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In This Issue...
- FRS Update
- Back Issues of Perception
2013 Legislative Session - Week 6
This week’s Perception includes a reprint of some of the content in a legislative summary prepared by Susan Lehr, Government Relations Director at FSCJ. It covers a myriad of our issues of interest to the Florida College System. Many thanks go to Susan for allowing us to use this material.
MAJOR ISSUES SUMMARIZED
PECO CASH FLOW
The House appropriations bill places $329 million of general revenue into the PECO trust fund to allow the funding of desired projects (includes in part: $100 million charter schools, $51 million state universities, and $49 million FCS). The legislature is trying to complete construction projects already underway that otherwise would not be completed until 2015. This is important as it improves the cash flow for all the colleges so they can draw funds for already appropriated projects through the General Appropriations Act (GAA). If the PECO provision is not adopted, there will be a request for a $90 million loan to pay the cost of already issued bonds to address this cash flow issue.
BUDGET ISSUES IN CONFORMING BILLS
Conforming bills “conform” certain provisions of the law to the directions contained in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) about how appropriated funds are to be expended. A conforming bill makes permanent changes to Florida law. These bills originate in appropriations committees, have no other committees of reference and usually are not amended once they leave the committee. The GAA appropriates the funding, the conforming bill changes the law to comport with the GAA expenditures, and additional changes in the law are frequently contained therein. One must piece all of these together to understand the true impact of proposed legislation. This is true of developmental education.
Developmental Education
This issue is not resolved. The Senate bill cuts $36 million to the FCS and returns $18 million for “co-requisite” instruction (tutoring an underprepared student while in college credit courses). Currently, these students are placed in noncredit college prep/remediation courses. If the current Senate bill prevails (CS/CS SB 1720), the College would lose the ability to offer developmental education as stand-alone courses. There would be a substantial loss in tuition (estimated at $36M statewide), which is primarily paid by federal financial aid. It also will affect long list of implementation issues involving curriculum and faculty changes. (See CS/CS SB 1720 and CS/CS SB 7057).
Dual Enrollment Funding
The FCS loses up to $50M annually on the delivery of dual enrollment since the students are not charged tuition and fees for the credits earned. Conforming bill CS HB 5101 contains the “fix” for this issue. It requires school districts to pay tuition for each student if the course is taught on college campus and reimburse the college for actual costs if taught on high school campus. This would be a tremendous help in offsetting the cost of this program if the school district continues dual enrollment at the current level. (see CS/HB 5101)
Performance Funding for Industry Certifications
The Senate GAA establishes $7M for this issue. However, $15M is allocated for the FCS in conforming bills (CS/CS SB 1076 and CS/CS HB 7057). Colleges would receive $1,000 for each industry certification achieved by a student. The GAA identifies what certifications are the priorities for this funding: automotive, cyber security, virtualization, advanced manufacturing and welding certifications.
Complete Florida
FSCJ is in partnership with University of West Florida and St. Petersburg State College to develop an online program to recruit, recover, and retain adult learners who have “stopped out” of college prior to attaining a degree. Legislation passed last year required development of the initiative but the funding was vetoed. This bill contains $4M for the three partners with University of West Florida as the lead institution. (see CS SB 5101)
CONFORMING BILLS
- CS HB 5101
- Dual Enrollment: requires school districts to pay tuition for each student if the course is taught on college campus; reimburse the college for actual costs if taught on high school campus and strikes ability for colleges to limit dual enrollment based on capacity.
- Complete Florida Degree Program will have University of West Florida as the lead institution. FSCJ is one of two partners in this statewide program that recruits, enrolls and helps adult learners who have “stopped out” of college prior to attaining degree.
- Fund Balance: requires notice to the legislature if it goes below 3% and specific actions if below 2%.
- President’s Salary: Eliminates the sunset date and makes permanent the $200,000 limitation on salaries of presidents and administrative employees from appropriated state funds.
- SB 5005
- Florida Retirement System rates are established in this conforming bill. Funding is provided in the GAA to cover the cost increase to the colleges.
