New law makes it easier for California community colleges to backfill federal funding cuts

California community colleges will soon be able to more easily backfill funding they have lost because of cuts to federal Minority-Serving Institution grants and TRIO programs.

Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed Assembly Bill 2121, which creates a carve-out related to what’s known as the California 50% law. Existing law requires the state’s community colleges to spend 50% of their budgets on salaries and benefits for classroom instructors.

AB 2121 will create a limited exception to the law. For the next five years, or until funding is restored, any money colleges spend to backfill losses from cuts to MSI (Minority-Serving Institutions) grants or TRIO grants will be excluded from the calculation of the 50% law.

TRIO programs help low-income students access colleges, while MSI grants have historically been available to colleges that enroll high numbers of Hispanic, Asian American, Native American or other underrepresented students.

The Trump administration has declared MSI programs unconstitutional, canceling existing grants and refusing to allocate new ones. In California, Hispanic-Serving Institutions have been hit particularly hard, with community colleges losing an estimated $20 million from cuts to HSI grants. Those grants funded counseling, tutoring and other core student services.

“When President Trump targets our community colleges and our vulnerable student populations, California must do everything we can to fight back. In these unprecedented times, AB 2121 takes a balanced approach that empowers our community colleges to use their own funding to save critical support programs that help students complete their degrees,” bill author Assemblymember Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, said in a statement.

The bill, which takes effect in January, was supported by many community colleges and college access groups, but faced opposition from faculty groups. In an opposition statement to the Legislature, the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges said the purpose of the 50% law is to “ensure that colleges can fulfill their primary function: educating students.” AB 2121, the faculty association argued, “would undermine this longstanding safeguard without sufficient justification.”

This story was originally published by EdSource.