Limited enrollment capacity, reduced course sections, crowded classrooms, fewer campus services and higher fees have students and educators in California feeling the pressure of the unprecedented budget crisis that has slashed billions of dollars in public education funding.
“This state is in very dire straits financially, and we are on the receiving end of this fiscal disaster,” college Vice President Carol Maga said. “They’re asking us to serve less students. But we’re serving students less well.”
The state’s three-tiered system, including the 23-campus California State University, 10-campus University of California and 110 community college campuses, is forced to limit enrollment at a time when more students than ever are seeking admission.
The budget, approved and finalized by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature in July for the 2009-10 fiscal year, includes approximately $840 million worth of cuts to and deferred apportionments from community colleges, Director of Fiscal Policy of the Community College League of California (CCLC) Theresa Tena said.
Tena said there are many contributing factors to the rise in enrollment.
Nationwide unemployment is at 11.9 percent, which is rationale for retraining purposes when the economy is doing poorly and returning veterans are taking advantage of their education benefits.
“It’s a shame when the most needy people, the working class, that need to return to school to retrain and get new skills, are denied,” college President McKinley Williams said.
The state has to find a way to stop declining revenues, Senior Dean of Students Frank Hernandez said, because the lack of tax revenue from industries such as real estate, entrepreneurship and corporations is a main contributor to the budget crisis.
Community colleges have experienced a 30 percent fee increase and the UC and CSU systems have similarly raised fees by 10 percent, all which are being used to mitigate the budget deficit.
“Everything is too expensive,” liberal arts major Luis Castillo said. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to afford it after I transfer.”
Along with fee increases, community colleges must also reduce spending, such as through the $193 million cut statewide to categorical programs, which are fundamental student services that are essential to student success statewide.
Matriculation and categorical funds, including EOPS, CalWORKs and Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSPS), have all been cut greatly.
DSPS Manager Yasuko Abe said the federally mandated program, which serves more than 1,000 students at CCC, is no longer able to acquire new technologies and teaching methods.
Such programs are trying to provide the same quality of services with a minimal amount of money.
If the federally approved stimulus occurs, these moneys, $130 million, should backfill the various deficits by up to half of the losses for the fiscal year, however, that is undetermined if and when it may happen, according to the CCLC Web site, www.ccleague.org
Hernandez said, “Much of the revenue of this year is based on hope. Colleges hold their breath around January or February, because there might be mid-year cuts.”
Each college district is addressing ways to offset the budget.
District Vice Chancellor of Fiscal Policy Kindred Murillo said the district is currently serving 40,000 students, a 9.4 percent, which is increase in comparison to 36,000 students this time last year.
Even after taking a 3.39 percent reduction in workload compared to last year, meaning district employees would be required to do less work, there are still far too many students than the district can possibly serve, she said.
“We’re busting at the seams,” Murillo said.
The district is using somewhere around $2-4 million of reserve funds to cover the rise in instructional costs, she said.
There is a possibility that enrollment will continue to rise at the community college level, especially since, according to www.calstate.edu, a $584 million budget deficit in the CSU system has lead to the campuses closing winter 2010 admissions.
Business administration major Veronica Bejarano originally planned on transferring to San Jose State, but will now have to continue her studies at CCC for the time being.
“It might be a positive thing, because students will be more willing to do whatever is necessary,” she said. “I wasn’t headstrong before about school but now that everything is competitive, you have to strive for better.”
Similarly, according to www.universityofcalifornia.edu, the UC system’s budget deficit has reached $450 million.
Hernandez said that in most cases, transfer students will have more access than freshmen to the UC system.
“The very real impact is that it is taking students a much longer time to obtain certification and degrees,” Tena said. “It goes against the very notion that in order to enjoy a well-functioning economy, you want to have a well-educated work force.”
Maga said that although the state collected another $4 billion at the end of the fiscal year to balance overspending, it is far too early to determine the impact of the cuts because further cuts may occur.
“We have to plan for the worst,” she said.
Contact Holly Pablo at hpablo.advocate@gmail.com
Approved 2009-10 budget calls for large reductions
Colleges fight to keep funding for programs
Published: Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Updated: Monday, September 7, 2009 16:09
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