and the staff that help

those four year institutions. This request is not only about expansion,

critical services that already exist and implementing new missions.

Dear Chair Perez and members of the Subcommittee, My name is Maya Mir Luna and I'm from Diabo Valley College Region 3. I'm here to express my strong support for the Board of Governors budget request to provide an additional 14.2 million for the veteran Resource Centers. As a student veteran dependent, transitioning from life as a military spouse to college can be challenging. After navigating the bureaucracy and red tape of being able to receive My education. I had no idea about the resources, support or community that was available to me as a dependent. I was extremely isolated in my journey being connected to the service. I was connected to the service but felt invisible within it. I had no idea I could receive education, benefits that career opportunities existed for me. And military families also had a network of virtual. The Veterans Resource center at my college made that transition possible. Through the VRC I was able to connect, receive support, navigating my challenges and the resources that were available to me and my family alone. I couldn't find the right department solutions or individuals that knew the answers to my questions. The VRC and its staff helping enroll in the program no other department could. I respectfully urge the sub community to support the request and investing the success of California student Veterans. Thank you. Good afternoon Chair and members of the subcommittee. So my name is Priscilla Martinez Rodriguez. I am a student student veteran specifically of Diablo Valley College. I served in the Marine Corps as a V22 mechanic specifically for the Osprey. And one of the things that I recognized is sometimes with invisible disabilities, it is quite difficult for students to be able to receive accommodations. And it is something that the members here have worked really, really hard, tirelessly to be able to acquire for my peers and I. And it's one of the things where members of the service, once they exit the service, are eager to be able to return back to the workforce. So this would be able to give the opportunity to countless members of service, the opportunity to be able to find a sense of autonomy, purpose and worth again. Especially being able to utilize the money that that goes back into us. We get to fill the community's cup. So thank you so much for your time and I hope that you guys really consider supporting this this change. Thank you so much. Good afternoon Chair Perez and members of the subcommittee. My name is Allison Chambo. I am from Diablo Valley College, Region 3. I am here today to explain expressed my strong support for the Board of Governors budget request to provide an additional 14.2 million for veteran resource centers. As a first generation student and military dependent, I entered college without a roadmap. My mother served for over 20 years, yet accessing the benefits that she's earned felt impossible. Until I found the Veterans Resource Center. The Veterans Resource center made my transition possible. They helped access my Chapter 35 benefits, academic counseling, tutoring, and provided an array of educational and career opportunities. Because of this, I am earning my associate's degree this spring, holding a summer internship and transferring to a university this fall. My experience shows how powerful These centers are my journey provided proved to my mom that she has a place once she's ready to enter her educational path. Sustained funding for veteran resource centers ensures that every student veteran across California can receive consistent support. I respectfully urge the subcommittee to consider this request and continue investing in the success of California student veterans. Thank you for your time and for supporting those who have served.

Much has changed since then.

Good afternoon. Carol Gonzalez on behalf of Long Beach City College and Gabby Land College really just to share our appreciation for the enrollment growth dollars and the Students support Block Grant hoping that makes it through and encouraging the legislature to use the student housing dollars that have been left over and ideally fund their projects on behalf of Ed Trust west research and advocacy organization committed to dismantling racial and economic barriers. They also want to elevate their appreciation for the 2.4 cola for skiff apportionments and select categorical programs and the enrollment growth dollars. They also support the 100 million student support block grant. At a time when rising affordability pressures and federal disinvestments in public education are happening. These flexible resources really enable the colleges to deliver the wraparound services that they need. And finally, on behalf of the Data for the people coalition, including at TrustWest, they support the statewide Common Cloud platform. And really they're just saying that the Chancellor's Office not only is really responsible for that data and seeing that through would really make it a lot easier for colleges to share information that's really critical. Thank you. Thank you Singh. As we have no more speakers here in the audience today, this concludes today's meeting and this budget sub one meeting is adjourned.