California Community Colleges – Strong for California
2020-21 May Revision
 
As state leaders set plans for a path to recovery from COVID-19, it is critical to prioritize funding for California Community Colleges in the 2020-21 State Budget and recognize their important role in California’s response and recovery.
 
  • Ten years ago, cuts to the community college system translated into a drastic decline in access – cutting out upwards of 600,000 students from higher education. That translated directly into a huge hit to our state’s workforce and widened California’s degree gap.
  • History is again repeating itself with an estimated $1 billion in cuts in just one year. It is impossible for these cuts to be inconsequential.
  • We cannot let what happened 10 years ago to our community college system happen again. The greatest risk is the negative impact to California Community Colleges’ progress toward equitable success and the goals outlined in the Vision for Success.
  • The fallout of that recession devastated the community college system, which sustained $1.5 billion in budget cuts between 2007–08 and 2011–12, a Public Policy Institute of California 2013 report found.

Critical to California’s COVID-19 Response
 
  • The California Community Colleges system has proven critical to the state’s fight against COVID-19 – from training first responders to donating desperately needed medical supplies and equipment.
  • California Community Colleges educate 70 percent of the state’s nurses and 80 percent of firefighters, law enforcement personnel and emergency medical technicians. Twenty thousand first responders and health care professionals trained at a California community college enter the workforce every year.
  • More specifically, our trained graduates are the nurses who are taking care of us and our loved ones during this health crisis. They are the first responders who arrive on the scene to assist with initial treatment and transport for critical care. They are community college trained and ready.
  • To assist with the response to COVID-19, community colleges provided 140 ventilators from allied health programs to California’s medical surge capacity.
  • Colleges provided tens of thousands of pieces of Personal Protective Equipment to local hospitals and clinics, and advanced manufacturing programs made face shields using 3D printers to fulfill needs at local hospitals.
  • Our career education programs support the Critical Infrastructure Sectors (such as health, energy, manufacturing, emergency services, food and agriculture, transportation and logistics).
  • California’s leaders should prioritize and protect funding for community colleges so that students have access to the education they need and can join the state’s response to COVID-19.

Strong for California in the Recovery
 
  • As the largest provider of workforce training in the nation, California’s community colleges are the backbone of the state’s workforce – today and tomorrow.
  • Serving more than 2 million students across 115 campuses, the California Community Colleges system is the largest higher education system in the nation.
  • The state’s 115 community colleges, with their nimble workforce education programs and quality transfer pathways, will be crucial in helping California navigate the new economy emerging through this crisis.
  • Even before COVID-19, too many California community college students were struggling with basic needs insecurities. COVID-19 has further exposed economic and social disparities. These students need and deserve support now more than ever to be supported on their path to entering – or re-entering – the workforce.
  • California’s leaders cannot leave out community colleges or its 2.1 million students – both represent one of our state’s primary paths back to prosperity.
  • California Community Colleges cannot support the state in its recovery when essential workforce programs are cut by more than half.

Support Community College’s Commitment to Equity and Student Success
 
  • As the lowest-funded education system yet most consequential for equity and access, state leaders should recognize that doing more with less reaches a breaking point.
  • Cutting funding to the California Community Colleges means a severe reduction in access, equity and success at a consequential cost to emerging generations.
  • In these challenging and uncertain times, flexibility to mitigate the impact on our students will be critical. While the May Revision attempts to protect access, it lacks the resources needed to address the inequities that plague California’s higher education systems. Instead, the challenges that low-income students, students of color and high-needs students face are just further exacerbated by compromising quality.
  • Our students are resilient – they are veterans, mothers, working learners, dreamers, and so much more. They face many challenges due to COVID-19; cutting their education should not be one of them.
  • Students working for a credential or degree at our colleges want to get their education, enter the workforce and get to work.
  • This population constitutes the core of our trained workforce. We need them, and they need us.

May Revision At A Glance:
 
  • Governor emphasizes the priority to maintain access, affordability, and equity. Directs segments to avoid reducing enrollment, to protect services for underrepresented students and to work together to expand and improve the quality of online programs.
  • Enables the broader use of competency based education and the expedited development of short-term career technical education courses and programs.
  • Reduces Student Centered Funding Formula by 10%.
  • Extend Student Centered Funding Formula hold harmless provisions for an additional two years.
  • Reduces Strong Workforce from $248 million to $100 million ongoing.
  • Reduces Student Equity and Achievement Program, Part-Time Faculty Office Hours, Academic Senate, CCC System Support Program.
  • Includes categorical program reductions of 25% for community supported (basic aid) districts.
  • Eliminates all new spending proposed in January except $10 million for immigrant legal services (ongoing). This includes the January proposal to establish a statewide faculty fellowship.
  • Cuts Calbright College by 15%.
  • Does not provide COLAs. Final COLA rate is 2.31%.
  • Shifts June 2020 and June 2021 payments to the next fiscal year, deferring $330.1 million from 2019–20 to 2020–21 and $662.1 million from 2020–21 to 2021–22.
  • Withdraws all funding in Public School System Stabilization Account in 2019-20.
  • Moves forward with 25 new and 15 continuing Proposition 51 projects, and re-appropriates funding for 23 projects.
  • Repurposes funds designated for buydown of long-term pension liabilities to use for current employer contributions instead, reducing districts’ costs by about 2% in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
  • Preserves full funding for Cal Grants and CCC student financial aid programs.
  • Exempts COVID-19 related costs from 50% law.
  • Proposes state worker salary reductions of up to 10% and furloughs for all state agencies.