Reversing a five-year growth trend, enrollment at California’s community colleges dipped 1%, or about 21,000 students, this school year as campuses pared courses because of state budget cuts, Chancellor Jack Scott said Wednesday. The downward trend is likely to continue next year unless state funding increases, Scott said in a telephone news briefing that projected a challenging future for the nation’s largest system of public higher education.
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by Carla Rivera, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: February 25th, 2010, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
There are few things in life that we would pay a relatively high amount of money for and not expect the most out of them. I wouldn’t buy a new car if the dealership told me it wouldn
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by Matt Rascher, The Sacramento State Hornet.
Posted: February 25th, 2010, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The two-thirds requirement is not democratic because it places the Legislature under minority rule. One-third plus one
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by Byron Williams, The San Jose Mercury News.
Posted: February 24th, 2010, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Even with the decline in enrollment, California community colleges are educating significantly more students than the state is funding. The system sustained $520 million in cuts, or 7.9 percent of its overall budget in 2009/10. This translates to more than 200,000 unfunded students attending a community college campus.
"There is no question that we want to serve all of the students flocking to our campuses during these tough economic times," said Scott. "The reality is we can’t afford to do so. Our campuses are currently educating more students than the state is paying for which is not a fiscally sound practice. Many colleges are dipping into reserve funds to serve these students. If we continue this practice, some colleges will not survive. I liken this to a family living off of its savings account. If you do this for an extended period of time, you’ll go bankrupt."
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by Staff, YubaNet.com.
Posted: February 24th, 2010, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Governor Schwarzenegger has appointed Bonnie Reiss as Secretary of Education. She served as senior advisor to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and has served on the University of California Board of Regents since 2007.
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by Staff, Inland News Today.
Posted: February 24th, 2010, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
It was as much a peace treaty as a plan, and it was built around a pledge: Every Californian would get a fair shot at a taxpayer-supported college education. "It is the most significant step California has ever taken in planning for the education of our youth," said Gov. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, while signing the Master Plan for Higher Education on April 26, 1960. Nearly 50 years later, the plan is faltering, burdened by decades of passive state oversight and a blurring of the roles the state’s three branches of higher education were supposed to play. The results are grimly manifest throughout California.
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by Steve Wiegand, The Sacramento Bee.
Posted: February 23rd, 2010, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
During this whole multi-year budget season, the Republicans have consistently been fighting to put the reduction of taxes as the top issue on the table. And Steve Poizner’s "10-10-10" Plan calls for a 10 percent cut in taxes as well as a 10 percent cut in spending. Of course, we’ve cut far more than 10 percent in each of the last few budget years, so his plan doesn’t carry much meaning, but the sentiment is still there. But, like so many issues facing California, the Republicans are out of touch with the people they are supposed to be representing. In a poll by the Datamar firm (PDF), taxes as an issue didn’t even rate. It just got lumped in with "all other issues." Meanwhile, "budget cuts" rated as the second leading issue
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by Brian Leubitz , Calitics.
Posted: February 22nd, 2010, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants California to get its priorities straight. Over the last three decades, the state’s investment in universities has eroded while prison spending has shot through the roof. It’s "out of whack," says Schwarzenegger. To remedy that, he would guarantee that no less than 10% of the state’s general fund budget go to the universities by 2014, a doubling of their current share. He also wants the deal written into the state Constitution — both to show he’s serious and to commit future governors to the plan. Unfortunately, the governor’s higher education recovery plan does nothing to help the 110 California community colleges, which serve nearly 3 million students — nearly 70% of those in public higher education each year.
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by Camille Esch and Christopher Cabaldon, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: February 22nd, 2010, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
As it turned out, the unraveling was only just beginning. It has taken the worst recession in 60 years to give that unraveling its full force and power here in California. Here in 2010, everywhere around us we see collapse, decay, and suffering – and a state government whose procedures are rigged to empower the small right-wing minority that is enthusiastically cheerleading the unraveling they’ve wrought. Interestingly enough it’s two articles in today’s New York Times that show most clearly the depth of suffering and decay taking place in California. The first is Tom Friedman’s column, which riffs off of the insane news that Tracy is going to charge for 911 calls, an example Friedman uses to show the lack of desire to rebuild this country and pull us out of crisis…
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by Robert Cruickshank, Calitics.
Posted: February 21st, 2010, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Schwarzenegger rejected two Academic Senate nominees to the board and asked for a broader list, but the Senate, worried about politicizing the panel, has refused to offer other names… The Cal State University system’s governing board has been without a faculty voice for eight months because of a disagreement between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the university’s Academic Senate about who should occupy the seat.
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by Carla Rivera, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: February 21st, 2010, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
