The Squeeze on Community Colleges : Night classes--the best hope for many students--are imperiled by budget cuts

California’s community colleges are havens for students who work full time and do their learning at night. Nearly one-half of the system’s 1.5 million students depend on evening classes to complete instructional programs or requirements needed to transfer to four-year colleges. But new budget cuts are forcing many campuses to eliminate night classes, closing the door on those who have no other route to higher education.

The current fiscal problems can be traced in part to the state cap on enrollment despite a mandated liberal admissions policy. The cap, which has been in place for more than a decade, keeps growth to about 2% per year, thereby limiting state funding. There are exceptions for extreme growth, but the increase in funds rarely compensates for the increase in students. A more equitable formula would base funding on a five-year average in enrollment.

Most districts are forced by law to exceed the cap, and thus have to educate more students with fewer dollars. The L.A. district, with an enrollment of 111,485 full- and part-time students, is no exception. The district was forced this school year to cut about $10 million--primarily salaries of part-time faculty who teach the bulk of evening courses. Those cuts translated into the cancellation of hundreds of classes last September.

At that time, optimistic educators hoped for the best and made only modest cuts at East Los Angeles College. But when no new funding materialized, the dollar gap forced the cancellation of more than 100 classes when the new semester opened on Monday. Again, night students were hardest hit.

To counter the trend on that campus, department chairs will ask more full-time faculty to teach in the evening next semester. Changing the faculty’s schedules will spread the burden. But the sacrifices must not be left solely to the students or faculty. The L.A. Community College Board of Trustees must make some hard choices to provide a better balance between evening and day classes. In consultation with the faculty union, the American Federation of Teachers College Guild, the board must find ways to provide more classes for working parents, students who must support themselves and immigrants.

Community college, at $50 a semester, is a bargain but only if students can get the classes they need.