Effective for the Fall 2009 semester, the California State Legislature agreed on increasing student fees from the comfortable $20 per unit to $26 per unit. This increase is due to the states overwhelming financial deficits which caused massive cuts to education arrangements all over the state.
Unfortunately, community colleges are not the only ones who are being affected.
Students consider these increases an inconvenience considering the majority was notified of these changes after already having enrolled.
Student payments were then later re-assessed and students were instructed to pay these fees by a specific date. A student who failed to pay their additional fees would be dropped as a result of “non-payment”.
According to a report constructed in June 2009 by Jessika Jones of the California Postsecondary Education Commission, recent budget proposals for community colleges have cut current and budget year spending by approximately $820 million.
$820 million is overwhelming in itself, and sadly this could just be a preview of more changes to come.
These changes are affecting students in more ways then expected. The report “Update on the Federal Stimulus Package and Funding to Higher Education” goes further in explaining how the UC and CSU systems have already begun making changes, including reducing the number of students accepted for 2009 and 2010. California State Universities are increasing their fees by 10 percent and the UC system by 9.3 percent.
This year, the California Budget Proposal regarding education shows additional cuts to UC and CSU funding that shows approximately less than $2 billion total for 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. The Community College League of California projects a loss of approximately 12, 464 students due to the impact of proposed budget cuts in San Diego alone.
Mesa sophomore Emily Elghanian expressed her concerns: “The last thing we should have to lose sleep over is how we are going to financially educate ourselves.” She made it clear she believes the fee increases per unit to be just “ridiculous”.
“I just hope the California State Legislature doesn’t decide to increase even more fees next semester unless their intentions are to expect to see less and less students enrolling.”
A student who was on-the-fence about the issue is Mesa undergraduate Jamy Pitts.
“We have to consider the roles of our professors, janitors, and school faculty. When the school is in a financial dilemma, I can’t imagine any other way for the school to get money other then raising a little bit of everyone’s fees. I guess I am alright with it only being raised six dollars a unit, but if it continues to escalate in price, I can’t say I’d be too pleased.”
No one can say for sure what lies ahead for the future of our schools budget, but during these tough economic times we can’t say we didn’t see this coming.
For now, the only bright side we can look at is how California Community Colleges still provide a much more affordable rate then other states, especially those on the East Coast who can range any where from $130 dollars per unit to a staggering $500.
To receive more information on budget cuts and fee increases, you can read Governor Schwarzenegger’s Higher Education Proposal on publications pasted on the website: www.cpec.ca.gov/completereports .