Governor's proposed budget could spare colleges

The community colleges, Cal State and the UC systems will see a shift in state funding in the 2010-2011 fiscal year if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget is passed by the California State Legislature the K-12.

The budget proposal was released on January 8. According to the governor, the amount California will spend on state-funded services like public education will total at $82.9 billion dollars, a $3.2 billion decrease from last fiscal year’s revised budget.

Despite this, K-12 education would receive almost $37 million, which is about 31 percent of the proposed budget, and higher education would receive $13 million, which is about 10.6 percent of the proposed budget, if the proposed budget is passed by the Legislature.

California Community College System Chancellor Jack Scott reacted to the proposed budget in a January 8 press release. He said that the governor’s proposed budget is a welcome change to the usually deep cuts to education in the state budget.

“Given the state’s dire fiscal circumstance, the proposal for the California Community Colleges is as favorable as we could have hoped,” Scott said in the release.

The governor’s proposed budget underscores the reality that money invested in public education is money saved on incarceration of California’s youth, Scott said. California budgets in years past have prioritized education over prison as a preventative measure.

Carol Horton, vice president of finance and administrative services at Citrus College, said the proposed budget is nothing to panic about—or to celebrate.

“It looks like it is revenue neutral to me,” she said. “If these numbers are the ones that we end up with once the state budget is passed, we would have minimal gains in allocated state funds that would in turn offset the many decreases in revenue we had from last year.”
In the 2009-10 fiscal year, the community college system was hit with substantial cuts.

Citrus received around $46.4 million from the general apportionment (the amount of state revenue allocated for community colleges), $3.4 million from local tax revenue, and $4.3 million from student enrollment fees.  

Some of the budget highlights in the governor’s proposal for the California Community College System include:

2.2 percent enrollment growth ($126 million). This proposed augmentation would fund approximately 26,000 full-time equivalent students and help the colleges respond to the tremendous enrollment demand they are currently experiencing.

2010-11 Property Tax Adjustment. The governor’s budget assumes local property taxes allocated to the community colleges in 2010-11 will decline by $33.7 million from their 2009-10 levels. The governor also identifies another $5.6 billion in projected declines in other local revenues (student fees; oil and mineral revenues). The budget proposal makes a corresponding increase of $39.3 million in general fund resources to protect colleges from these declines.

Categorical Funding. The governor proposes reducing funding for Extended Opportunity Programs and Services and Part-Time Faculty Compensation by $10 million each and using these funds to augment SB 70 Career Technical Education funding by $20 million.

Increased Categorical Flexibility. The 2009-10 state budget provided community college districts with flexibility to shift funds among various categorical programs, as well as relief from programmatic requirements. The governor proposes adding EOPS, Fund for Student Success, and Basic Skills to the list of programs subject to the flexibility provisions.

Citrus College Student Trustee Karine Ponce said she is concerned the governor’s proposal to put EOPS on the list of programs to be cut further would make it increasingly difficult for students to attend school.

“The cuts to the categorical programs will further increase the financial hardship lower income students will endure if they decide to attend college,” she said. “Not only that, but within those categorical programs that could be cut is the funding for other programs like academic counseling which would affect all students, making it harder for them to transfer.”

Suspension of new competitive Cal Grant awards. The governor proposes that no new Competitive Cal Grant awards be made in 2010-11. This proposal would disproportionately impact community college students who are the primary recipients of this financial aid.

Ponce said that she highly doubts the complete elimination of Cal Grants, one of the Governor’s proposals will make it onto the final budget.

“The cutting of Cal Grants is extremely unpopular and almost no legislator in Sacramento, who hopes to get re-elected, would support it,” she said.

Horton said that no one knows what the final budget will be, so the administration is planning for the best and worst cases.

“It is way too early to tell if his proposals will end up in the final state budget, but if history repeats itself, what the governor proposes in January will not be the same in June,” she said.

“We are looking at conserving our resources and planning for every possible scenario,” Horton said. “There is no crystal ball anymore as to where the state of California will go financially, so it is easier to plan than it is to forecast.”