|
State Issues - March 9, 2010
Governor Schwarzenegger
presented his 2010-11 state budget in January, and in light of the statewide
financial context ($20 billion budget deficit), it contains good news for
community colleges.
The proposed budget:
- Provides $126 million to
fund enrollment growth of 2.21 percent. This would enable about 26,000 new
full-time students to enroll in community colleges throughout California.
- Reduces funding for
apportionments and select categorical programs by $22.9 million to account
for a negative cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), computed at -0.38 percent.
The negative amount is due to declines in labor and fuel costs used in the
statutory formula to calculate the COLA for K-12 and community colleges.
- Cuts $10 million from
Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS).
- Cuts $10 million from
Part-time Faculty Compensation.
- Increases Career-Technical
Education by $20 million.
- Maintains all categorical
cuts and flexibility allowances approved in 2009-10, and does not backfill
the $35 million in federal funds provided in 2009-10 to ease the cuts.
- Proposes student fees be
maintained at $26/unit.
- Makes technical changes to
accommodate and backfill reduced property taxes and other budget year
revenue shortfalls and acknowledges, but does not backfill, student fee
revenue shortfall of $10 million in the current year.
- Proposes the suspension of
the competitive Cal Grant program, with no new awards provided beginning in
fall 2010.
According to California
Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott, the proposed budget "is as favorable
as we could have hoped" given the state’s ongoing fiscal issues.
- It would protect colleges
from the effects of declining property tax revenues.
- It also provides important
enrollment growth funding to help colleges serve students.
- Most importantly, it does
not propose additional budget cuts after the $800 million in cuts we
experienced in 2009-10.
In February, the Legislative
Analyst's Office released its evaluation of the Governor's proposed budget (The
2010-11 Budget: Higher Education). The LAO report offered a number of
suggestions, including:
- Raising student enrollment
fees to $40 per unit beginning in fall 2010, which would provide
approximately $150 million in new revenue
- Eliminating the $126
million for student enrollment growth that would come from the state’s
general fund, and instead allocate that money through increased student fee
revenue
- Eliminating the proposed
"negative" COLA, using the additional fee revenue
- Rejecting the suspension
of the competitive Cal Grant program
While the idea of raising
student fees and using that added revenue to fund enrollment growth may sound
appealing, it should be noted that the $40 rate would represent a doubling of
student fees in 18 months.
In response to the state's
budget situation, the college's Board of Trustees passed a
resolution stating its intent to advocate for a balanced approach to resolve
the fiscal issues that hamper the effective delivery of community college
education.
The release
of the Governor's budget proposal is the first step in what will be a long and
contentious process. Community colleges will have to fight to maintain
what has been proposed and engage in effective advocacy efforts to ensure the
final state budget is one that allows us to meet our students' needs. They are counting on
us to provide the skills and training they need to land new jobs and we need
adequate funding from the state to help put Californians back to work. |