AB 190 – Makes Budgetary Changes To Higher Education Programs

This bill is the clean-up higher education budget trailer bill. AB 190 makes the necessary changes to implement the higher education provisions adopted as part of the Budget Act of 2022. AB 190 took effect upon approval by the Governor on September 27, 2022.

AB 190 makes the following statutory changes:

1. Establishes the California Student Housing Revolving Loan Fund to provide zero-interest loans to qualifying campuses at the University of California (UC), the California State University (CSU), and the California Community Colleges (CCC) for the purpose of constructing affordable student, faculty, and staff housing. Allocates $1.8 billion in 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 and creates a process for the California School Finance Authority and the California Educational Facilities Authority to create and receive applications from campuses, and distribute funds.
2. The Budget Act of 2022 includes $200 million in the ongoing Proposition 98 General Fund to augment the Part-Time Faculty Health Insurance Program to expand healthcare coverage provided to part-time faculty by community college districts (CCDs). AB 190 amends existing law to authorize the governing board of a CCD to provide a health insurance program for “multidistrict part-time faculty,” defined as any faculty member whose total teaching load at two or more CCDs is at least 40% of a full-time assignment. The bill requires that a CCD reimburse a multidistrict part-time faculty member for the district’s proportionate share of the total health insurance premium paid by the multidistrict part-time faculty member, up to a proportionate share of the maximum of the full cost of the district’s most commonly subscribed family coverage plan. The CCD’s proportionate share is calculated by dividing the total health insurance premium paid by the multidistrict part-time faculty member by the total number of CCDs in which the multidistrict part-time faculty member works, and multiplying that quotient by the percentage of the health care cost paid by the CCDs toward the total cost of the health insurance premium. A CCD is authorized to require reasonable documentation for purposes of verifying eligibility as a multidistrict part-time faculty and to determine the proportionate share of the CCD.
3. Makes clarifying changes to the Higher Education Student Housing Grant Program. Revises the application deadlines, and information to be submitted to the Legislature, Joint Legislative Budget Committee, and Department of Finance. Allocates $6 million to the California State University, Humboldt. It also repeals $3.8 million for future allocation in subsequent legislation.
4. Amends the Classified School Employee Summer Assistance Program to include a definition for “month” to mean 20 days or 4 weeks of 5 days each, including legal holidays.
5. Amends existing provisions of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Student Achievement Program. Requires the applicable statewide central office to (a) develop the criteria and process for a grant program to provide funding to the segment’s qualifying campuses; (b) establish an AANHPI stakeholder process for purposes of the segment’s program; (c) prepare an annual report that includes specified information on or before March 31 of each year; and (D) require the report prepared by the independent evaluator and submitted by the offices of the Chancellor of the CCC and CSU on or before March 31, 2026, to include an assessment of the impact of the segment’s program.
6. Provides the California Student Aid Commission the temporary authority to grant an appeal for Cal Grant participation for the academic year 2023-24 if an institution failed to meet the cohort default rate solely due to the acquisition of an out-of-state institution that impacted its cohort default rate, and the acquired institution has since closed.
7. Establishes that for the academic year commencing 2022-2023, any full-time student who qualifies for $1 under the Middle-Class Scholarship Program shall be eligible to receive a minimum scholarship of $90.
8. Amends the age eligibility requirement to qualify for the NextUp program. The bill provides that current or former foster youth are eligible for NextUp so long as they are not older than 25 years of age at the commencement of the academic year in which they first enroll in the program. Further, foster youth will maintain eligibility regardless of whether they meet eligibility criteria for additional programs or services. Deletes the provision that requires the regulations adopted by the board of governors for the program to allow waiving of income criteria specified in the regulations as a condition of eligibility.

(AB 190 amends Sections 17201, 69432.7, 70023, 79222, 79223, 79225, 79511, 87861, 87862, 87863, 87864, 87867, 88280, 89297.1, 94110, 94140, 94144, 94146, 94147, 94151, 94154, 94190, 94191, 94192, 94193, 94194, and 94195 of, adds Sections 79223.5 and 87865 to, and adds Chapter 14.28, commencing with Section 67329.1, to Part 40 of Division 5 of Title 3 of, the Education Code.)