Community Colleges Enrollment

The Los Angeles Community College District has severely depleted its financial reserves after a five-year budget slide, triggering a state review to assess what can be done to strengthen the district's meager coffers. A midyear budget report released to the board of trustees Wednesday estimated that the Los Angeles district, the nation's largest, will end the year with $5.6 million, less than 2% of its $282-million budget.

The Los Angeles Community College District has severely depleted its financial reserves after a five-year budget slide, triggering a state review to assess what can be done to strengthen the district's coffers. A budget report released to the district's Board of Trustees estimates that the Los Angeles district, the nation's largest, will end the year with $5.6 million, less than 2% of its $282 million budget.

Officially ending a four-year enrollment slump, the county's three community colleges Tuesday posted a 5.8% enrollment gain as registration came to a close. "Everyone is very, very pleased that we have the students back," said Barbara Buttner, a spokeswoman for the Ventura County Community College District. "We are looking forward to a strong and challenging semester."

It didn't take a rocket scientist to understand the impact of a special community college enrollment fee imposed by the state Legislature three years ago. In fact, all it took was an undergraduate degree. With community colleges crammed with students, legislators decided to ease classroom crowding in 1993 by charging students who already held a bachelor's degree an extra $50 per unit to take a community college course, usually worth three or four units.

Lower community college fees for adults who hold bachelor's degrees could spur thousands of students who had dropped out of the two-year colleges the past few years to re-enroll, college administrators say. The new fees for students with bachelor's degrees go into effect Jan. 1, reducing the cost from the $50 per unit--imposed by the state Legislature in 1993--to the $13 per unit paid by other students. A typical community college course consists of three units.

Lower community college fees for adults who hold bachelor degrees could spur thousands of students who had dropped out of the two-year colleges in the past few years to re-enroll, college administrators say. The new fees for students with bachelor's degrees go into effect Jan. 1, reducing the cost from the current $50 per unit--imposed by the state Legislature in 1993--to the same $13 per unit paid by other students. A typical community college course consists of three units.

When Brian McMahon received tenure in El Camino Community College's auto collision repair department, the first thing he wanted to do was come clean. For nearly five years, McMahon said, he had been directed by several administrators to give passing grades to "phantom" students who were either not enrolled or never showed up for his class after registering. Specifically, he says that the dean of industry and technology told him to "enroll your mother if you have to."

Enrollment in the Los Angeles Community College District, the nation's largest, fell to its second-lowest level in 25 years this fall with seven of the district's nine campuses showing losses. This is the fourth consecutive year of plummeting enrollment for the beleaguered community college district, which has lost nearly 20,000 students since 1991--enough to fill an entire college campus. The total systemwide enrollment of 97,212 represents a 3.