Critics Warn of Impact From College Fee Hike

The budget reductions and student fee increases that Gov. Pete Wilson is seeking for California community colleges next year would result in an enrollment drop of more than 200,000 in the two-year college system, college officials said Thursday.

Joseph Newmyer, statewide vice chancellor for fiscal policy, told the Assembly Higher Education Committee that the governor’s new spending plan amounts to a 7% reduction in state support for community colleges, instead of the 10% increase Wilson proposed in his original 1992-93 budget in January.

The governor’s plan would make up much of that gap by raising general student fees from $6 to $20 per unit and by charging up to $112 per unit for students with 90 units or more.

“We believe this combination (of lower budgets and higher fees) would be a total disaster for students,” Newmyer said.

He noted that some community college programs, especially in fields such as nursing,require more than 90 units to earn an associate of arts degree.

If fees were increased from $6 to $112 per unit, the charges would be higher than those in the University of California or the California State University systems, Newmyer said, predicting that 95% of community college students asked to pay those fees would drop out instead.

The fee increases, combined with the system’s reduced budget, would lower enrollment from an anticipated 1.5 million students to 1.3 million, Newmyer said.

Newmyer also criticized a new Administration plan to set admissions priorities for the 107 community colleges by offering preference to students who are preparing to transfer to a four-year college over those who are pursuing vocational education goals.

Newmyer told the committee that the college system’s Board of Governors and administration want to develop their own admissions priorities, working with local campuses. “We feel we’re better equipped to do that” than the governor or the Legislature, he said.

Jim Locke, president of the community colleges’ Academic Senate, said, “some students are going to be locked out of the system unless they learn to tell the right lie.”

By that, Locke meant that students, no matter what courses they are taking, will claim to be interested in transferring to a four-year institution to be assured of admission.

Ray Reinhard, assistant secretary for child development and education in the Wilson Administration, said that “nobody is happy with this budget” but that the governor has tried to make elementary and secondary education his first priority, community colleges second and the UC and CSU systems third.

Reinhard said community colleges could make up some of the budget reductions with fee revenue, but public schools could not.

“Let’s bite the bullet, call a spade a spade, raise the fees and get it over with,” he said.

But committee Chairman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) argued for a one-year surcharge instead of a permanent fee increase because, he said, “once the higher fee is built into the (budget) base, it never gets debated again.”

Hayden said the Administration proposals amounted to a “dramatic shift in the historic commitment of the state of California to community colleges.”

He also questioned the wisdom of cutting back on community college programs during a recession.

Hayden told Reinhard and representatives of the state Finance Department, “you’re proposing to come out of a recession--and I do believe we will come out of it--with a less educated populace. That puzzles me.”

After listening to several witnesses describe what they believe to be the negative impact of the Wilson spending plan, Assemblyman B.T. Collins (R-Carmichael) said, “I don’t think people here understand just how bad the situation is.”

“All I’m hearing from you is, ‘absolutely no cuts’ but what are you going to do if the budget deficit is not $11 billion but $14 billion, as I suspect?” Collins asked. “I honestly believe, in my heart of hearts, the worst is still to come.”

Earlier in the day, the community colleges’ board of governors gave Chancellor David Mertes flexibility to negotiate a budget agreement that would include these elements:

* Maintain the present 90%-10% split in Proposition 98 funding between public schools and community colleges. (The Wilson plan would decrease the community college share somewhat).

* Try to maintain the current level of state support.

* Allow the board and the statewide staff to set admissions priorities, not the governor or the Legislature.

At a separate news conference, Maureen DiMarco, secretary of child development and education, defended the governor’s proposal to change the kindergarten-eligible date from Dec. 1 to Sept 1.

DiMarco said the Administration would have recommended the change even if it were not needed to save $335 million next year. She said Wilson’s enthusiasm for the heavily criticized idea has not declined.