Funding the Educational Opportunities for Adults in California

1
Funding the Educational Opportunities for Adults
in California

• Presentation to the Assembly Select Committee on
  Adult Education
  
• February 25, 2004
• Patricia L. de Cos
• California Research Bureau

2
Overview

• Methodology
• Distribution of Major Funding Sources and
  Structure
  
• Funding Challenges

3
Methodology

• Assemblymember Liu requested a report from the
  the California Research Bureau to provide
  background information to the Assembly Select
  Committee on Adult Education in the following
  areas
• A definition of adult education,
• Recent information on student enrollment, funding
  sources and structure, and student assessment,
  and
  
• Current issues facing the adult education system
  including an assessment of the need for adult
  education programs, the inequities among service
  providers, lack of counseling, and funding
  challenges.
• Components of the research methodology included
• Site visits to gain a better understanding of
  what adult continuing education is and how it is
  implemented at the local level in different
  communities
• A compilation of pertinent census data and other
  data relevant to identify the state aggregate
  level of need for adult continuing education and
  
• A collection fiscal and enrollment, demographic
  and other data from the Chancellors Office of
  California Community Colleges, the California
  Department of Education, and the Comprehensive
  Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS).
• The final report is a culmination of multiple
  reviews of various sections of the report in its
  draft stages from individuals at the local and
  state levels.

4
Distribution of Major Funding Sources and
Structure

• Overall State and Federal Funding Sources
• Adult Schools - (Federal and State)
• Community College Noncredit Programs - (Federal
  and State)
  
• Federal Workforce Investment Act, Title II

5
Figure 1
6
Figure 2
7
Additional Possible Sources of Funding Available
to Some Students in Adult Schools in 2001-2002

• Community-Based English Tutoring (CBET) Program
  (also for possible use by noncredit programs or
  other local providers)
  
• State Apprenticeship Program
• Regional Occupational Centers or Programs
  (ROC/Ps)
  
• Lottery Educational Apportionment
• Federal Workforce Investment Act, Title I

8
Figure 3
9
Additional Possible Sources of Funding Available
to Some Noncredit Students in the Community
Colleges in 2001-2002

• CalWORKs Curriculum Development and Redesign
• CalWORKs Instruction
• Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSPS)
• Extended Opportunity Programs and Services
  (EOPS)
  
• Partnership for Excellence (PFE)
• Lottery Educational Apportionment
• Federal Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical
  Education Act (VTEA)
  
• Federal Workforce Investment Act, Title I

10
Figure 4
11
Funding Challenges

• Community Colleges
• Adult Schools
• Reimbursement Rates
• Existing Services Included in the General
  Apportionment

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Funding Challenges

• Community Colleges
• Since the revenue limit and cap are determined at
  a district level, funding for noncredit FTES is
  not considered in isolation of the other three
  workload drivers. Depending on the funding
  priorities established at the local level and the
  relationship that the adult continuing education
  administrators and faculty have with their credit
  counterparts, these factors may in large part
  determine the annual level of funding for
  noncredit.
• Given this flexibility, one of the benefits for
  local district administrators is the ability to
  increase or decrease noncredit course offerings
  based on how the overall district cap is evolving
  during the year. However, some local
  administrators believe that since no funding
  standards were established during the
  implementation of the program-based funding
  process, it has been hard to argue for equity
  funding and treatment of noncredit students to
  credit students.
• It is not known how the funding per noncredit
  FTES has been affected by not funding the
  California Community Colleges (CCCs) according to
  the constitutional guarantee under Proposition
  98. The CCCs are currently receiving 10 percent
  compared with a negotiated 11 percent share for
  community colleges, which results in 450 million
  loss to the system as a whole.

13
The 10 Largest Noncredit Programs in 2002-2003
(P2)
Table 1
14
Funding Challenges

• Adult Schools
• The need for adult education services is
  inferred in the current funding mechanism by the
  prior years attendance. Thus, the need for the
  10 instructional programs offered by school
  districts and county offices of education is not
  directly related to the states distribution of
  funding.
• The existing funding formula for calculating each
  school districts base revenue limit was largely
  determined after the passage of Proposition 13 in
  1978, and property taxes have no longer been the
  primary source of funding for school districts.
  The legacy of Proposition 13 is that the state
  has assumed the primary responsibility for
  funding the education of adults, and the revenue
  limits that were established, using the 1977-78
  school year as its base year, are essentially the
  existing limits today, with an allowance for an
  annual growth of 2.5 percent and COLA. Many
  communities in California have grown
  substantially and have outpaced the existing
  funding formula. Other communities have
  experienced low or no growth in demand, and are
  not able to provide the current level of service
  that the existing allocation formula expects.
  This creates a growing imbalance between demand
  for services and the level of resources available
  to meet that demand among adult schools as seen
  in Table 2.

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School Districts Adult Education Programs Over
Cap or Under Cap from 1999-2000 through 2001-2002
Table 2
Source California Department of Education,
Adult Education Office.

16
Chart 1
17
Reimbursement Rates
Table 3

Source Chancellors Office of California
Community Colleges, Fiscal Services and the
California Department of Education, Fiscal
Services Office.
18
Existing Services Included in the General
Apportionment

• The relatively low statewide average FTES rate
  for noncredit programs and ADA rate for adult
  schools has affected a number of areas to support
  the program operation. These include guidance
  and counseling support (particularly for adult
  schools), data collection and reporting, the
  large proportion of part-time status of faculty
  and ability to pay for the facultys
  salaries/benefits, professional development
  activities, etc.
• For example, the low revenue limit rate provided
  to adult schools by the state hampers the ability
  of many adult schools to provide counseling
  services to adult students. When adult schools
  had access to CalWORKs dollars, more counselors
  were affordable for adult schools. With the loss
  of that funding, many adult schools have been
  forced to reduce their counseling staff. One of
  the reasons that there is a low ratio of
  counselors to the number of students served is
  that, unlike the attendance of students, guidance
  and counseling support does not generate ADA.
  Therefore, it is an assumed function within each
  districts general fund allocation.
• As noted earlier, the community colleges receive
  noncredit matriculation support services, which
  provide counseling, orientation, and assessment
  services for six of the nine authorized
  instructional categories (elementary and
  secondary basic skills, ESL, disabled adults,
  citizenship, parenting education, and short-term
  vocational education).

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Summary

• The report summarizes the findings emanating from
  the analysis and provides some policy options in
  the areas of
  
• Governance,
• Delineation of Function Agreements,
• The California High School Exit Examination,
• Qualifications for Instructors Providing
  Educational Opportunities to Adults,
  
• Data Collection and Reporting and Standards,
• Fee-Based Programs,
• Monitoring of State-funded Programs,
• An Assessment of Need,
• Counseling Support, and
• Funding.