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CSUN University News Clippings

Raise community college fees by 50 percent, state analyst says

(January 30, 2009)

By Matt Krupnick
Published: 1/30/09

Community colleges should raise their fees by 50 percent, a state agency recommended Thursday.

With budget cuts a reality at nearly every level of government this year, the state Legislative Analysts Office higher-education budget analysis echoed scattered calls for higher fees at California’s two-year schools, which have by far the nation’s lowest fees. Students pay $20 per unit —”about $600 per year for full-time students.

Even with a $30-per-unit fee, community colleges would still be very affordable, the analysts said.

But the report also noted that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to cut a specific Cal Grant program would hurt low-income community college students.

Recipients of those scholarships, called competitive Cal Grants, are generally older and poorer than other students, the analyst’s office said, but they are more successful in school than their younger peers.

The budget analysts also suggested that Schwarzenegger should not be proposing deep financial-aid cuts in a year when universities’ prices are expected to rise sharply. Analysts criticized the governor for his plan to end the state’s commitment to offsetting fee hikes.

Fees at both the California State University and University of California are expected to rise by about 10 percent this year.

Tough times have brought tough choices, said H.D. Palmer, a Schwarzenegger spokesman.

“It certainly gives the governor no pleasure to make reductions to higher education,” he said. “Unfortunately, the unprecedented downturn in the economy and in revenue has forced the state to make several choices it would rather not make.”

The report also criticized a plan to cut state scholarships for students at private colleges. With both public universities planning to cut enrollment this year, it said, those grants are integral to making sure students have higher-education options.

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