Citing the potential for serious harm to the state's economy and future, the leaders of California's three segments of public higher education — the California Community Colleges, the California State University and the University of California — made a rare joint visit to the state Capitol on Monday to oppose deep budget cuts for public higher education.

As part of an annual visit with legislators, UC President Robert Dynes, UC Provost Rory Hume, CCC Chancellor Diane Woodruff and CSU Chancellor Charles Reed urged the governor and the Legislature to provide the necessary funding in this year's higher education budget. This, they argued, would create greater academic opportunity for the next generation of Californians and ensure the state's economic vitality.

Educational investment

For the past few months, leaders and other members of the three systems have been engaged in a joint public education campaign aimed at helping the public and policymakers understand how important the state's investment in public higher education is to California's economy, and to Californians' short- and long-term well being.

According to the UC Office of the President, the proposed cuts would mean severe hardship for students: Tens of thousands of qualified students will be denied a spot in college or be unable to make progress toward a degree or certificate. The proposed budget would leave the community colleges without the resources to serve more than 50,000 students next year, and both the CSU and UC are already overenrolled by 10,000 and 4,000 students, respectively. CSU has already been forced to turn away 10,000 qualified students for the coming fall semester, and UC may not be able to increase enrollment at all the following year. Student fee increases also will be considered by the governing boards of the UC and CSU systems.

Budget cuts analyzed

An April 16 study commissioned by the Campaign for College Opportunity analyzed the cumulative impact of the proposed budget cuts on the three public higher education systems and the citizens of California. Key findings included:

• The cumulative impact of California's declining investment in higher education would diminish opportunities for students and hinder the state's ability to enroll and graduate the number of students necessary to meet the ever growing need for an educated work force.
• Over the next several years, California Community Colleges would need to increase class sizes, reduce course offerings and reduce various support services to students.
• Both CSU and UC already serve thousands more students than current funding provides; new cuts could force UC and CSU to halt their existing student enrollment at current levels, directly affecting thousands of eligible 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders.
• The proposed $57 million cut in funding for the Cal Grant financial aid program will mean that 18,500 of the poorest and most deserving community college students will not get financial aid along with several thousand CSU and UC students.
• Even if the state's finances improve enough to allow for increases in next year's higher education budget, CSU and UC together could have to turn away more than 27,000 students in the next two and a half years (the size of an entire campus) in order to allow funding to "catch up" with existing enrollment.
• If 2 percent more Californians had associate's degrees and another 1 percent more earned bachelor's degrees, California's economy would grow by $20 billion, state and local tax revenues would increase by $1.2 billion per year, and 174,000 new jobs would be created.

Read the full report by the Campaign for College Opportunity at www.collegecampaign.org/budget.

— UC Office of the President