The whopping cuts Gov. Gray Davis proposes for California’s
Community Colleges are unfair and unwise.
The whopping cuts Gov. Gray Davis proposes for California’s Community Colleges are unfair and unwise.
Under current proposals, California’s 108 community colleges would take a 6.2 percent ($141 million) cut this year and could face a $530 million cut next year.
Meanwhile, the governor proposes a 4.1 percent budget increase for the University of California system and a 1.2 percent funding boost for the California State University system.
It doesn’t make very much sense. The students at our community colleges are more likely to be struggling to make ends meet and to connect the dots between their education and a career.
Gavilan College students, like their community college counterparts throughout California, are protesting state budget cuts and the prospect of their fees more than doubling. About 135 Gavilan students traveled to Sacramento recently to join thousands protesting Davis’ cuts and the prospect of having to pay $24 a unit to attend classes.
Granted, with a $35 billion state budget deficit, something has got to give somewhere and reductions in state spending inevitably will be felt in various places. But we’ve got to agree with our community college students that limiting their access to higher education by charging prohibitive fees or wholesale program cuts is downright counterproductive.
The higher fees could mean that 200,000 fewer people in California will be able to attend a local two-year college, the steppingstone to a higher education.
Projections call for community college enrollment to decline by about 5.7 percent as a result of the fee increases. Is that the direction we really want to go?
Community colleges help train the local work force and respond to employment needs in specific areas. It’s not a wise area to trim when you’re trying to rebuild a lagging economy.
It also doesn’t seem very prudent that the state’s community college system should bear a disproportionate share of budget cuts and enrollment drops not shared by the state college and university systems.
Community college tuition is projected to increase by 120 percent, where fees for the California State University and University of California systems will only rise 25 and 35 percent, respectively. That’s not very equitable or intelligent, either.
The state’s budget crisis and efforts to close these gaps are still a work in progress, so to speak. The needed budget savings should be found elsewhere rather than at the expense of one of the most deserving areas in public education.
