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news
Community college
transfers may be in trouble
By Tina Dhamija
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
For decades, many
students normally unable to afford four years of higher education
at a state university were able to get degrees and launch
careers via community college instruction.
Although it may
seem like a pretty fair system to most, reports of a decrease
in funding for community colleges in California over the past
decade may have a harmful effect on those students wishing
to transfer and graduate at the state university level.
At Cal State Long
Beach alone, 2,443 transfer students attended in the fall
and 995 in the spring, according to CSULB Information Management
and Analysis.
Lately, the issue
has been picking up steam by students and legislators alike,
calling forth a fight for financial justice in California's
community colleges.
" The people
who can't afford to study all four years in state [universities]
start-off in community colleges," said Eric Sviatek,
an electronics engineering major at Long Beach City College.
" If the quality of community college education goes
down because of lack of money, then a lot of people have no
where to start and no way to get ahead."
Sviatek, like many
other students at his school, ultimately plans to transfer
to CSULB to earn his degree. After being enrolled at LBCC
each semester since 1994, Sviatek said he has seen a clear
decline in funding quality at his school over that eight year
span.
"Since I started
[at LBCC], yes, I've seen the problems of low funding for
my school escalate," Sviatek said.
This slow growing
trickle of funds to community colleges can best be defined
under the confines of Proposition 98, a bill that passed ten
years ago. Under Prop 98, all public schools in the state
are guaranteed a steady source of income for education, and
community colleges were granted 11 percent of Prop 98 dollars.
However, each year the state legislature suspends the 11 percent
statutory split, depriving community colleges by over $2.7
billion over the past ten years, a report issued by California
Assemblyman Robert Pacheco's office stated.
Concerned with
the issue, Pacheco, a representative of the 16th district,
is demanding change from Governor Gray Davis. A press conference
held by Pacheco in the library of Mt. San Antonio College
in the city of Walnut on Tuesday, Aug.14, created a forum
for himself and Davis to discuss the problem.
"It's time
educational elitism needs to be stopped in California,"
Pacheco said later. "I needed to let the governor know
that he needs to treat community colleges more fairly."
Davis, being considered
in the hot seat for the issue, said he disagrees with the
idea that he does not fully support community college education.
After contacting his Sacramento office about the issue, spokesperson
for the governor Hilary McLean responded with the following
statement:
"The governor
has been fighting to protect education since he started,"
McLean said. "It is important to remember that he fought
to increase spending, in spite of budget limitations."
McLean also stated
that the numbers in governor's office show that Davis did
not opt to take money away at the community college level,
but increased spending by six percent instead.
However, Pacheco's
numbers show a different story. In an open letter to California
newspaper editors, he wrote that out of the $600 million in
budget cuts made to this year's budget by Davis, $120 million
of that money was selectively cut from California's community
colleges.
"Community
colleges have long opened their doors to a diverse population,
offering an array of subjects at low cost," Pacheco wrote.
"In the next ten years, the community colleges expect
enrollment to grow by over 530,000 new students. How can we
pack students into classrooms that are already over crowded
and dilapidated?"
Director of Institutional
Research at CSULB, Vincent Novak responded to the issue by
recognizing the importance of the relationship between state
universities and community colleges.
"Unless you're
coming in [to CSULB] as a first time freshman, what happens
at the community college level does affect us at the state
level."
Novak added that community colleges have a different purpose
when it comes to student enrollment. He said he feels that
whatever the case, the matter is a complicated one, and may
not be entirely up to the governor to fix it.
"The problem
is community colleges can't turn anybody away," Novak
said. "The University of California system is required
to take only the top ten percentile of graduating high school
seniors, the Cal State system can only take the top third,
so that leaves community colleges with a completely different
mission. Unfortunately, I'm assuming that the gross budget
for community colleges has remained that same, even though
the number of students enrolling has been rising," Novak
said.
A state education
budget chart, issued by the finance office of the governor,
illustrates that community colleges do receive more in total
funds from the state, but receive less money per student than
grades K-12. It is under this fact that Pacheco lays the basis
for his cause.
"The Cal States
and UCs are regularly funded at a much higher level than community
colleges," Pacheco said. "Right now, UCs get about
$25,000 per student, CSUs get about $11,000 per student, and
K-12 [public schools] receive $7,000 per student. Community
colleges rank last on that list with about $4,700 per student
and that is not right."
Most of the funds
Pacheco is fighting for apparently have less to do with cuts
in education and more to do with cuts in building maintenance,
but still he said, he feels there should be more money going
to community colleges.
For now, however,
transfer hopefuls like Sviatek said they find the whole issue
unjust, but simple.
"The [inequality]
in funding is kind of like a way for the upper class, or state
universities in this case, to squeeze out the lower class,
or community colleges," said Sviatek. "It's very
important for me to go on to Cal State Long Beach for my degree
and I plan to work hard for it, but had I been enrolled in
a state university for all four years, I'd be broke."
Novak, on the other
hand said he sees the funding problem more as an issue of
teamwork.
"We need to
work closely with community colleges," Novak said. "Anything
bad that happens to them will generally affect us."
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