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Schools

College Prepares for More Budget Cuts

Adjusting to the effects of what its president calls the 'new reality,' Moorpark College plans to cut classes for spring semester.

These are tough times for California’s state colleges. With the state’s high unemployment rate, the need for education and career training is more important than ever, but the dollars for that training are shrinking and the competition for class space is getting more severe.

“A couple of years ago, Moorpark College’s budget was $51 million," said Moorpark College President Pam Eddinger. "This year, it’s $47 million for fiscal year 2012, and for fiscal year 2013 it’s going to shrink even more.”

Eddinger said the state had a shortfall of some $26 billion. The first $13 billion Gov. Jerry Brown cut translated to a $400-million loss for California’s community college system, she said.

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“With the remaining $13 billion, he managed to account for a portion of it, and also optimistically projected revenue. He also built into the budget process triggers for automatic cuts midyear if the revenue does not materialize,” Eddinger said.

Moorpark College has been planning for some of these cuts and has been setting aside funds to help offset possible budget downturns.

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“Our Board of Trustees has committed to using available reserves to offset possible midyear cuts if those triggers are pulled,” she said. “Over the last few years, we’ve been planning as a district, and anticipating these cuts. So, for the current year, we have an adoption budget that takes us to June 30, 2012.”

As for the year following, Eddinger estimated that the current projection for the community college district was a shortfall of between $11 million and $13 million. For Moorpark College, this means losing another $4 million to $5 million.

But that’s only part of the story. The budget shortfalls are compounded by two major restraints the state has imposed on community colleges. First, as Eddinger noted, the school is funded by the state for a certain number of students.

“For each equivalent student, we get $4,500, so we’ve been educating 1,500 to 2,000 more students than we get paid for,” she said.

Second, the college is limited by what the state allows it to charge in tuition rates. Currently, the tuition rate set by the state Legislature is projected to go up to about $36 per unit. Compared to other states, these rates put California toward the bottom of the fee scale. Vermont, at the top of the list, is $180 per unit.

Eddinger believes that a new era has dawned for community colleges. Once a bastion for an easy and cheap college education, today’s community college students find themselves in a battle just to enroll in the classes they need, as schools have had to cut classes from their offerings.

According to Eddinger, Moorpark College eliminated 50 sections over the summer, 40 sections in the current semester, and are planning a similar number for the spring to reduce unfunded full-time employees. Eddinger did not know the departmental breakdown for planned cuts when Patch spoke with her.

“It’s a new reality,” she said. “It has been referred to as a ‘budget reset.’ We’re never going to be back where we were with the housing boom and tax revenue coming in. We are just part of today’s economic reality, except the students’ need for education is not going away.”

Though the state has been through previous budget crises, Eddinger believes the current era is a game changer.

 “This is different in that it’s persistent and we’re not seeing the end of it. For the last few years, we’ve been trimming around the edges and determining what is our core. This is the question I ask our staff and faculty: If the college burned down completely and you were given 75 percent of the resources to rebuild, what would you rebuild first? That’s the question we ask in reinventing ourselves,” she said.

Given this new reality, the atmosphere and structure of community college education has changed. Sports, degree programs and community education are all being evaluated and reevaluated with the goal of helping student get what they need most efficiently and move on.

Eddinger laid out the current model Moorpark College has had to employ.

“Now that the availability of the units is more restricted, we have to make sure the student doesn’t wander too much in his or her education path,” she said.

The state has helped by suggesting a transfer model curricula for the schools to follow. There’s an urgency now, she said, to make the education and transfer process more transparent and more straightforward.

It also means the student has a greater sense of urgency about what it takes to finish their degree.

“Even though faculty have larger classes, students don’t drop out because they know they might not get a second chance,” Eddinger said. "There’s a sense of seriousness at the community college level. Students know that they can’t waste classes.”

Eddinger is frustrated by shrinking budgets, class sizes and the struggle of Moorpark College to maintain its enrollments. Still, she remains optimistic about the role of Moorpark College in providing students with a quality education.

“Despite all the funding shortages and hard times,” she stated, “the students will learn and graduate and the college will be OK. We will be here. We will get to the core of our mission and continue to serve.”

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