Community colleges: full-time instruction.

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Existing law authorizes the establishment of community college districts under the administration of community college governing boards, and authorizes these districts to provide instruction at community college campuses throughout the state. Existing law requires that community college districts with less than 75% of their hours of credit instruction taught by full-time instructors apply a portion of their program improvement allocation, as provided, to reaching the 75% standard. This bill would require, contingent upon an appropriation in the Budget Act or another statute for this purpose, a district that has less than 75% of its hours of credit instruction taught by full-time instructors to make, at a minimum, an annual 5% reduction in the district's deficit, defined as the gap between 75% of the total district credit hours taught and the total of those taught by full-time faculty. This bill would require the chancellor to annually compute and report by March 15 of each year to each community college district, the district's status with respect to progress toward the 75% goal, the additional hours of full-time faculty credit instruction needed to make a 5% improvement in the district's deficit, and a conversion of the calculated hours to the number of full-time faculty required. This bill would require a district to develop and maintain a 5-year plan for making progress towards achieving the 75% full-time faculty goal, including specified strategies. This bill would require the chancellor to annually determine, on or before December 31, the extent to which each district, by September 30, has hired the number of full-time faculty to achieve the 5% reduction in the district's deficit, and reduce the district's base budget for the current year and subsequent fiscal years by an amount equivalent to the average replacement cost times the deficiency in the number of full-time faculty. By placing additional duties upon a community college district, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.