HB 84-MILITARY TRAINING CREDIT/TEMP. LICENSE  8:26:40 AM CHAIR OLSON announced that the next order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 84 "An Act relating to applying military education, training, and service credit to occupational licensing and certain postsecondary education and employment training requirements; providing for a temporary occupational license for qualified military service members; and providing for an effective date." KIM SKIPPER, Staff, Representative Dan Saddler, Alaska State Legislature, speaking on behalf of the sponsor, Representative Saddler, stated that HB 84 relates to military training credit and temporary licensing. The goal of HB 84 is to help separating service members transition quickly and effectively into the workforce. Each year, approximately 1,200 service members separate from military service in Alaska. Americans in the military service receive world class training, education, and experience during their time in uniform, which are assets that should not be lost to them or Alaska's communities. This bill asks the Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development (DCCED), Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing (DCBPL), the University of Alaska (UAA), and the Department of Labor & Workforce Development (DLWD) to evaluate military training and education and assign civilian credit where appropriate, without comprising current licensing standards. This bill would improve the probability of veterans finding jobs by accelerating the state's licensing process and early education credits. Service members often experience delays and lost opportunities qualifying for licenses and academic credit, even though they have the applicable training and experience. As of July 2012, 19 states have enacted legislation and over 30 states are considering similar legislation in 2013. She related that this bill concept originated last legislature by former Representative Bill Thomas, who introduced a similar bill. She explained that factors such as budget cuts and federal sequestration will see more veterans seeking civilian jobs. The state has an obligation to find ways to give veterans opportunities to leverage their military experience into academic credit, job certification, or vocational training credits. She concluded that bills such as HB 84 help make that happen to everyone's benefit. 8:29:22 AM CHAIR OLSON asked about the fiscal notes. MS. SKIPPER answered that the effective date of HB 84 is 12/31/2013. The DCCED's fiscal note of $137,000 is for the DCBPL to meet requirements of the bill. 8:29:47 AM REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHSON, referring to page 2, subsection (b), asked if the committee should be concerned about the required experience, degree, or diploma or certificate listed. MS. SKIPPER responded that the certification or credits require substantial equivalence. Thus any substantially equivalent experience, training, or academic credits can be considered for licensure. She deferred to the DCBPL to expand on this. 8:30:48 AM REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHSON referred to subsection (c) [on page 2, lines 22-24] and inquired as to the expedited procedure for licensure. MS. SKIPPER answered that this subsection would give veterans a priority for licensure to speed up the licensing process. 8:31:27 AM REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD said she thinks HB 84 is a good bill. She stated that the U.S. has already paid for the training for the military with federal tax dollars so it only makes sense to transfer the experience. She commended the bill. 8:31:59 AM REPRESENTATIVE HERRON asked whether a new board would be created [in the DCCED.] MS. SKIPPER answered no; but to meet the effective date 11 affected boards would need to schedule meetings and review the requirements. She deferred to the department to more fully respond. 8:32:43 AM SARA CHAMBERS, Professional Licensing Operations Manager, Division of Corporations, Business, and Professional Licensing, Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development (DCCED), introduced herself. 8:33:26 AM REPRESENTATIVE HERRON said he supports the bill. He then asked whether HB 84 could ask existing boards to accomplish the tasks. MS. CHAMBERS answered that many boards don't meet frequently enough to review the requirements for equivalency or propose regulations to articulate the equivalency to staff to properly administer licensure. She estimated an additional meeting for each of the effected boards in order to deliberate and work through the regulations process. She said an additional handful of programs the division administers will also be affected. Thus, part of the fiscal note includes the cost of adopting regulations and properly noticing all licensees. 