- SB 878 and CS/CS HB 7027
- Accountability: extensive new services to be developed so the data warehouse will have a portal for public access with a self-service “research engine.”
- CS/CS SB 1076 Career and Professional Education Act (CAPE)
- Industry Certifications: contains performance funding for industry certifications identified in the GAA (automotive, cyber security, virtualization, advanced manufacturing and welding) at $1,000 for each.
- $10,000 Degree: contains provisions that authorize colleges to waive tuition and fees for upper level students in these programs to hold the cost at no more than $10,000.
COMMITTEE BILLS
CS/CS/HB 7057 and CS/CS SB 1720 and CS/CS SB 1076 - Developmental Education, Advising, Repeat Classes, Tuition and Industry Certifications
Developmental Education:
The House and the Senate are both considering significant changes to how we offer developmental education, (college-prep/remediation). College and Association of Florida College (AFC) lobbyists, and the Council of Presidents, are working to encourage acceptance of the House proposal, and maintenance of funding.
The House bill (CS/CS/HB 7057) was amended to respond to many of the suggestions made by the Florida College System (FCS), including adding institutional flexibility in deciding student placement and instructional methods/strategies.
The Senate bill (CS/CS SB 1720) is harsher, limiting the methods of instruction, limiting tuition, and allowing students to choose their own path, regardless of readiness to achieve. The Senate is also reducing college funding for developmental education by $36 million, while replacing $18 million to be used for tutoring for college credit courses. The Senate prohibits teaching developmental education in a course. It must be offered as a “co-requisite” to a college credit course. This means tutoring an underprepared student while they are in college credit courses. Significant staffing changes may be required to comply with SACS. There are extensive issues with implementation if this becomes law as currently drafted.
Advising and advising structure:
Both bills require new advising structures and roles for the colleges. The new structure will create “meta-majors” (broad content areas, common courses across disciplines and programs) and “gateway courses” (foundation college-credit courses.) Both of these are designed, in part, to improve advising, but will require significant work to revise curriculum and implement.
Admissions counseling will be required, and will allow for additional criteria to be used in referring students to remedial instruction. The House bill allows for placement to use new criteria, and the Senate bill allows students to place themselves, with non-binding recommendations from counselors.
Repeat class tuition:
The Senate bill repeals the authority for students to repeat a class and pay in-state fees. Students repeating courses would pay 100% of the cost. There is an exception that allows for “gateway” courses to be extended, basically offered over two terms to incorporate developmental education.
Tuition flexibility for $10,000 degree:
The Senate bill authorizes colleges to waive a portion or all of the tuition and fees for the degree. The House bill does the same, but limits the waivers to upper-level courses.
Industry Certification:
Both the Senate (CS/CS SB 1076) and the House (CS/CS HB 7057) create systems to reward colleges for industry certifications connected to postsecondary training. There are technical concerns (i.e., data collection), but significant funds are associated with this effort.
General Education:
In 2012 legislation passed that reduced general education requirements from 36 credit hours to 30 hours for an associate degree. Primarily due to SACS issues this is revised back to 36 hours.
- SB 1514 - Co-Enrolled Students
- This bill makes permanent the allowing students to be co-enrolled with the college and the school district for the purpose of drop-out prevention and/or credit recovery through the college’s adult education program. This is important to the Pathways Academy.
- CS HB 7051 - Resident Status for Tuition Purposes
- Veterans - allows veterans of Armed Forces, including reserve components, who physically reside in Florida to be classified as residents for tuition purposes while enrolled in a Florida institution of higher education.
- Ruiz Case: addresses the ruling by the Florida Supreme Court on the Ruiz case that a United States citizen who is a dependent child may not be denied classification as a resident for tuition purposes based solely upon the immigration status of his or her parent.
- Allows dependent students to establish residency for tuition purposes by submitting evidence of their own residency in Florida (high school transcripts, driver’s license, etc.).
- Allows a student who resides in Florida to be classified as a resident for tuition purposes if they marry a person who qualifies as a resident.
- Reduces from 5 to 3 years the time a child must reside with a relative in order to use the relative’s residency for tuition purposes.
