Commentary : 2-Year Colleges Vital to Future

Implementation of the most important community college reform measure of the 1980s--one that would help students improve their chances for academic success--will probably once again receive inadequate funding from the state in next year’s budget. That is unfortunate, and should prompt us to reconsider how we fund our state’s huge network of two-year colleges.

In recent years, educators, legislative committees and blue-ribbon commissions have examined and re-examined the community colleges and have come to the conclusion the colleges should focus more of their attention on making sure more of their students successfully meet their educational goals. Too many, it has been argued, walk through the colleges’ “open door” and then turn around and walk right back out a few months later without any real learning ever taking place. Or they enroll year after year without making reasonable progress toward a degree or certificate.

To address this problem, the colleges have proposed major reform, specifically, the creation of on-campus programs designed to assist students in identifying their skill levels, placing them in the proper courses and then, through the use of computers, counselors and classroom teachers, keeping close tabs on their progress.

Similar programs across the country have been successful.

The problem for both the colleges and the state, however, is that these “matriculation” programs require employing additional staff, and that costs money.

Funding for such reform, while approved by the Legislature, has been blue-penciled out of the last two state budgets by the governor. For next year, he proposes to spend only $7 million, although about $50 million is needed. Hence, substantial progress has yet to be made toward addressing one of the major tenets of community college reform--matriculation.

The Orange County community colleges will have to move ahead on their own. And with budgets already tight due to several years of underfunding, it is highly unlikely that any major new efforts will be undertaken.

The challenge facing the community college is that because we, by state law, are the most accessible of all the public higher institutions, many of our students come to us requiring major educational resuscitation. For example, community colleges enroll almost all immigrants seeking post-secondary education.

Rancho Santiago College provides English language training to more than 10,000 non-native residents. About 75% of all minorities who enroll in higher education in Orange County choose their local community college. Often these students come to us with serious language or basic skills deficiencies. The concern here is that with high dropout rates and serious language problems, we face a time in the not-too-distant future when Orange County may become home to a large segment of the population that is unskilled, under-educated and, as a result, distanced from the mainstream.

Without a trained work force, Orange County cannot long survive as a vibrant economic force on the leading edge of business, trade and industry.

A recent report by the North Orange County Regional Occupational Program stated “the high number of limited English speaking or non-English speaking (residents) . . . has led to continuing problems in remedial education, job placement and ‘culture clashes’ between groups. There is grave concern about the mismatches that will occur between skills needed and skills present when applying for a job.”

Yet it is just these educational needs of new immigrants and ethnic minorities that should be of concern to local and state government leaders.

Nearly 36% of public school students in Orange County are minority students.

In Santa Ana where Rancho Santiago College has one of its campuses, the unified district is 71% Latino. With immigration and birthrate patterns as they are, Orange County’s minority population will become the majority over the next five to 10 years.

Thus, the importance of the community college reform proposal is that it will allow our colleges to get the personnel necessary to help our students. The result will be a higher graduation and transfer rate and a more effective use of the taxpayers’ investment in community college education.

Yet, so far the state has missed this opportunity to support one of the cornerstones of community college reform.

Limited by a 1979 law--the Gann Initiative--that ties growth in the budget to an increase in population and inflation, the state has warned education leaders that it has just about reached the limits of its pocketbook.

We can try to meet critical education needs with fewer dollars or invest more in the educational system on which the future of the state and this county is built. Without the investment, we will continue to spend more and more taxes on prisons, welfare and dead-end job programs.

To neglect our local community colleges now, when there is so much to be done for the future of Orange County, would be a tragedy not only for students but for the well-being of the entire state as well.