Community Colleges

Byron Herman rolled out of his dorm bed, yanked on snow pants and a beanie and stumbled across the parking lot to his 8 a.m. math class. By late morning, the 19-year-old Tehachapi student was on his snowboard, cutting crescent shapes into a mountain slope glistening under ice-blue skies. What was unusual about this scenario last month was that Herman attends not a select academy or elite university, but Cerro Coso Community College, a public two-year institution with a campus in Mammoth Lakes.

Even though the state's budget situation has improved, it will be years before California's community colleges will be able to offer adequate numbers of courses. Hundreds of thousands of students will continue to be shut out of classes they need. Though normally we would deplore creating a two-tiered educational system within the community colleges, now isn't the time to stick to lofty principles about equal pricing for all. The loftiest thing that state legislators could do now is to help students of all financial backgrounds get through college.

Re "Caught in a bind," Nov. 3 The article on cutbacks to rural community colleges hit an emotional nerve. After high school, I went to Imperial Valley College. In this rural farming community, the college was the only place to experience culture. Thanks to the school, I was exposed to Ray Bradbury, saw my first Shakespeare play and went on a field trip to Los Angeles to see a Tutankhamun exhibit. In addition, I met many older lifelong learners who inspired me. How less rich my life would have been without this.

Approved by voters in November, Proposition 39 is expected to raise close to $1 billion a year by eliminating a tax break enjoyed by some multistate businesses. The money, however, comes with a significant string attached: For the first five years, half of it must be spent on projects that improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse emissions. Gov. Jerry Brown wants to direct next year's allotment exclusively to public schools and community colleges, which isn't a bad idea. But he's doing it in a way that violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the initiative.

Even though the state's budget situation has improved, it will be years before California's community colleges will be able to offer adequate numbers of courses. Hundreds of thousands of students will continue to be shut out of classes they need. Though normally we would deplore creating a two-tiered educational system within the community colleges, now isn't the time to stick to lofty principles about equal pricing for all. The loftiest thing that state legislators could do now is to help students of all financial backgrounds get through college.

Re "Survey offers dire picture of state's two-year colleges," Aug. 29 No longer can those fresh out of high school easily step into middle-class jobs. Today, high school is not enough. Additional education and better job skills are necessary for anything beyond low-wage work. The hundreds of thousands of students on those community college waiting lists know this. The future of middle class jobs is at stake. Private enterprise will not provide the education and skill training needed for these jobs.

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.

One dreary article after another on community colleges has appeared in The Times, most recently Sunday's " California's community colleges staggering during hard times . " Against the backdrop of budget shortfalls, reporting agencies tasked with assessing the effectiveness of community colleges focus on things that can be easily counted and exclude things that do count but cannot be easily tabulated. The state and the people lose resources that enrich state and people. As one who taught at a community college when it served its community fully, I am saddened by what is not counted and is, therefore, lost.

Where are all the knowledgeable people with a passion for bringing higher education to the masses? Too few of them are running for the board of the Los Angeles Community College District. It's not that the four contested seats need more candidates. Fifteen people are seeking seats in the at-large election; six are vying for one spot alone. But if the incumbents tend toward complacency about the operation of the colleges, their challengers tend toward ignorance of it.

The race for an open seat on the Los Angeles Board of Education was close in early returns with Monica Ratliff ahead despite financial support and union backing that made her opponent, Antonio Sanchez, a heavy favorite. In the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees election, incumbent Nancy Pearlman was leading challenger David Vela, according to returns. Sanchez, 31, had the benefit of the combined clout of labor unions along with a deep-pocketed political-action committee spearheaded by outgoing L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, which amassed more than $1 million on his behalf for the runoff.

An incumbent who styles herself as an outsider and a reform-minded community activist and political aide will face each other in a runoff election Tuesday for the final seat on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees. Unlike the hard-fought Los Angeles mayor's race, the match between trustee Nancy Pearlman and challenger David Vela has been conducted with little public scrutiny and virtually no contact between the two candidates. It's a source of frustration for Pearlman and Vela, running for a seat in the largest community college district in the nation - with nine campuses serving 240,000 students in communities spread across 882 square miles, from Sylmar to San Pedro.

Buoyed by an infusion of new state funds, many California community colleges will offer more classes this summer after years of cutbacks, according to a new survey released Thursday. In the informal survey of the state's 112 community colleges, 67% of respondents said they would expand course offerings, 23% said they would offer about the same number of classes as last year and 10% said they planned to decrease offerings. The survey was conducted by the office of statewide Chancellor Brice W. Harris.

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Jerry Brown's revised budget proposal will increase funding for schools and dedicate surplus tax revenue to raising curriculum standards and providing money withheld during the state's fiscal crisis, according to an official with knowledge of the proposal.  About $1 billion will be used to help schools meet the so-called common core standards for writing and math, the official said. The money could be used for, among other things, buying textbooks and testing materials or train teachers.

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown wants to tie some state funding for California's public universities to a host of new requirements, including 10% increases in the number of transfer students from community colleges and the percentage of freshmen graduating within four years. Brown, who has repeatedly said the universities should be leaner and serve more students, is asking for equivalent increases in several other areas as well, according to a copy of his plan obtained by The Times.

Students and faculty are gearing up for a fight to oppose legislation that would allow California community colleges to charge more for high-demand courses during summer and winter sessions. Colleges would be able to offer extension programs for credit leading to certificates, associate's degrees and for transfer to four-year universities, if enrollment was at capacity the preceding two years. The bill, AB 955, is similar to a controversial plan attempted by Santa Monica College last summer to offer core education classes such as English, math and history at a cost of about $180 per unit, alongside state-funded courses set by the Legislature at $46 per unit.

Re "College execs could get pay boost," April 17 I was dismayed by your article on the Los Angeles Community College District's plan to rebalance the salary structure of our senior administrators, a plan approved Wednesday by a 6-1 vote of our Board of Trustees. Not one single college president or senior executive will get a net pay raise as a result of Wednesday's vote. This was simply a move to better align their compensation with the amount paid by other community colleges throughout the state.

College presidents in the Los Angeles Community College District will get a lower car allowance, but a higher salary under a plan approved Wednesday by the Board of Trustees. The action by the governing board was approved on a vote of 6 to 1, with Trustee Scott Svonkin dissenting. Senior administrators receive a monthly car allowance of $1,530 -- the highest of any district in the state. That allowance will be reduced to $500 monthly, effective July 1. The difference of $1,030 will be used to increase the salaries of nine campus presidents and several other top administrators.