2008 Woodie Awards
Students affected by 20 year old rule
Claire Nicole Smith
Issue date: 10/17/03 Section: News
If community colleges turn into mini-universities of California, then where will the "average" student go?
Arnold Schwarzenegger's new budget proposal will take a harsh blow at our already struggling educational system in California.
The proposal will potentially force community colleges to shift their priority toward serving students with "honor" status rather than the mixed student populations they currently serve.
The proposal released Jan. 9, reveals that the K-12, University of California, and California State University systems will be facing significant changes in not only the government funds they receive for student aid, but regarding teacher positions as well.
Schwarzenegger's proposal for the UC's includes fee increases, cuts in outreach programs, reductions in financial aid, and more obviously, reduction in enrollment for the 2004-05 school year. He has proposed cutting $35 million or 5 percent from spending on faculty, to increase the student/teacher ratio from 19.7-to-1 up to 20.7-to-1. And this would be one of the subtlest changes.
More than 3,200 eligible freshman applicants who would normally have
been admitted will receive rejection letters from UC's. Schwarzenegger rationalizes that the eligible students who will be turned down will have the offer of guaranteed admission to a UC after they complete two cost-free years at a community college. This is quite a substantial amount of free money being offered especially with the present amount of financial aid students currently using the meek government funding available.
Even trickier is that this "guaranteed acceptance" does not necessarily mean the UC acceptance letter would be the students' first choice. UC regents are worried that few students would even take up this offer.
The proposal will most likely take effect in the upcoming school year, and many transfer students aren't looking too happy. The proposal that appears to favor transfer students will only be more costly to them in the long run. The fees at community colleges have sky rocketed from a mere $11 in 2002, to $18 in 2003, and now a proposed $26 per unit for the 2004-05 school year. The governor's plan also calls for a per-unit charge for students who take more community college classes than required to graduate.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's new budget proposal will take a harsh blow at our already struggling educational system in California.
The proposal will potentially force community colleges to shift their priority toward serving students with "honor" status rather than the mixed student populations they currently serve.
The proposal released Jan. 9, reveals that the K-12, University of California, and California State University systems will be facing significant changes in not only the government funds they receive for student aid, but regarding teacher positions as well.
Schwarzenegger's proposal for the UC's includes fee increases, cuts in outreach programs, reductions in financial aid, and more obviously, reduction in enrollment for the 2004-05 school year. He has proposed cutting $35 million or 5 percent from spending on faculty, to increase the student/teacher ratio from 19.7-to-1 up to 20.7-to-1. And this would be one of the subtlest changes.
More than 3,200 eligible freshman applicants who would normally have
been admitted will receive rejection letters from UC's. Schwarzenegger rationalizes that the eligible students who will be turned down will have the offer of guaranteed admission to a UC after they complete two cost-free years at a community college. This is quite a substantial amount of free money being offered especially with the present amount of financial aid students currently using the meek government funding available.
Even trickier is that this "guaranteed acceptance" does not necessarily mean the UC acceptance letter would be the students' first choice. UC regents are worried that few students would even take up this offer.
The proposal will most likely take effect in the upcoming school year, and many transfer students aren't looking too happy. The proposal that appears to favor transfer students will only be more costly to them in the long run. The fees at community colleges have sky rocketed from a mere $11 in 2002, to $18 in 2003, and now a proposed $26 per unit for the 2004-05 school year. The governor's plan also calls for a per-unit charge for students who take more community college classes than required to graduate.