The rising costs of public education have entered the limelight
during a summer marred by student fee increases ““ but the
looming threat for Californians is that thousands may be barred
outright from accessing a college education.
Last month, the state told the University of California and
California State University it would not fully fund enrollment
growth, making it difficult for the universities to maintain a
four-decade old promise to accept a certain percentage of the
state’s high school graduates.
In hopes of stabilizing the universities’ massive
budgetary reductions, both UC President Richard Atkinson and CSU
Chancellor Charles Reed have strongly advocated curtailing
enrollment growth, which would shut out more than 15,000 students
in fall 2004.
Both the UC Regents and CSU Trustees increased student fees by
30 percent to alleviate the funding shortfall, but officials said
the increases were not enough and that the universities would
likely take fewer students than planned to prevent damaging
educational quality.
Public education’s current round of problems started in
part with the technology crash two years ago, which sent
California’s economy tail-spinning downward. July’s
state unemployment rate floated above the national average at 6.6
percent, and this year’s budget shortfall broke all records.
In hopes of remedying these problems, the 2003-2004 budget
drastically reduced funding to nearly all public services.
Passed July 30, the budget contained $410 million in cuts to the
UC. The university, which administrators said needs $4 billion
annually from the state, will receive $2.9 billion in 2003-2004.
The CSU’s plight was a $345.2 million reduction.
The budget exacerbated both universities’ problems by
providing no funding for additional enrollment growth. If the
universities do not curb enrollment growth, it would cost millions.
The UC predicted that by shutting out 5,000 otherwise eligible
students, they could save $45 million.
Student Regent Matt Murray said the state has put the UC in a
position where “the options are very limited,” and that
restricting enrollment growths is likely.
Not admitting all eligible students breaks the Master Plan of
Higher Education’s promise to provide education for all
qualified Californians via the University of California, California
State University, and community colleges. The Master Plan
guarantees the top 12.5 percent of high school graduates admission
to the UC, and the top 33 percent admission to the CSU.
Broken promises are rarely well-timed, and the state’s
refusal to fund enrollment growth is no exception. The children of
baby boomers are graduating high school in masses, and the state is
scrambling to expand its higher education system. The UC system is
expected to add 60,000 students between 2000 and 2010, with young
campuses like UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz absorbing the brunt of
the influx, dubbed Tidal Wave II.
Since 1998, UCLA undergraduate freshmen and transfer enrollment
has grown from 6,086 to 7,540. UCLA Admissions Director Vu Tran
said if enrollment were frozen at this year’s level, it would
impede admittance to the UC’s most selective campus. Though
the number admitted to UCLA has remained relatively stable since
1998, annual applications have increased 16,651 ““ more than
UC Riverside’s entire student body.
“The competition gets tougher and tougher every
year,” Tran said. “If you get more applications, and
you won’t be able to admit more students, of course it is
more difficult for everyone to get in.”
The state budget will also retard the opening of Merced ““
the UC’s satellite to the Central Valley ““ until August
2005, causing the UC to scramble for alternatives for dozens of
transfer students guaranteed admittance in 2004.
The problems in CSU are also troubling for Californians looking
for affordable and accessible education. Only five of CSU’s
23 campuses have the capacity to admit all eligible students for
spring 2004, denying up to 30,000 hopeful students, CSU Chancellor
Charles Reed said in a recent statement.
CSU has also reduced fall 2003 enrollment growth by more than
10,000 students and says it cannot afford fall 2004 growth.
Community colleges have traditionally been available for those
who were not admitted to the UC or CSU, but with the amount of
money available for public higher education, community colleges are
fighting to stay alive. Fall classes have been slashed, educators
sent home, and counseling services scaled back. Student fees have
also increased more than 60 percent.
These factors jeopardize community colleges’ mission to
offer postsecondary education to “all high school graduates
and adults who can benefit.”
“All the students who get turned away by UC and CSU will
turn to us, but we don’t have room either,” said
Kirsten Macintyre, a spokeswoman for the California Community
College Chancellor’s Office.
Serving over 1,000,000 full-time equivalent students annually,
budget cuts have the potential to cause community colleges to turn
away more than 20,000 students statewide.
“Wherever students look they are going to find that the
commitment by the state to provide accessible and affordable higher
education is in jeopardy,” said Scott Lay, director of state
budget issues for the Community College League.
But the problem extends further than higher education. Many
predict that decreasing access would have a long term effect on the
state economy, and would unravel California’s social
fabric.
By restricting access to higher education, “you are
limiting the number of people who are going to have access to a
middle class lifestyle,” said Will Doyle, senior policy
analyst for the non-profit National Center for Public Policy and
Higher Education.
Analysts also say that curbing enrollment would further
disenfranchise African Americans and Latinos, groups that are
already underrepresented in the UC, from receiving a postsecondary
education, which would in turn inhibit thousands on their quest for
social advancement.
“A college degree is the way people can achieve the
American dream, especially from low income and immigrant
families,” said Jeannie Oakes, a professor in educational
equity at UCLA.
Obtaining a college degree is also the way many Californians
give back to the state. Few would contend the benefits higher
education has on a community’s economy, and at a time when
California is struggling, an educated population would help fuel a
long-term recovery, said Pedro Reyes, deputy policy director for
Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, D-Culver City.
California itself is a testimony to the importance of education
on industry. It has the fifth largest economy in the world, and
boasts the largest public school system and the biggest research
institution in the nation.
Assembly Republican Leader Dave Cox, R-Sacramento, said the last
thing anyone wants to do is restrict eduction.
“You cannot have a great society without having higher
education,” he said.