New Senate bill helping local college campuses

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - A local Arizona state senator helped bring a new bill into law that will help our local college campuses.

Senator Tim Dunn has been a champion for local Career and Technical Education Districts (CTED), community colleges, and universities.

"So bringing them all together to work for the benefit of the student's population. It was a big success," said Senator Tim Dunn.

He helped sponsor Senate Bill (SB) 1525 which has now been signed into law. Before the bill, there was a preventative statute for CTEDs.

"The old law was that somebody like STEDY, the local CTED, could only partner with community colleges. They could not partner with the universities," said Senator Dunn. "They were trying to do that, and they found out they couldn’t."

Now with the bill, it allows the CTED Governing Board to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with an Arizona Public University to offer technical education courses.

"It's a statewide issue for any of the CTEDs...to partner with the local community college, and if that doesn't happen or if they're not able to do that, then they can reach out and work with any of the universities to provide those educational opportunities," said Senator Dunn.

Dunn says it will help students at local college campuses.

"This is just a great opportunity for our students locally, whether it's on the West Valley or in Yuma, to be able to tap into those resources at the university level," Dunn expressed.

The bill will go into effect 90 days after the legislature adjourns. Dunn says it's expected to be sometime around September or October.