Community Colleges

Facing yawning budget gaps, California's public universities are shifting thousands of applicants into a community college system already swamped by newly unemployed adults and students priced out of other schools. By holding down enrollment, the shift would help balance budgets at UC and CSU campuses.

Matt Simms and Nate Montana have a few things in common. Both play quarterback, the same position as their more accomplished brothers and Super Bowl-winning fathers. Both played at Division I powerhouses but left this year. And now both are enrolled in Southern California community colleges, hoping to rejuvenate their careers. There are plenty of differences, though. For one, Simms, whose father Phil starred for the New York Giants, was a high school standout, won a scholarship to a quarterback factory in his dad's hometown and was slated as a future star.

The telephone rang early that morning while Chris Rosales was in the shower, so the news reached him by way of an urgent message. When the UC Irvine swimmer listened to his answering machine, he heard his coach asking him to call back as soon as possible. "That didn't sound good," Rosales said. "I knew something was up." The California budget crisis has put state colleges and universities under tremendous pressure to cut spending.

Leaders of California's public college and university systems announced Wednesday that they are launching a joint task force to boost the number of community college students who transfer to the state's four-year universities. Only 14,000 of the 2.7 million students enrolled in the state's 110 community colleges transfer to University of California campuses, and 55,000 others move on to California State University campuses.

Free money! Free money for California! The state has a thousand difficult budget choices ahead of it; here's an easy one: Raise community college fees. By a lot. In fact, doubling them sounds about right. Let's pause for the predictable gasps of outrage. Raise fees for this cornerstone of California's Master Plan for Higher Education? Single out the most affordable route to job training and college degrees? Yes.

With unemployment continuing to climb, President Obama on Tuesday unveiled a plan to pump $12 billion into the nation's community colleges over the next 10 years to help struggling workers prepare for new careers, saying a better-educated workforce was crucial to long-term prosperity. "Time and again, when we have placed our bet for the future on education, we have prospered as a result -- by tapping the incredible innovative and generative potential of a skilled American workforce," Obama said.

Two Los Angeles community colleges have been placed on probation by a regional accrediting commission, which faulted L.A. City and Trade-Technical colleges for inadequate planning and evaluation of the effectiveness of student programs. The sanction is the second of four increasingly serious actions that can be brought by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, which has jurisdiction over institutions in California, Hawaii and elsewhere.

One seat on the board of the Los Angeles Community College District went to a runoff after the March election. For Office 6, incumbent Nancy Pearlman far outpolled her nearest opponent, Robert Nakahiro. But with five challengers running, she fell just short of securing the majority needed for an outright win. The Times endorsed neither candidate; Josef Essavi, who drew a couple hundred fewer votes than Nakahiro, appeared to be the most dynamic and informed candidate.

Proposition 92 promises California's community colleges a stable funding source while lowering student fees. What could be wrong with that? A lot. Community colleges certainly need more money, but Proposition 92 would lock the state into spending hundreds of millions of additional dollars that it doesn't have. Lawmakers would have no choice but to rob other higher education programs to meet the new spending commitment.

To supporters of Proposition 92, the state's $14.5-billion budget gap proves their point: Voters should approve the measure Feb. 5 to guarantee funding for community colleges. To opponents of Proposition 92, the shortfall proves that California can't afford it. "We're very concerned about this legislation being voted on when our state is going through such a budget crisis," said David Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Assn.