Community colleges: nonresident fees.

(1) Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Existing law also authorizes the establishment of community college districts, and further authorizes the operation, by these districts, of community college campuses that offer instructional services throughout the state. Existing law requires a community college district to charge a nonresident tuition fee to nonresident students, with certain exceptions. Existing law requires the fee to be set according to one of 4 formulas, one of which divides the expense of education in all districts by the number of full-time equivalent students, as defined, attending all districts in the preceding fiscal year. This bill would provide that if the amount calculated by this formula for the succeeding fiscal year is less than a specified amount, then the district is authorized to set the nonresident tuition fee at a specified amount. (2) Existing law requires the governing board of a community college district to consider nonresident tuition fees of public community colleges in other states when adopting a tuition fee for nonresident students. This bill would delete the requirement that the governing board of a community college district consider nonresident tuition fees of public community colleges in other states, and instead authorize the governing board to adopt a nonresident tuition fee that is no greater than the average of the nonresident tuition fees of public community colleges of no less than 12 states with comparable cost of living, as defined. This bill would require the additional revenue generated by the increased nonresident tuition permitted under the changes to existing law made by this bill to be used to expand and enhance services to resident students, and would prohibit the admission of nonresident students from coming at the expense of resident enrollment. (3) This bill would require the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges to make specified data relating to nonresident tuition available to the Legislative Analyst's Office, and would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to include a summary of this data in its annual analysis of the Governor's budget proposal.