8:34:40 AM REPRESENTATIVE HERRON asked the House Finance Committee to review the fiscal note. 8:34:52 AM CHRIS CHRISTENSEN, Associate Vice President, State Relations, University of Alaska (UA), read from prepared testimony, as follows: For the record, I am Chris Christensen with the University of Alaska. I'm here today to talk about Section 2 of the bill, which directs the University's president to adopt policies and procedures to award credit for military training, education, and service time. While the bill hasn't yet become law, I'm pleased to tell you that the university is in compliance with this mandate. I'd like to begin by noting that the university is committed to offering quality educational experiences to active military, veterans, and their dependents. GI Jobs, which is a magazine and web portal that exists specifically to serve military members in their transition back to civilian life, has designated both UAA and UAF as "military friendly schools". Only 15 percent of all the colleges, universities, and vocational schools in the country have earned this distinction. He said this is probably one of the reasons that the Department of Defense (DOD) is pushing this legislation nationwide. It's actually a pretty sad commentary on education in the Lower 48 - that so few schools actually get this designation. The web portal guidetoonlineschools.com, which bills itself as the most comprehensive authority on distance education has last year put out a list of the most military-friendly online colleges in the country, and we're proud that the University of Alaska was ranked number five. As the entity that made that rating possible by your support, we think you should be very proud of that also. 8:36:37 AM MR. CHRISTENSEN continued to read prepared testimony as follows [original punctuation provided]: I'm based in Anchorage so while I work for the statewide system I am most familiar with UAA. That campus has close to 2,000 active duty military and veteran students, which is close to 10 percent of the student body. After winning the military friendly designation three years in a row, UAA didn't just rest on its laurels. Last year, it formed a Military and Veteran Student Task Force which is currently inventorying all the existing services that we provide: programs, academic and administrative policies, and recommending improvements. Last year UAA opened a Military & Veteran Student Resource Center in the student union to act as an on-campus central service point for military and veteran students and their families. The UAA is one of just 11 schools in the entire country selected by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to participate in the "VetSuccess on Campus" program, which places full-time V.A. coordinators on campus to work with our resource center servicing the military veteran students and their families. In the short time I've been with the university, the single issue I have heard about the most is transfer of credit. This is a subject that arouses great passion, and military transfer credit is just one piece of this bigger issue. The Board of Regents has adopted a written policy that the campuses must accept in transfer as much credit as is appropriate to a student's new degree and graduation requirements. All three campuses have established transfer credit policies designed to give maximum credit for courses and training taken elsewhere, including in the military. 8:38:16 AM MR. CHRISTENSEN continued to read prepared testimony as follows [original punctuation provided]: We do believe that awarding appropriate credit for military training is one of the university's core responsibilities and another way we can show our commitment to our military and veteran students. While testifying last year [on similar legislation] I discovered there are tremendous misconceptions about what the university is doing, which is why I wanted to testify today, Mr. Chair. Transfer credit processes at the university are managed at the campus level, although there is necessarily a great deal of uniformity in the system. All three campuses transfer credit based on recommendations made by "ACE," which is the acronym for the "American Council of Education." ACE has had an agreement with the Department of Defense (DOD) since the end of World War II to review military training and experience for the award of equivalent college credits. Its recommendations on equivalent college credits are utilized by thousands of colleges and universities across the country. 8:38:35 AM MR. CHRISTENSEN continued to read prepared testimony as follows [original punctuation provided]: Each of UAA's three campuses actually has written agreements with the defense department to use the ACE recommendations. Our three campuses are also members of the SOC consortium. "SOC" stands for the "service members' opportunity colleges." This is a consortium of over 1,000 colleges and universities across the country that enroll military, veterans, and dependents in special degree programs, both on-campus and through distance learning. Its purpose is to let the military members actually get degrees, instead of just accumulate credits as they move from base to base. The UA has signed written agreements with the other members of the consortium to, among other things, follow specific guidelines to ease transferability of credit. For example, a military students working on an associate's degree at UAA only need three UAA credits to earn the degree. UAA will accept all of the rest of the credits from other schools in the SOC consortium. UAA is currently accepting approximately 51 credits on average from military students at any of the regionally accredited military institutions, such as the Community College of the Air Force, the Service Academies, and others. At UAF, a military student can use approximately 30 credits of typical training for the Bachelor of Emergency Management Degree, or 90 credits for a General Studies BA that doesn't require satisfying particular major requirements. Neither UAA nor UAF has any limitation on the number of military transfer credits that they will award. They used to, but they've done away with it in the past few years, as part of our