Community colleges 'can't afford' increased enrollment*

Check out Breeze intern Janna Brancolini's story on the effects of rising enrollment numbers at local community colleges.

With the staggering economy and high unemployment rate, more adults are returning to school to gain skills. But Harbor College and El Camino College can't afford the increased number of students, Janna reports. The two schools, like all community colleges in California, essentially subsidize low tuition with state funds, which haven't been increased enough to cover the rising enrollment.

At Los Angeles Harbor College in Wilmington, enrollment is up 10 percent, President Linda Spink said. That kind of spike is difficult to swallow.

"We can't afford to be up 10 percent," she said.

The state budget allows funding for only 2 percent growth, but most colleges probably won't even receive that, Spink explained.

*The Cal State University system is struggling as well, according to a release just issued by the office of Chancellor Charles Reed. The state budget gives the CSU system essentially the same level of funding as last year, but Cal State campuses are also seeing increased enrollment that isn't funded. The CSU budget leaves a $215 million shortfall, even though student fees went up 10 percent this year, the release says.

The budget provides no funding for enrollment growth intensifying a trend that began in 2005-06, in which student enrollment grows faster than state funding. In response, CSU campuses have increased class sizes when possible, and opened more course sections with temporary faculty appointments. To protect educational quality in the face of these funding challenges, CSU campuses will slow down enrollment growth by closing the freshmen application period for Fall 2009 earlier in the cycle.