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ALSO
IN THIS ISSUE Beyond Books Designer's Challenge Improving Mother Nature Bach to the Future Chancellor's
Page Development News Factoids More Factoids Accidental Heroes Newsmakers |
CHANCELLOR'S PAGE Chancellor
Appeals for Fairness in Funding Enrollment is up 11.8 percent over opening day last spring, yet we still have about 10,000 students on waiting lists to get into filled classes. The subjects with the largest waiting lists are English, math and science courses. In the San Diego Community College District, we provide adult education in basic skills, English as a second language and job training. Our costs in these programs are almost as much as the college programs, yet the state funds adult education at about one-half the college full time equivalent student rate. We have a community responsibility to provide adult education, but we don’t have the resources to do it. Who would suffer if we didn’t provide adult education? High school dropouts who are going back to school to complete high school; unemployed adults enrolled in short-term occupational programs to get into the workforce as quickly as possible; and new immigrants taking English as second language and vocational English as a second language classes. In our three colleges and adult education programs we serve about 100,000 students each semester, including 4,400 disabled students. The governor’s budget proposes to reduce the Disabled Student Programs and Services budget by 45 percent. The Education Code mandates services for disabled students, yet students will be denied access if these categorical funds are reduced as proposed by the governor. How do we decide which disabled students will receive an education and who must be turned away? We try our very best in community colleges to fulfill the promise of “access to education and the opportunity for educational success.” Sometimes our very best isn’t enough. Sometimes the question of access is out of our hands. Given the fiscal crisis in our state, most people would support gradual, reasonable fee increases. But a 118 percent increase would result in some low-income adults to see college as beyond their means. This committee asked the question: What policy framework should guide the Legislature and the Assembly Higher Education Committee in maintaining the commitment to the promise of access for all qualified Californians? The short answer is fairness. The message we seem to be getting from the governor’s budget proposal is that access is more important for the top 12.5 percent of high school graduates and the top 33 percent of high school graduates than for community college students who come from all levels of high school academic achievement. According to the governor’s budget proposal for ’03-'04, the University of California and California State University systems would both receive a 2.5 percent funding increase while community college funding would decline by 6.2 percent. Our students are no less deserving of opportunities for college and occupational training, yet the budget proposal reflects a disproportionate reduction in community colleges. Therefore, in terms of policy framework, the Legislature should weigh both access and quality. At what point do we spread ourselves so thin in the name of access that we are not adequately serving all students who come to our campuses? There needs to be a balance. And we need to define what it means to provide access to all qualified Californians. The third question you pose is what actions/policies are the institutions implementing to help sustain access? In the current fiscal crisis, our top priority is to maintain the instructional program. To sustain or improve access, community college districts throughout the state have gone to the voters and passed local bond measures. In my district we passed a bond with 68.6 percent voter approval in order to ensure access, quality of facilities and technology. The irony is that local taxpayers have supported these initiatives to improve access, but it appears in the short term that we won’t have the resources to operate the new classrooms and laboratories |
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