More College Financial Woes for California December 23, 2009
Ian Welham discusses the recent financial woes for California colleges
The Master Plan for Higher Education is a document that was written in 1960 in California and has been revised several times since then. The common principals of this document according to its definition on Wikipedia are:
- that some form of higher education ought to be available to all regardless of their economic means
- that academic progress should be limited only by individual proficiency;
and - differentiation of function so that each of the three systems would strive for excellence in different areas so as to not waste public resources on duplicate efforts.
Since its creation it has served as a kind of blueprint for other states to learn from. Until now. Many educators fear that the model California higher education system is now in jeopardy due to vast budget cuts.
California colleges and their students are feeling the crunch of budget cuts in the forms of higher tuition, staff layoffs and the end of beneficial student services.
Recently the heads of the University of California, California State University and community colleges met with California lawmakers to plead their case. Their argument is that they cannot provide the same excellent education with the current depleted budget.
Governor Schwarzenegger and the Legislature have had to cut 20 percent of funding to UC and CSU and 8 percent to community colleges. Each college has had to deal with the crisis in their own way to make the budget work. UC has raised fees 15 percent (with another 15 percent coming), reduced freshman enrollment and forced employees to take furloughs and pay cuts. CSU plans to cut enrollment by about 10 percent in the next two years and almost all employees have had to take furloughs up to two days a month and in-state undergraduate fees have increased. Lastly. community colleges have had to raise their fees per credit by over 25 percent.
This issue in California has the whole country worrying. California has always been the education trendsetter of America and if California colleges falter, are other states far behind? One thing is certain: most state schools will need to raise tuition and with the already astounding cost of college, it is a scary time for families.