- CS/CS/HB 7091 - High School Diplomas
- Creates 3 new standard high school diplomas: College and Career, Industry, and Scholar.
- Effective for 9th graders in 2013-14; current high school students may opt in.
- Establishes the Postsecondary Industry Certification Funding List for postsecondary programs.
- CS/CS HB 7011 and CS/CS SB 1392 - Florida Retirement System (FRS)
- HouseCS/CS HB 7011
- Closes the pension plan (defined benefit) to new enrollees, requires them to participate in investment plan (defined contribution) effective 1/1/14.
- Eliminates option for new enrollees to apply for disability benefits effective 1/1/14.
- Expands investment options available to investment plan members.
- Closes Senior Management Service Opportunity Annuity to new participants and prohibits elected officials from joining the Senior Management Services Class effective 1/1/14.
- Senate CS/CS SB 1392
- Continues to allow most newly hired employees to continue joining the traditional “defined benefit” plan, in which payments are calculated on a percentage of peak earnings and multiplied by years of service at retirement.
- It closes the defined benefit program to senior managers and elected officials; they would have to join the “defined contribution” plan.
- New enrollees in FRS after 1/14 are vested in the pension plan after 10 years of creditable service (currently 8 years).
- Offers incentives for enrolling in the investment plan, as those who opt for that will only be required to pay 2 percent of salaries, rather than the 3 percent employees pay for the defined benefit plan.
MEMBER SPONSORED BILLS
CS SB 904 and CS HB 843 - Charter Courses
Allows students to take courses (including Massive Open Online Courses --MOOCs) from a variety of institutions, and get credits towards diplomas and degrees. SACS accreditation may be impacted and quality of prior instruction.
CS SB 1004 and HB 1133 - Public Data
Requires each agency to submit an inventory of public data in its custody, twice each year, to the Secretary of State. Serious concerns have been expressed about the time, effort and cost of compliance.
OTHER BILLS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
SB 52 CS3 - Relating to Use of Wireless Communications Devices While Driving
SB 52 creates the “Florida Ban on Texting While Driving Law,” modeled after a sample law developed by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) and a cross-section of safety and industry organizations. The bill prohibits the operation of a motor vehicle while manually typing or entering multiple letters, numbers, symbols, or other text in a handheld wireless communication device, or sending or reading data in the device, for the purpose of non-voice interpersonal communication. The bill makes exceptions for emergency workers performing official duties, reporting emergencies or suspicious activities, and for receiving various types of navigation information, emergency traffic data, radio broadcasts, and autonomous vehicles. The bill also makes an exception for interpersonal communications that can be conducted without manually typing the message or without reading the message.
The prohibition is enforceable as a secondary offense. A first violation is punishable as a nonmoving violation, with a fine of $30 plus court costs that vary by county. A second violation committed within 5 years after the first is a moving violation that is punishable by a $60 fine plus court costs. In addition to the fines, a violation of the unlawful use of a cellphone which results in a crash will result in 6 points added to the offender’s driver license record and the unlawful use of a cell phone while committing a moving violation within a school safety zone will result in a 2 points added to the offender’s driver license record in addition to the points for the moving violation.
SB 110 - Baker Act
This bill would allow physician assistants and advanced registered nurse practitioners to "Baker Act" people, which is to initiate an involuntary commitment of an individual for psychiatric evaluation.
SB 958 - Communications, Energy, And Public Utilities
The Senate Communications, Energy and Public Utilities Committee is set to look at a proposal that declares the storage of natural gas underground to be in the public interest. The measure exempts natural gas stored in Florida from the severance tax on oil production while placing some restoration requirements on operators of a natural gas storage facility that affect a water supply.
More College Trustees Set For Confirmation Hearings
The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee has lined up confirmation hearings on April 15 for 91 gubernatorial appointments ranging from the secretary of state and members of the Board of Governors of the State University System , college trustees, and water management districts.
Perception is compiled weekly and distributed to AFC members.
Special thanks go to the members of the AFC legislative committee for their contributions to this issue of Perception.
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