Feed the Ugly Ducklings

Since the first community college opened, when Joliet (Ill.) Township High School began offering two years of college-level, job-oriented courses in 1901, the institutions have been the ugly ducklings of the education world. In California today, they lack the political muscle that K-12 wields through the California Teachers Assn., the grant-getting ability of the prestigious University of California system and the political savvy that Chancellor Charles B. Reed brings to Cal State. Still, the way that Gov. Gray Davis went about whacking the proposed funding of California’s 108 community colleges in the state budget he signed last week surprised even the most seasoned political observers.

Fully $120 million, nearly a quarter of Davis’ total cuts, came from the historically beleaguered system, even though the community colleges are now being expected to absorb “Tidal Wave II,” an influx of new students made up largely of the children of immigrants and the baby boomers.

Last year, Assembly Speaker Bob Hertz-berg (D-Sherman Oaks) called community colleges “the classroom of the new economy.” Hailing their ability to prepare California’s work force, Hertzberg promised to dramatically expand their budgets. That’s why it’s Hertzberg who should introduce a budget restoration bill when the Legislature comes back from summer recess later this month.

Yes, state revenues are dwindling and it might not be realistic to expect the colleges to get it all back. But Hertzberg can at least ensure that other state agencies fairly share the state’s debt burden.

The state has long grossly underfunded the community colleges, giving them just $3,800 per student, compared with the $18,000 per student given to the UC system.

The Legislature should begin by asking why Davis increased the budget for the state prison agency, the California Department of Corrections, even as its population declined, while giving only a “cost-of-living” increase to the community colleges despite their steadily growing enrollment. The prison guards union is a major Davis campaign contributor.

Also deserving of scrutiny is the $160 million that the governor allocated to start building a University of California campus near Merced that will handle, at most, only a few thousand students over the next decade.

The governor’s decision to address state budget woes by clobbering the community colleges is shortsighted. As Jonathan Lightman, executive director of the Faculty Assn. of California Community Colleges, put it last week, “In a downturn economy, the community colleges are more important than ever because they have the ability to retrain people fast and inexpensively.”