Pasadena City College Faculty Association Newsletter Winter 2010

Winter’s Cuts leave many students classless!
The following numbers reveal a winter of discontent as hundreds of students were denied classes because of PCC’s downsized Winter Session.

**50 students tried to add a Macro-Economics class
**54 students sought to add a Speech 1 course
**52 students attempted to add Psychology 1
**90 students (!) sought to add a Political Science 1 course

Thank you to the teachers and students who helped compile these numbers. Thus, while early indications are that PCC’s Spring 2010 course numbers will be roughly equal to Spring 2009, student demand will exceed offerings. Given the current Sacramento budget projections (see below), PCCFA strongly urges the District to expand classes to accommodate student need.

Proposed Sacramento Budget (subject to much revision):
Historical Perspective: In 1980, 10% of California’s General Fund was assigned to Higher Education, and 3% went to prisons. By 2010 (30 neo-liberal years later), 11% of the state budget goes to prisons and 7.5% to Higher Education (LA Times 1/7/10).

The Governor’s Proposed 2010/11 budget has a number of striking features:
The Good:
A) There were NO Mid-Year Cuts! Thus, PCC will not have any fiscal surprises from the state through the end of 2009/10 fiscal year.
B) 2.21% increase in growth funds will offset costs of adding 26,000 (FTES) community college students statewide.

The Bad
A) Student fees will remain at $26/unit (fees do not generate major state revenues, but fee reductions would ease the financial burden for Californian’s 2.9 million community college students).
B) A minus .38 % Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) amounts to a loss of $22.1 million.

The Really Bad
A) Cuts in Part Time faculty supplemental funding and language seeking to ‘release’ districts from the 75/25 law which aims to guarantee that 75% of all classes be taught by Full time teachers. Currently, there is little compliance statewide, but to remove the law would open the
door to ending Full Time Teachers’ jobs. At PCC, approximately 65% of classes are taught by Full Timers. In contrast, Santa Monica CC, considered a flagship institution, now has a paltry 45% of its classes taught by Part Timers. However, PCC remains the only community college of its stature and size with no compensated conference hours for Part Timers and their students.

B) Increased Categorical Flexibility” (aka “shift happens”). “Flexibility” is the operative euphemism to make the system leaner and much meaner. Effectively, the new ‘masters’ plan, while paying lip service to basic skills, undermines service to students most in need of help and jeopardizes faculty and staff jobs. Districts will have the “flexibility” to transfer funds from various Categorical Programs and avoid compliance stipulations. Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) will suffer cuts of $10 million. Programs like EOP&S, MESA, PUENTE, Early College High School, and Basic Skills could all have their funds transferred at a District’s discretion. Finally, a considerable portion of the state budget relies on Federal support which means that further cuts could be coming.

Proposed Federal Budget:
On February 1, 2010 President Barack Obama formally released his FY2011 Budget Request. It provides $49.7 billion (7.5% increase over the FY2010 budget request) for the Department of Education, The Department of Education FY2011 budget request also includes "$10.6 billion over 10 years for the President's American Graduation Initiative (AGI), to strengthen and support community colleges, focus on college completion, and graduate 5 million more students by 2020." The House passed version of H.R. 3221, "Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act," provides $9.5 billion for AGI. The AGI funding amount is expected to increase in the Senate bill, which still has not been released.

Now, this hardly compares with the $700 billon bank bailoutlast year, and the $900 billion spent on war funding annually. Also, Pell Grants will likely suffer cuts; thus our students will increasingly be compelled to borrow which means they will need to work and likely cut their college class loads, delaying their completion dates.
(All state and federal budget data supplied by the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges—FACCC)