California voters rejected five ballot measures on Tuesday that were designed to help close the state’s budget deficit, leaving its public colleges and universities facing additional cuts of up to 10 percent in the support they receive from the state.
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by Josh Keller, The Chronicle of Higher Education.
First the good news: California high schools over the last few years graduated tens of thousands more students eligible for admission to a University of California or California State University campus than ever before. The 11 percent increase in eligible students is a sign of major progress in the state’s elementary and high schools, playing out at the university level… But now comes the bad news: All the improvements are likely to produce is a corps of thousands more frustrated young men and women. Because just as the number of eligible students increased – 13.4 percent of all high school graduates are now eligible for the University of California and 32.7 percent qualify for Cal State – the two university systems cut back the number of students admitted for next fall. Because of the state budget crunch…
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by Thomas D. Elias, The San Jose Mercury News.
Under the governor’s proposed changes, the UC and California State University systems would face a total of $1.1 billion in funding cuts. The UC system would lose $510 million in the current 2008-09 fiscal year and $255 million in 2009-10 – a total of $765 million in cuts. The shortfall would be eased slightly with $640 million in federal stimulus money, but the university will still be left with a net reduction of $125 million from the current budget. Schwarzenegger warned that the university will face an additional $50 million cut in state funding and a $31 million cut from academic-preparation programs in 2009-10 if Propositions 1A-1F – which would supply the state with $5.9 billion in general-revenue funds – fail to pass in California’s special election on Tuesday.
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by Joyce Yeh, The Guardian.
Large fee hikes have become the norm in recent years, as California’s public universities turn to students and families for money they’re not getting from the state. If fees go up again as proposed, the cost of a college education in California will have jumped more than 70 percent since 2001 – even when adjusted for inflation… "Actions that make college less affordable and lower college-going rates will be detrimental to California’s future," Johnson said. "There’s no doubt about that."
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by Laurel Rosenhall, The Sacramento Bee.
UC received the most applications in its history, increasing by 4.7 percent over last year – despite a projected 1 percent decline in the number of seniors graduating from California public high schools…
Budget uncertainties, including what UC officials call the existing over-enrollment of about 11,000 students for whom the university receives no state funding, and an expected tuition hike of nearly 10 percent in the fall, clouded this year’s admissions decisions.
The university needs to cap the freshman enrollments at several campuses "to maintain academic excellence and the level of service students expect when they enroll at a UC campus," Wilbur said.
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by Jim Doyle, The San Francisco Chronicle.
…Schwartz emphasized that, before the university’s nurses, staff and other workers are asked to accept reduced salaries or work fewer hours, the state should take steps to adequately fund UC, which is California’s premier public university.
The state budget adopted in February includes $115 million in new permanent cuts for the UC system. UC officials say rising operating costs – including health benefits and utilities – combined with the budget cuts will push the system’s total shortfall over the next two years to about $450 million.
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by Jim Doyle, The San Francisco Chronicle.
The University of California confirmed today what applicants and guidance counselors already knew firsthand: It was harder to gain admission to many of UC’s nine undergraduate campuses this year. Mainly in response to budget-related enrollment cutbacks for the fall, the percentage of California applicants offered freshman admission by at least one UC campus dropped from 75.4% last year to 72.5% this year, a decline of 3.85%, according to data released Tuesday. Officials estimated that it was the lowest acceptance rate for the university since 2000.
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by Larry Gordon, The Los Angeles Times.
As part of its plan to close a $41-billion budget deficit, California will delay providing $540-million in aid to its community colleges this year, forcing them to come up with the money for several months while the state waits for more revenue to come in. Payments that would normally arrive in the spring will be on hold until July, and payments scheduled for July will be delayed until October.
The delay affects most state agencies, including the University of California. But it puts an especially severe strain on the state’s 110 community colleges, which have less room in their budgets for discretionary spending than their larger counterparts do, and only enough reserve funds to survive short-term emergencies.
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by Josh Keller, The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The new state budget continues a years-long trend in resources allocated to the University of California and California State University: less than they need, by an ever-widening margin.
Sure, things are tough statewide. We’ve been living beyond our means.
The problem with applying these bromides to the educational system is that the state universities (the community colleges included) are the closest thing to an investment in the state’s future that we can budget for.
Nevertheless, every year we fall further behind in producing the college graduates industry needs.
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by Michael Hiltzik , The Los Angeles Times.
"This is the first time I can remember a president ever addressing student financial aid and college completion," said Pat Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education in San Jose. "But to meet that goal, we’ll have to stop the hemorrhaging students."
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by Lisa M. Krieger , The San Jose Mercury News.