NEWS
April 16, 2012 | By Mark Schneider
Facts are stubborn things, and though throwing a hissy-fit in response to my Op-Ed article (“ Community colleges' learning disability ”) may give commenter "sportschic1900" some emotional satisfaction, it doesn't change the facts. The reader wrote: This article is so simplistic in its scope that it's scary. First of all, the "only 30% of students earn degrees at community colleges" is an old scare tactic that people use to try to make it look like these are institutions of failure.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 12, 2012 | By Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees announced Wednesday that it has reached a settlement with a Pasadena firm, Gateway Science & Engineering, over alleged billing improprieties. The company will continue to supervise the $450-million building program at Los Angeles Mission College. The district had alleged that Gateway approved payments to the construction company FTR International for work it had not performed at a 90,000-square-foot fitness center on the campus The project was plagued by delays and allegations of faulty workmanship, which were detailed in a Times series last year on the community college district's $6-billion campus reconstruction program.
OPINION
April 11, 2012 | By Mark Schneider and Lu Michelle Yin
Community colleges are central to the nation's higher education system, enrolling almost 30% of all postsecondary students. But their record of success is spotty. Nationally, only about a quarter of full-time community college students complete their studies within three years (the official measure of a school's graduation rate). At more than a third of California's community colleges, graduation rates are 20% or less. Of the full-time, degree-seeking students who entered California community colleges in 2007, more than 35,000 had not earned their degrees three years later, and most of them were no longer enrolled in any postsecondary institution.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 6, 2012 | By Nicole Santa Cruz and Christopher Megerian, Los Angeles Times
Orange County officials illegally diverted $73.5 million from local schools and colleges and used the money to balance their budget and cover day-to-day expenses, state officials alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday. The lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, contends that it was unconstitutional for the county to grab the funds, which should be spent on cash-strapped local schools and state community colleges. The money fight erupted last year, when Orange County lost $48 million in vehicle license fees and redirected tax funds to the county that were supposed to go to schools.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 5, 2012 | By Carla Rivera and Stephen Ceasar, Los Angeles Times
The head of California's community college system on Wednesday asked Santa Monica College to put on hold a controversial plan to offer higher-priced courses this summer while the legality of the program is determined. Chancellor Jack Scott said he made the request in a call to college President Chui L. Tsang during which he also expressed concern about a student protest in which several people suffered minor injuries when a campus police officer discharged pepper spray at a Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday evening.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 25, 2012 | By Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times
California community colleges have shed more than 300,000 students since 2009 because the students cannot get into classes, and the toll is likely to grow unless the state reverses course and pumps more money into higher education. That bleak assessment was delivered last week by California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott in a State of Community Colleges address at Pasadena City College. Scott served as president of the college from 1987 to 1995, before being elected to the state Legislature.