The leaders of the California community colleges – the underfed
but hard-working stepchildren of the state
’s higher education system – got up on a news conference soapbox
the other day to demand their fair share.
The leaders of the California community colleges – the underfed but hard-working stepchildren of the state’s higher education system – got up on a news conference soapbox the other day to demand their fair share.
They are hoping against hope that, having already cut classes by a collective 8,000 sections, raised fees by more than a third and turned away by their estimates 90,000 full- or part-time students (including 500 plus at Gavilan), the state won’t ask them to sacrifice any more.
College leaders are demanding that the Legislature make good on a years-old promise of giving the community colleges an 11 percent share of funds from Proposition 98, the voter-approved initiative that sets a floor for funding the K-12 and community college system (collectively known as K-14). The Legislature has consistently robbed the colleges to pay for K-12, but never more so than this year, when the colleges will get some $700 million less than they would have if they’d gotten their full Proposition 98 share.
But instead of battling K-12 for finite funds – a battle with a powerful and lobbyist-fortified constituency if ever there was one – the community colleges might do better to think out of the budget box they’re in.
It’s heresy in some corners to suggest it, but Proposition 98 may actually have harmed both K-12 and the colleges by giving legislators and the governor the false sense that the minimum guarantee is “enough,” that by funding it the schools are taken care of.
Despite being boxed into a no-win situation, you won’t hear college leaders suggesting freedom from Proposition 98, which they perceive as a lifeline. But when it becomes less a lifeline than a leash, it’s time to consider new solutions.
