California Budget Crisis Hits Colleges

LOS ANGELES

California voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest effort to fix the state’s budget, a package of budget-balancing measures that he promised would provide a short-term patch for the current financial crisis and prevent further catastrophe in the future.

Instead, he now faces a $21.3 billion budget deficit and a budget system that has not changed a bit since he took office nearly six years ago.

“I think he’s discovered that this job is a lot harder than he anticipated in a state of economic downturn,” Treasurer Bill Lockyer said Tuesday of the governor who came into office in 2003 promising to “end the crazy deficit spending.”

Community college leaders issued a response Wednesday saying the cuts that will need to take place now will be catastrophic.

Said California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott in a statement, “Our community colleges are on the front lines providing real-time solutions for millions of Californians. Many of our students are reeling from the shockwaves resulting from the global financial meltdown, high unemployment rates and a difficult job market. We’ve added more than 150,000 additional students this year alone and are serving 140,000 of them without any additional funding.

“As the chancellor leading our 110 colleges, it is my job to inform state leaders we simply cannot continue to be an effective safety net for displaced workers, train our nation’s nurses and firefighters and retool workers to serve in green jobs if the proposed cuts are enacted. As it stands now, our classrooms are full, waiting lists to get into classes are long and many students cannot access the courses they need to progress,” Scott said.