New legislation means college kids will soon pay $6 less per
unit
Gilroy ? Community college students are bound to have fatter wallets come January.
Thanks to the passage of Senate Bill 361, which alters an antiquated system that resulted in unequal funding for California colleges, tuition across the state will drop from $26 to $20 per unit once the new year rolls around.
Gavilan President Steve Kinsella said the tuition reduction element just happens to be wrapped up in SB 361, a positive for community college students who have endured rapidly rising fees over the past two years.
?They raised it so fast,? Kinsella said.
The $6 increase, a jump from $20 to $26, went into effect during the 2004-05 school year and it did result in fewer students signing up.
?Really what happen was when they raised the tuition like that it did create a drop in demand,? Kinsella said.
And since the college doesn?t benefit from tuition increases ? the cash is picked up by the state ? Gavilan suffered with decreased numbers. This fall, though, the school experienced a 10 percent enrollment hike and the drop in tuition costs will likely result in yet another increase.
For Gavilan College the $130 million in equalization funding that will be included in the 2006-07 budget because of SB 361 will translate to an extra $255,000, a 1 percent increase in the local college?s $20 million annual budget.
The college, which has a surplus of about $750,000 has already received $800,000 worth of requests, so Kinsella expects to see the list grow once the equalization funding kicks in. College faculty and staff members have said they would like to see the extra cash applied to a variety of areas but the dominant ones were more technology support, registration assistance, custodial services and expanded hours of operation at the library.
California?s 72 community colleges have been funded at drastically varying rates since Proposition 13 was passed. The property tax cap approved by voters in 1978, locked in community colleges, causing some to be funded at higher rates than others.
On Tuesday, California Community College Chancellor Mark Drummond along with education officials and politicians staged a press conference to announce details about the legislation recently signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Last year, the California Community College system provided educational programs to more than 2.5 million students. The system is comprised of 72 districts, 109 campuses and 60 approved educational centers.
