Brief Description: Authorizing community colleges to deduct certain payments from tuition waivers.

Sponsors: By House Committee on Higher Education (originally sponsored by Representatives Sells, Campbell, Fromhold, McCoy and Chase).

House Committee on Higher Education
Senate Committee on Early Learning, K-12 & Higher Education

Background:

Apprenticeship programs enable individuals to learn trades and occupations through on-the-job training and related or supplemental instruction. Apprenticeship programs are sponsored by committees made up of joint employer and labor groups, individual employers, or employer associations.

Most apprenticeship committees contract with a community or technical college to provide the related or supplemental instruction for the program. The nature of the contract varies. Some training trusts hire their own instructor but use a college facility. Others rely fully on the college for instruction, location, and administration and record-keeping. For 2003-05, the contract rate for training is $2,307 per full-time equivalent (FTE) apprentice, and the contract rate for rent is $384 per FTE.

Even if the contract calls for the college to pay the apprenticeship committee, the apprentices in the program still owe their tuition to the college. A rule established by the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges prohibits a college from deducting the tuition owed on behalf of apprentices from the training contract. As a result, the college and apprenticeship committee must complete two financial transactions.

Summary:

For courses offered for the purpose of related or supplemental instruction in an approved apprenticeship program, a community or technical college may deduct tuition owed from a training contract with an apprentice organization at the request of the organization.

Votes on Final Passage:

House   96   2
Senate   45   0

Effective: July 24, 2005