Key Legislation (Introduced as of Jan. 25):
In keeping with Gov. Davis’s agenda for affordability, accessibility and accountability in education issues, several bills deal with admission issues and student fees [Note: The Regents discussed the possibility of raising student fees at their January meeting.]
AB 14 (Ducheny) would guarantee funds for UC and CSU to provide for fee buyouts as in the past year and, like Bustamante’s bill last session, would also require state funds to support student enrollment growth consistent with the Master Plan. It also contains intent language regarding student access and services.
SB 22 (Brulte) proposes reducing student fees for 1999-2000 by 10% below the 1998-99 level. It also would require systemwide fees charged to resident graduate students for 99-00 be reduced 15%. Professional degree fees are excluded.
SCA 2 (Hughes) A reintroduction of SCA 7 from last session, SCA 2 would provide that only the students who rank in the upper 12.5% of their graduating high school class at their particular high school, based on educationally sound measures of high school performance, including grade point average, are eligible for admission to the University of California. The measure would provide that students in this 12.5% group who rank in the upper 6% of their graduating high school class would be entitled to admission to the university, subject to reasonable eligibility requirements established by the university, and that the remainder of students from this 12.5% group would be eligible to compete, on a statewide basis, for available opportunities for admission to the university. (In his inaugural address, Gov. Davis said, “Under my administration, …we will seek to ensure diversity and fair play by guaranteeing that those students who truly excel by graduating in the top four percent of their high school – whether it’s in West Los Angeles or East Palo Alto – will be automatically admitted to the University of California.”
[Note: UC Regents are expected to adopt the 4% plan proposed by BOARS.]
SB 76 (Murray) This bill would guarantee every community college student who attains an associate of arts or an associate of science degree in liberal arts in a community college and meets transfer course and grade point average requirements a place somewhere in UC or CSU system.
Sponsored Legislation:
UC is drafting a proposal for Assembly Member Ducheny that supports graduate medical education by allowing teaching and children’s hospitals to use state Clinical Teaching Support funds to leverage federal Medicaid funds in recognition of the cost of medical education incurred in the treatment of Medi-Cal inpatients. This proposal extends an existing program that was created by SB 391 (Solis) in 1997 – a bill which CUCFA strongly supported.
Master Plan Review: Senator Dede Alpert, Chair of the Senate Education Committee, along with Senator Vasconcellos and others have announced plans to review the Master Plan for Higher Education.
Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA): Speaker Villaraigosa may introduce legislation to eliminate or increase the MICRA caps, which limit to $250,000 non-economic damages in medical malpractice law suits. The thresholds have not been adjusted since the legislation was enacted in 1975, and the California Trial Lawyers have indicated that this is a major priority for them this year.
Confidentiality of Medical Records: Several proposals are expected in this area. Although the intent of the legislators is to restrict marketing to patients based on their medical Legislative Update history, from UC’s perspective, access to medical records is a critical component in research, particularly in epidemiology. [This has been Introduced as AB 62 (Davis).]
HMO Reform: Senator Speier and other legislators have announced their intention to increase the oversight of HMOs and to consider a variety of restrictions and requirements such as requiring plans to cover contraception, requiring doctors to sit on review panels, and allowing HMOs to be sued for malpractice.
TA Unionization: Legislation establishing the right to union representation and collective bargaining for teaching assistants may be introduced.