One-two punch
Budget cuts and increased enrollment will mean fewer classes at PCC and other California community colleges
By Joe Piasecki 01/15/2009
For Pasadena City College President Paulette Perfumo and California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott, the trouble ahead boils down to simple math: Deep budget cuts + an expected increase in enrollment = fewer available classes at schools across the state.
With the state’s deficit expected to grow close to $40 billion by the middle of next year unless an agreement to balance the budget can be reached, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for more than $300 million in cuts to community colleges — and this on top of reduced funding for UC and Cal State schools that could prompt tuition hikes as high as 10 percent.
“The biggest concern of all for me is when our budget shrinks as the state economy goes down, unemployment goes up and our enrollments explode,” said Perfumo, a former state community colleges administrator who has held the reins at PCC since late 2007.
“When you have a higher student demand and a smaller budget, we’re in a position where we have to offer fewer classes to a higher demand from students,” she continued. “Our promise in the California Master Plan for Higher Education in the 1980s was that every Californian could access education regardless of economic status. We’re now at a place where access is, in effect, being denied because not all students who come to our doors are going to find the classes they need.”
This vision of the near future troubles Scott, who served as president of PCC before moving on to the state Assembly and Senate and, as of last week, the chancellor’s job. In the next two weeks he expects to address his former colleagues in the Legislature about the need to cut less deeply.
“We don’t turn students away, but they are effectively turned away when they arrive and realize many of the classes they need they can’t take,” said Scott, who reports a 6 percent increase in enrollment last semester, “… and there’s not much community colleges can do about it because we can only live on the money we get from the state.”
The state Legislative Analyst’s Office has suggested raising community college fees from $20 per unit to $26 or even as much as $30 in July — but that’s out of the schools’ control and entirely up to the Legislature, said Scott.
At PCC, administrators are examining enrollment numbers for the spring semester, which begins Feb. 23, to see which courses appear least in demand and thus would be least painful to cut, said Perfumo.
But none of this feels right to her, she said, citing a study that found increased funding for community colleges could actually increase state revenue in the long run. In early 2005, the North Carolina Community Colleges System reported that not only do graduates enjoy an 18.6 percent annual return on their education investment (due to higher earnings), but every tax dollar invested in the system also brings a return of $2.74 in state and local tax receipts over the next 32 years.
“What really ought to happen,” said Perfumo, “is when the economy goes down, the state would invest more money in community colleges in order to put Californians back to work.”
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