Community Colleges Seek a Larger Piece of State’s Budget Pie

California’s community colleges, which have floundered recently while the state universities and the public schools have flourished under Gov. George Deukmejian, are fighting hard this year to get what they view as their fair share of the budget.

The backers of the two-year colleges contend that spending per student has fallen behind the inflation rate over the last decade.

Moreover, they noted, the state is paying four or five times as much for each student who chooses a four-year university over a community college and, not surprisingly, more students are doing just that.

Evidence of Flight

Since 1982, when Deukmejian and the Legislature first clashed over financing for the community colleges, enrollment in the two-year schools has dropped by more than one-fifth. Meanwhile, the University of California and the California State University systems have had an unprecedented increase in applications.

The 19 California State University campuses report that they had more than 69,000 freshmen applications this year, up from 59,000 last year, an increase that many believe reflects a flight from the local community colleges.

Deukmejian Administration officials say the enrollment trend shows that many students have concluded that “there’s something wrong with the community colleges.”

Legislative backers of the colleges say that the drop in state aid is what is wrong.

“This is getting to be a chicken-and-egg problem,” said Sen. James W. Nielsen, (R-Woodland), who has pushed for more aid for the community colleges. “UC and CSU are getting more students as we’ve increased their budgets. At the same time, we’ve discouraged enrollment in the community colleges.”

Most legislators and college officials say the spending decline and the “uncertainty” over the future of the colleges--and not the $50-per-semester fee--has brought about the enrollment slide.

To halt the downward spiral in the two-year schools, the Senate and Assembly agreed last week to add $99 million to the governor’s budget for community colleges. For the first time, the budget includes a special fund for buying new classroom equipment for junior colleges and to begin a program of placement testing for entering students.

Not Convinced

But advisers to Deukmejian, who has the last vote, say that he is not yet convinced that such a boost is needed.

“We’re willing to look at whatever information they present, but we haven’t seen much yet that would justify this kind of an increase,” said Jesse Huff, Deukmejian’s director of finance.

The two years of big budget increases for the University of California and California State University system, Huff said, were intended to bring faculty salaries up to the level of comparable universities around the nation.

By contrast, he added, the community college professors earn salaries that “are well above the national average. . . . So where’s the need?”

Huff said the governor’s budget includes the 6% increase in spending called for by the college financing law. In addition, money from the new lottery and a special financing program for declining colleges would up the increase to 9.6%, he said.

Still, Deukmejian has acknowledged that he has been getting added pressure to give the community colleges more money, and answers that he has done just that.

In a June 1 radio address, the governor said he has been receiving messages from “many well-meaning individuals (who) are calling for additional government spending (for the community colleges).”

“The fact is,” he added, “we aren’t reducing support for community colleges. We’re increasing it substantially--just as we are boosting support in all areas of education.”

According to the legislative analyst’s office in Sacramento, financing for the University of California has increased 38% per student during the first three years of Deukmejian’s Administration. The Cal State system campuses have received a 37% increase during the same time. Next comes the public schools, which have gotten 30% more per student. And in last place are the community colleges, with a 25% per-student increase.

California community college Chancellor Gerald Hayward said that even this comparison “masks the real problem for us,” which is the decline in enrollment.

Financing Improves

“Under the Deukmejian Administration, our funding per student has improved, mainly because we’ve lost students,” he said. “It is not because of their largess.”

“If you lose five students out of 30, your expenditures don’t go down that much,” Hayward said. But in such a case, if the college’s budget stayed roughly even, it would look as though the school were paying far more for each student who remained.

Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), chairman of the subcommittee on higher education. complains that the state is paying the “most for the kids who are the easiest to educate” who enroll in the UC system “and the least for the ones who pose the toughest educational challenge.”

If all state aid is included, the UC campuses will get about $12,000 per student this year, according to the legislative analyst. The Cal State system campuses will get $5,200, while the community colleges trail with $2,600 per student.

The 1.2 million students in California community colleges include the vast majority of poor and minority students who are seeking higher education, Hayden noted.

Waits for Study

Earlier in the year, Deukmejian said he would oppose any boost in spending for the colleges until the study panel completes its work.

But Nielsen said Tuesday that he believes that the governor may revise his position.

“The Senate Republicans have been very strongly in favor of this (increase in the college budget), and I think he is at least open to be convinced,” Nielsen said.