Doomsday nears for colleges with state budget cuts

The doomsday budget scenario for California Community Colleges appears to be coming closer as Yuba Community College District officials prepare to slash hundreds of class sections and deny enrollment to thousands of students.

If policymakers pass an all-cuts budget, the district would likely have to eliminate 500 sections of classes, boost course fees to $60 a unit and lose 1,400 full-time equiv lent students, said spokesman Adrian Lopez.

The hit to a region already struggling with educational and job opportunities would be devastating.

"We're the only public higher education in this area," Lopez said. "Having us here and having us being decimated by such large numbers if the doomsday scenario pans out, it does an even higher disservice to this area."

Jack Scott, chancellor of California Community Colleges, expressed disappointment over Gov. Jerry Brown's decision to break off all further budget negotiations with legislative Republicans and not place tax extensions on the June ballot.

That translates to $800 million in cuts to the community college system and ultimately means 400,000 students will be denied access to the colleges, including those looking to transfer and those out of work looking for retraining.

"This is going to be an extremely hard hit for California community colleges and of course we will do the best we can," Scott said Wednesday. "But unfortunately we will not be serving the higher education needs of this state as we'd like to."

The all-cuts budget means $6.3 million, or a 14 percent cut, to Yuba Community College District's $45 million budget. Even after hiking fees to $60 a unit, the district would lose 1,400 of its 8,000 full-time equivalent students and have to slash nearly 500 sections of classes, Lopez said.

Community colleges have always prided themselves on the fact they allow anyone to enroll, but shrinking sections means less students will be able to take the classes they need.

"We'd be offering less courses at a time of explosive growth," Lopez said, noting a growing demand for community college education as high school graduates look for a more affordable option and as the economy forces people to retrain and retool to get other jobs.

And the burden of a fee hike only worsens the challenge.

"Even $10 makes an impact," Lopez said. "In this economy, a lot of our students are already on the margin, barely making it, single mothers, single fathers, people working a couple of jobs to make ends meet."

Counties in the Yuba Community College District have some of the highest unemployment in the state.

"It's scary because our community needs our Community College District and the courses it offers more than some of the more affluent cities that have multiple options," he said.

The state may only be worsening its own problems by implementing such grand cuts, as it is directly limiting flexible higher education and career training.

"It's the economic engine for this state," Lopez said. "In this time, it's critical that we prioritize our investment as a state and a local community for those things that have a great return on investment."

Brynda Stranix, chief operating officer of the Yuba-Sutter Economic Development Corp., is also nervous about the cuts. In many regards, Yuba College is the region's only source for flexible training required by local employers and is also the leading higher education facility.

"I know that when we are working with businesses that are looking to come to the area or trying to encourage them to come to the area, that's one of the first things they ask about, is our educational system," she said.

If the educational and training resources an employer or potential business wants are limited or not available, it hampers local economic development and opportunities for further growth, Stranix said.

The YSEDC frequently works with local businesses to connect them with the college for necessary training or education, and the cuts could force them to look outside the area for what they need

Cutting education funding in these harsh economic times does not make sense, Stranix said, although she is not sure what the answer is to the state's budget woes.

"It's certainly not going to help us in this region," she said. "It's not something I think in any way is the right thing to do."

The best-case scenario would have been $400 million in cuts approved by the Legislature last week, offset by tax extensions and new fee revenue, with costs rising from $26 to $36 a unit. Still, it would have trickled down to a $2.2 million cut for the Yuba College district and result in a loss of 500 full-time equivalent students and nearly 170 sections of classes.

A slightly worse yet still possible scenario would be the same cuts without the tax extensions but maintaining Proposition 98 funding. It would result in $4 million in cuts to the Yuba district and a loss of nearly 900 students and 300 sections.

CONTACT reporter Ashley Gebb at 749-4783.