Education: Gateway Centers.

Existing law provides that certain agencies and educational entities are to make various reports or certifications or to submit information to specified entities or agencies. These reports, certifications, and submittals encompass numerous areas of the Education Code. This bill would create the Gateway Council comprised of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, and the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, or their designees. The bill would create Gateway Centers that would be operated by local adult schools and community colleges to leverage multiple education and workforce investment funding streams and improve the transition of adult learners into entry-level degree or certificate training programs that are linked to employment and the reform of the delivery of adult basic education services in California, as specified, as well as perform specified functions relating to this goal. The council would be required to identify state and federal resources, as well as potential philanthropic support, to fund Gateway Centers, develop a request for proposal process to fund projects in different geographic areas of the state, provide project oversight, and report outcomes of the projects. The council would have specified duties including, but not limited to, developing a request for application to participate process by no later than April 15, 2012, and funding at least 3 Gateway Center sites beginning no later than September 1, 2012, contingent upon identification of funding. The bill would require the council to submit a report to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature and to the Governor by January 15, 2016, on the outcomes of, and lessons learned from, the Gateway Centers. This bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2017, unless a later enacted statute enacted on or before January 1, 2017, deletes or extends that date.