Kiyomi Kikuchi
Rocky Young, legendary former president of Pierce College, and Carl Friedlander, president of the Los Angeles College Faculty Guild, explained how community colleges are struggling in terms of money in a lecture entitled “community colleges and the state of education” for encore students April 24.Young is well known for engaging the Pierce College Master Plan. He dramatically changed Pierce, evident when the college’s enrollment went up 51 percent in only three and a half years.Community colleges receive $5,708 per student, far less than the $8,500 per student that K-12 schools receive, Young said.The California State University schools receive $11,900 per student, and University of California schools receive $18,750 per student – almost four times the amount community colleges receive.After passage of Prop 98 in the late ’80s, community colleges only received 11 percent of the state education budget, whereas K-12 received 89 percent. Each following year, the 11 percent dropped as legislators were allowed to decide the spending.”Legislators denied sharing the original 11 percent every year,” Friedlander said. “We tried to fix with it (Proposition 92).”Prop 92 would write into the state constitution that community colleges must get their share of the K-12 Prop 98 funds.Prop 98 funds were tied to K-12 enrollment, which either stayed flat or declined, while community college enrollment grew unmatched. Children from baby boomers who have gone through the K-12 system are now on the doorsteps of community colleges, which Friedlander called the “baby boom echo.”Rising student fees were also discussed. The student fee was $11 per unit in 2002-03, but it is now $20 per unit. Prop 92 capped fee increases to ensure enrollment, and therefore funding, doesn’t dramatically decrease. With increasing tuition, thousand of students stopped attending community college, according to Friedlander, who also said that an aim for fees would be a decrease to $15 per unit.Eventually, Prop 92 was defeated on the ballot in February. Because of dramatic economic changes from Spring 2007 to Spring 2008, a number of companies opposed the proposition. In the March 10 Academic Senate meeting, Pierce President Robert Garber reported that Pierce has to deal with a $31 million budget cut from the district next year.”That’s the big challenge to be facing them,” Young said. “Community colleges have to figure out how to make ends meet without closing the college.””I requested to be retired by that time,” he said to a laughing audience. Ongoing construction projects at Pierce are being paid for by bond money that cannot be used for any other purpose, which Young said put the money behind a “wall.” Besides discussing funding, Young lectured about access to community colleges by people who didn’t graduate high school.He said that even though students don’t reach college levels, they can go to college with the state’s financial support. “I was just surprised that so many other folks here were not informed about the ways of community college,” said audience member Jane Randall. The next lecture, “Introduction to Poetry,” will be given by Dr. Richard Follett tomorrow in the Campus Center.