AB 2528 California Assembly · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Community colleges: governing board member compensation.

Summary

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in the state. Existing law establishes community college districts throughout the state under the administration of community college district governing boards. Existing law requires the governing board of each community college district to establish, maintain, operate, and govern one or more community colleges, as provided. Existing law authorizes the compensation of governing board members that actually attend all meetings held by the governing board, not to exceed a specified amount from $120 to $1,500, inclusive, based on the number of full-time equivalent students in the community college district, as provided. This bill would increase the authorized compensation for community college district governing board members that attend all meetings held by the governing board, not to exceed a specified amount from $600 to $4,500, inclusive, based on the number of full-time equivalent students in the community college district, as provided. The bill would require the governing board to provide public notice at least 30 days before a public meeting at which the governing board proposes to increase the compensation of the governing board members, as provided.

Issues: ✓ Education

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2026

Committee Review

Jul 2026

Assembly Passage

May 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Feb 20, 2026 Last action Jul 1, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

06/22/26 - Amended Senate → AB2528 · 1 edit

MINOR

No substantive policy changes were made between these two versions. The diff reflects a reformatting of the same legislative text from a traditional printed bill layout (with line numbers and page headers) to a web page display format, including the addition of website navigation elements. The compensation tiers, public notice requirements, and all other provisions remain identical.

TECHNICAL

The bill text was reformatted from a traditional legislative document layout with line numbers and page breaks into a web page presentation format, adding site navigation elements (skip to content, home, accessibility, FAQ, etc.) and restructuring the display of the digest and statutory text.

02/20/26 - Introduced → 06/22/26 - Amended Senate · 4 edits · Jun 22, 2026

MODERATE

AB 2528 as amended in Senate significantly increases the maximum monthly compensation for California community college governing board members across all district size tiers, roughly tripling to quintupling the previous caps. The amendment also adds a new public notice requirement mandating 30 days advance warning before any proposed pay increase, and includes a legislative intent statement encouraging boards to consider compensating student board members while protecting their financial aid eligibility.

Scope change

The bill's scope expands beyond simply raising pay caps. It now includes transparency requirements (public notice before pay increases) and a new policy direction regarding student board member compensation and its interaction with financial aid eligibility rules.

FISCAL

Maximum monthly compensation for governing board members is increased across all FTES tiers: from $1,500 to $4,500 (districts over 60,000 FTES), from $750 to $3,000 (25,001-60,000), from $400 to $2,000 (10,001-25,000), from $240 to $1,200 (1,001-10,000), and from $120 to $600 (151-1,000).

REQUIREMENT

New subdivision (f) requires governing boards to provide public notice at least 30 days before a meeting where they propose to increase board member compensation. The notice must be posted on the district website with a prominent direct link, include current and proposed dollar amounts, meeting date/time/location, and be provided directly to exclusive representatives of all bargaining units.

ELIGIBILITY

New subdivision (g) expresses legislative intent to encourage governing boards to consider providing compensation to student members of the board when increasing their own pay, capped at the amount received by other board members. It also states that such compensation should not count toward maximum household income and asset levels for determining student financial aid eligibility under Section 69432.7(k).

TECHNICAL

Throughout the section, references to 'board' are expanded to 'governing board of a community college district' for clarity, gendered pronouns ('he or she') are replaced with 'the member,' and minor wording is cleaned up.

Floor votes · Assembly May 21, 2026

How they voted

56–12

Passed · 11 other

Total votes 79

May 21, 2026

D Democratic59

53 Yea 1 Nay 5

89% Yea

R Republican20

3 Yea 11 Nay 6

55% Nay

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Jul 1, 2026

Upper · Passed

In committee: Set, second hearing. Failed passage. Reconsideration granted.

upper

Jun 22, 2026

Introduced

From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on ED.

upper

Jun 8, 2026

Upper · Passed

In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.

upper

Jun 3, 2026

Committee

Referred to Coms. on ED. and APPR.

upper

May 21, 2026

Lower · Passed

Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 57. Noes 12. Page 5176.)

lower

Apr 22, 2026

Lower · Passed

From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 3.) (April 21).

lower

Mar 9, 2026

Committee

Referred to Com. on HIGHER ED.

lower

Feb 21, 2026

Lower · Passed

From printer. May be heard in committee March 23.

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors