Vice President of Financial Services Claudette Dain said California is facing a $54 billion deficit, as projected by the governor. Dain said the deficit translates into a 10% budget reduction for Citrus College.
“While I certainly don’t have a crystal ball, there is anecdotal information that UC or Cal State students may not be happy with the high tuition and campus fees, and therefore the affordable, high quality education offered by community colleges may be more appealing to students,” Dain said on the whether the budget deficit will affect Citrus.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s history said community colleges ‘absorbed half of all growth” in college enrollment when the Great Recession hit in 2008.
“As price becomes a growing consideration 40% of students say they will attend public college and 26% say they will choose community colleges,” a separate report by the College Saving Foundations, a Washington based research group said.
At Citrus College, the graduation rate is 36 percent within 150 percent normal time, the retention rate is 75 percent and the transfer-out rate is 6 percent as of August 31, 2018. An increased completion rate would only increase the possibilities of any extra funding from the government.
A new report from the National Center for Public policy and Higher Education shows a direct correlation between less funding and diminishing completion rates at universities.
“More students will want to stay close to home, take a year off or not go to school at all and that the higher education trade group has predicted a 15% drop in enrollment,” Hartocollis wrote.
Community colleges are fairly affordable and located in almost every county in the country. Community college’s broad reach allows students to learn near home and while they assist family through the financial hardships.
The CARES Act provides $7.4 million of financial assistance to Citrus. Half of the funding is allotted eligible students and the other half for the institution.
According to a study done by the Center for American Progress, Community Colleges Got Disproportionately Less in CARES Act the study said the CARES Act short-changed community colleges. While community colleges educate 40% of students they only receive 27% of the funds.
Professor of sociology and medicine at Temple University Sara Goldrick-Rab said in an article Community Colleges Could Help Students Through the Pandemic in The Atlantic she refers to community colleges as “the neglected step-children of higher education.”
But, Goldrick-Rab said there are also possible means of financial assistance.
“Given these harrowing statistics, it’s imperative that the federal government enact another round of all-inclusive emergency funding specifically for community colleges,” Goldrick-Rab said.
Though relying on the federal government is ideal in these unprecedented times, creating awareness to advocates of educational funding and spreading the word to college students is just as imperative to ensure more financial assistance.
