Deep cuts to higher ed
Volume 12, Issue 7 - April 2008
 |
| Linda Bynoe |
The proposed budget includes reductions of $291.7 million for Community College General Apportionments and $11.8 million for Growth Apportionments. California State University (CSU) campuses will lose an estimated $386 million under the proposed budget, which includes a projected student fee increase. As a result, an estimated 10,000 qualified CSU student applicants will be turned away next year.
“California’s community colleges are already 45th in the nation in per-pupil funding,” says Ron Norton Reel, Community College Association president. “Falling further will have a negative impact on our students and on California’s economy — especially at a time when the state needs trained, educated people for our workforce.”
“Many of these students who will be denied are minority students who are already underrepresented in the CSU system,” says Linda Bynoe, who teaches at CSU-Monterey. “And students already enrolled will have fewer class offerings and have to extend their graduation rates.There will also be fewer services available for remedial students.”
Bynoe, a member of the California Faculty Association, teaches students who plan on becoming the teachers of tomorrow. Because so many teachers are being pink-slipped throughout the state, some of her students are reconsidering their plans.
“My students are very concerned,” she says. “The governor has said that more than 100,000 teachers will be needed in classrooms during the next 10 years to fill the shortage. How can this possibly happen when we are cutting off our nose to spite our face?”
“I feel it’s a tragedy for California,” adds Bynoe. “We are attacking the institutions that educate students to be teachers, engineers, nurses and others who contribute to society.”