Governor Jerry Brown’s new budget proposal calls for a $1.4 billion decrease in higher education funding.
According to theCalifornian.com, under Brown’s proposal for the coming fiscal year, the state would cut funding to the 112 community colleges in California by $400 million and raise student fees from $26 to $36 per unit to produce an additional $110 million. That’s a 38% raise from what the tuition fee is now.
The enormity of the budget reduction would cause serious issues in the long run. California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott said the state’s two-year colleges would have to turn away up to 350,000 students next year if the state cuts the $400 million proposed by the governor. You could be one of them!
Not only would the cuts mean fewer accepted students but also larger class sizes and reduced student services.
If the $10 increase per unit does not seem too expensive, imagine paying an additional $160 to meet the unit criteria of a full time student and then being in over-crowded classes with limited amounts of student services available to you.
Students who exceed the amount of units required for graduation could be the first to be turned away. Chancellor Scott said those are the students who are loading up their transcripts with gym classes, poor grades and far more units than they need to transfer or graduate.
The possibility of recreational use of the college would be out the door. No more taking classes for fun.
Brown also urged cuts to lower-priority courses, while protecting courses needed for transfer and vocational certificates.
Preliminary classes will remain, but many extracurricular courses will not be available in coming semesters. Class options would be very limited and invariable. There would be fewer courses to enable exploration of other subjects and schedules may be more monotonous.
Many full-time students are scarcely supporting themselves as is. With these proposed cuts to the community college system, some would not be able to afford school.
There are other ways to improve California’s budget situation without taking the money out of our schools, where we need the funding the most.
These options include increasing taxes on vehicles and sales, and increasing tax rates – temporarily, until California’s budget deficits can be alleviated as the years pass.
