Equalization funding would translate into additional $255,000
annually
Gilroy – Gavilan College receives about $3,985 per student, while Copper Mountain College in Twentynine Palms, pulls in $4,757 annually. Some schools even pull in as much as $8,000 per student.
But that may change if the governor sticks to his proposal to include $130 million in equalization funding for California community colleges in the 2006-2007 budget. For Gavilan College that means $255,000 more in its coffers next school year or a 1 percent increase in its $20 million annual budget.
California’s 72 community colleges have been funded at drastically varying rates since Proposition 13 was passed, said Gavilan President Steve Kinsella. The property tax cap, which was approved by voters in 1978, locked in community colleges, causing some to be funded at higher rates than others.
“What it essentially does is we have less revenue to operate with compared to other colleges,” Kinsella said. “Equalization is an attempt to bring each school up to the statewide average.”
The current statewide average is $4,000 per student. Community colleges are paid per full-time-equivalent student, or any student taking a full class load of 12 units or more.
Gavilan’s FTE is about 4,600. Although equalization funding has “been in the works for at least 10 years,” the issue is at the forefront, now that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has included it in his budget, Kinsella said.
Gavilan College Board of Trustees President Tom Breen said the equalization issue has been “an ongoing situation.”
Still, even without the extra cash the colleges is in good financial shape, Breen said.
“Things are good for the community colleges this year, that is they’re not being reduced in any substantial ways,” he said.
Small colleges are particularly affected by unequal funding because the schools don’t have much flexibility since enrollment is lower and the budget more stagnant.
The equalization funds will be added to the college’s general funds and won’t be earmarked for any specific area. The extra funds colleges receive could translate to things such as more full time faculty, support staff, such as custodians, and increases in benefits.
Kinsella said Gavilan’s salaries are mid-range compared to other community colleges, exactly where they want to be.
“We’re about at the mid-point,” he said. “Which is what we use for evaluation purposes.”
The average salary for tenured instructors at Gavilan was $72,489, according to a 2004 report by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.
Salaries were increased by 3 percent this year, bringing the average paycheck of the college’s 71 full-time staffers to about $74,663. And the college is hiring five more full-time instructors this spring.