continual process to review the system and make it better. I could go on - but the bottom line, Mr. Chair - while I don't have figures for the entire system, UAA alone awards over 21,000 hours a year of military transfer credit for training, for education, and even for time spent in the service, and the number is increasing every year. As of this year, approximately 99.5 percent of the students who requested military transfer credits received those credits. Alaska is widely known to service members as a state that welcomes and appreciates the military and I think that Alaska's university, as demonstrated by our existing policies reflects those prevailing social values pretty accurately. I'd be happy to answer any questions that members may have. 8:41:40 AM REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD characterized this effort as outstanding. She asked whether he does his own follow-up. MR. CHRISTENSEN said he would follow-up personally. REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD said she asks this question because some agencies did not provide the information requested to the finance subcommittees. She recalled that Mr. Christensen testified that an online publication attributes UAA as being military friendly and rated number five. She asked for more information on the publication. Additionally, she requested information on the SOC program. She thanked the UAA for working on making it possible to transfer credits since this is a "hot button" issue for her as well as for others. She appreciated the effort and sees the university as moving in the right direction. 8:42:55 AM CHAIR OLSON pointed out that several military veterans serve on the committee. He also offered his appreciation for the bill. 8:44:04 AM MARK SAN SOUCI, Regional Liaison, Military Families for the Northwest; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Family and Community Policy, U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), related his support for HB 84. He noted he has been watching and listening to testimony on this bill. He agreed with Ms. Skipper's outline and concurs with Mr. Christensen's comments. He then provided some abbreviated comments from his written testimony submitted to the committee. MR. SAN SOUCI said two years ago, the U.S. Department of Defense began asking states to give separating service members credit so that they may not be held back from finding employment or finishing a degree. As Representative Reinbold remarked, the training has been paid for through federal taxes. Last year the legislature passed identical language in a bill introduced by Representative Thomas, but the bill languished on the Senate floor and died on the last legislative day. He acknowledged the language in this bill was ever so close in passing. He reported that the DOD is making efforts due to the unemployment rate - primarily in September 2012 - of over 736,000 unemployed veterans, the jobless rate for post 9/11 veterans at 9.9 percent, and an unemployment rate of 18.1 percent for young male veterans ages 18 to 24. MR. SAN SOUCI echoed Ms. Skipper's testimony that in the past two years, about 25 states enacted new laws to help grant veterans credit towards licensing and/or academic credit. Thus far in 2013, 30 states are in the process of considering similar legislation. He said he appreciated the legislature considering HB 84, which only seeks to obtain academic and training credit where credit is due and does not ask for direct licensure if it is not equivalent. In cases in which the regulatory agency or board determines partial credit, it will still save time and money. 8:46:48 AM MR. SAN SOUCI said another point to consider is that the more credit given to a veteran towards licensing or a degree or certification, the more school slots can be made available to civilians, especially in programs where there may be waiting lists. The Department of Defense (DOD) recognizes that if it is going to ask credentialing bodies to evaluate military training and experience it must also be easier for them to do so. In that respect, the DOD is working feverishly with the U.S. Department of Labor to link service transcripts of military occupations with civilian to private sector licensure requirements, while also asking state regulatory authorities in six pilot states - Washington, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Virginia, and Colorado - to review select military occupations to determine whether the training and experience are sufficient to be useful in rendering licensing credit in a given occupation. 8:47:33 AM MR. SAN SOUCI noted one point Mr. Christensen did not mention is that as of March 1, 2013, the DOD has also worked with the respective military services to create a joint service transcript, or JST, which will be a common purple transcript - generic to all military services for uniformity. The JST will be an official tool designed to ease the burden of translating one service's coding and course descriptions and training to another. He anticipated this will streamline and standardize the process to evaluate credits. 8:48:53 AM The committee took an at-ease from 8:48 a.m. to 8:51 a.m. 8:51:21 AM CHAIR OLSON, after first determining no one else wished to testify, closed public testimony on HB 84. 8:51:47 AM REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD moved to report HB 84 out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, HB 84 was reported from the House Labor and Commerce Standing Committee.