Full-Court Press of Our Advocates to Salvage CC Budgets

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The Community College League of California is one of the leading advocacy groups for California community colleges.  One of their primary roles is to monitor legislative activities and to keep the campuses apprised of bills and legislation that would both benefit and impact our institutions.

To give you an overview of issues, I've reproduced here, courtesy of CCLC, the talking points that are being used to advocate for our institutions.  Please remember that every one of these points relates directly to WLAC in terms of per-student funding, categorical dollars, the students we've been unable to serve due to the restrictions on the CARES Act, and our inability to provide essential workers if we experience draconian cuts to our budget.

  1. It is simply unrealistic for the lowest per-student funded institutions to successfully educate the same number of students with even further reductions in per-student level funding.
  2. We request a more equitable balance between base funding for operations and categorical programs. Base funding for operations is the highest priority for maintaining personnel, institutional excellence, and functionality.
  3. The overreliance on federal dollars to backfill cuts fails to account for even the most recent federal aid within the CARES Act which excluded 800,000 California community college students.State and educational leaders in California have an obligation to educate our students with our resources.
  4. California community colleges will graduate thousands of essential workers, including nurses, EMTs, respiratory therapists, and other essential workforce professionals needed to confront the pandemic, and we will be the institutions of choice for retraining and unemployed Californians.
The CCLC also notes what has so far been protected in the May budget revision, which includes
  1. Extension by an additional two-years the Hold Harmless provision of the Student-Centered Funding Formula.
  2. Exemption of COVID-19 expenses from the Fifty Percent Law equation.  (FYI;  The "Fifty Percent Law" has been in California statutes since 1961; specifically, Education Code 84362 (d):  “There shall be expended during each fiscal year for payment of salaries of classroom instructors by a community college district, 50 percent of the district's current expense of education.”  More information is available at this presentation by the Association of Chief Business Officers.)
  3. Prop 51-funded capital outlay projects.  (This is of importance to WLAC because the construction of a new facilities building to replace the current modular structure is funded through Prop 51.)

Please remember that discussions are moving quickly around the budget crisis.  The Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee met on Monday, May 25th, to discuss higher education, so we should know soon the outcome of those deliberations.