Community colleges try to keep the promise

As a low-income student who is supporting a goddaughter and going to school fulltime, Kristen Franklin knows the value of community colleges.

"Community college is the college for the people. Anyone can get in. It lets people know that even if you didn't do well in school in the past, you can come here and get a second chance.

"Community college gives people hope," says Franklin, who serves as a student representative to the statewide Community College Board of Governors.

Yet, like many others, the Cypress College student, who has aspirations of becoming an attorney one day, has been affected by a state budget that has been built largely on the backs of students.

"It's not just the fee increases we've had, but the courses that are being cut. It's much harder now to get into the classes you need. Even if you do get your classes, they are unbelievably crowded."

For the past two years, Franklin has joined thousands of community college students — and their instructors — in staging two massive rallies in Sacramento to appeal to the governor to "keep the promise" to provide all Californians access to higher education.

They created the Missing Student Project, a traveling art exhibit composed of 175 fiberglass figures, each representing 1,000 of the 175,000 students who were denied access to California's community colleges last year because of courses that were cut.

They have held protests on many of the 109 campuses, spoken out at public hearings, written letters, and attempted to organize into a unified voice. And with help from CTA, they were at least partly responsible for staving off some of the massive cuts that were considered in the Legislature the past two years. Unfortunately, they weren't able to prevent a hefty increase in student fees — from $11 to $26 per unit in a two-year period — or deep cuts to course offerings on campuses.

"We can't afford to shortchange this system," says Community College Association (CCA) President Cathy Crane-McCoy. "California's community colleges provide 1.7 million students with access to higher education and vocational training. These are the people who build California's future."

California's community colleges are already among the most poorly funded in the country, according to a report issued earlier this year by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).

Working with the governor this year, CCA and CTA were able to protect base funding to the state's community colleges and prevent mid-year cuts like those that had taken a huge toll the year before. The deal included cost-of-living and enrollment growth increases for colleges and programs and restored $200 million cut from the community colleges. In all, the deal increased Prop. 98 funding for community colleges from 9.51 percent to 10.04.

Nevertheless, community college and higher education leaders maintain the system remains seriously underfunded.

"One of the things we need is a final settlement on what will be the agreed split in Prop. 98 funding [between community colleges and K-12 education]," says VirginiaAnn Shadwick, CTA's representative for higher education on the NEA board of directors. "This is critical. Every year, the funding for the community colleges changes.

"What's even more critical is getting the Legislature to understand the importance of higher education to the economy of this state. As a state, we must adequately invest in both the community colleges and the CSU system."

While the Legislature has raised student fees, that money has gone into the state's general fund, not the community college budget.

"There are no real alternatives being discussed to remedy our funding problems," says Crane-McCoy. "Proposals from the governor have been temporary fixes. For long-term solutions, we are going to have to look at taxes."

In California's current environment, it is not a politically popular solution. And the longer the state delays finding a solution to the funding crisis, the worse things are likely to get.

For years, community colleges have been warned about the coming Tidal Wave II, a surge in enrollment from a demographic bubble that the state Department of Finance projected would bring 300,000 new students to the community colleges between 2002 and 2011.

"Tidal Wave II is real. The bubble is now coming to us, but we've put up barriers to taking care of those students," says Carolyn Russell, a faculty representative on the California Community College System Board of Governors and an English instructor at Rio Hondo College in Whittier. "I think our ability to provide access to quality education is being challenged."

Those challenges include fee increases and access to classes. While the increases seem minimal to some, they have had an impact in the past. In fact, Russell maintains that community colleges suffered a major decline in enrollment among African-American males when the colleges went from being free to charging $6 a unit back in the 1980s. She says their enrollment never bounced back.

In order to assess the impact of higher fees, Russell recently convinced the Board of Governors to pass a resolution recommending that student fees be frozen at $26 a unit until a study can be conducted.

"The Board of Governors has a principle that fee raises should be gradual, moderate and predictable. We have agreed that an increase from $11 to $26 per unit is not gradual, not moderate, and not predictable," she said.

No one feels the fee hike as directly as students.

"Every semester I've been here, my fees have gone up," says Brittany Winze, a second-year business student at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut. Winze, who is 19, carries a full-time load at school and works the night shift in a nursing home full-time. "It's been tough. Before I was working, my parents took care of everything. Now it's basically me."

But the fees are only part of the story. Winze paid $291 for three used books last semester. "And you don't get anywhere near what you paid for them when you resell them," she notes.

Like so many other students, she has had an increasingly difficult time getting into classes she needs. Because many of her classes are over-enrolled, she sometimes ends up taking classes she doesn't even need.

"I don't want to be one of those students who has to stay four or five years to finish up."

John Long, who has taught psychology and education at Mt. San Antonio for 36 years, says there is "an escalating cycle of denial of access" at the community colleges and that results in an increase in the time it takes for a student to finish up.

"Some students are having to attend more than one college to get their classes. And students are working more hours and applying for more financial aid in order to complete their studies here," he says.

At nearby Pasadena City College, English instructor Dona Mitoma says her classes were already closed at the start of the fall semester. They were "at 100 percent enrollment and a lot of people were begging to come in."

She felt sorry for the students who had been accepted at CSU last spring, but had been redirected to community college as a result of CSU budget cuts. While many of the students were readmitted to CSU at the last minute, others enrolled at community colleges only to find that classes were full.

"It was a horrible thing to do to students," says Mitoma. "They certainly weren't able to get into all the classes they needed [in order to transfer back]. They were at the bottom of the heap because our regular students had enrolled for fall semester last spring."

Given the state budget, Mitoma says everyone is doing the best they can, but she is adamant in her belief that community colleges need more. "We need more resources, we need to provide more classes, we need better physical plants, we need more classrooms, and we need better salaries and benefits."

It may be an uphill battle for now, but Dián Hasson thinks the continued pressure on the Legislature will make a difference. She cites the Keep the Doors Open rallies, lobby days conducted by CTA/CCA, faculty and students, and the deal forged with the governor as having a positive impact on community college funding this year.

"But we have to continue to educate the public as well," says Hasson. "People have to know that when they go to a hospital, the nurses taking care of them came out of our community colleges. When they take their cars to be repaired, the work is being done by people who learned their trade at the community college. Our first-responders are trained at the community college. It's the community college system that really drives this state's economy, and it's vital that we support it."