Adding It Up
San Diego Community Colleges Can’t Square Soaring Enrollment
By RENE’E BEASLEY JONES
Thanks primarily to the economic downturn and a wave of college-age students working through the school system, San Diego County’s community colleges have seen “explosive enrollments.”
But state funding has failed to keep pace with that growth, local college administrators say. Eventually, the business community will suffer, they say, because college vocational programs train technicians who are vital to the area’s work force.
A lack of funds for extra faculty and classrooms means local colleges can’t graduate the number of students required to meet the need in some employment sectors, such as health care and auto mechanics.
Enrollment in the San Diego Community College District,which includes San Diego City College, Mesa College, Miramar College and the Centers for Education and Technology,grew about 20% this year, said Pat Keir, Miramar’s president. But the state will fund only 1.5% growth.
The result of unfunded students: administrators can’t hire much-needed faculty, so existing instructors take on extra students. Other pupils go on waiting lists.
At San Diego City College, 3,500 students started the semester on a waiting list, said Ron Manzoni, vice president of instruction. Of those, 1,300 eventually got into classes.
Also, limited state funding means no money for additional classrooms. At Miramar, the head count has nearly doubled in three years. Two science labs now serve 12,000 students.
Nine mobile units moved onto campus in recent years haven’t met the need. The college offers its popular biotech technician program at Scripps Ranch High School.
Likewise, Southwestern Community College District in Chula Vista partners with a local hospital, which provides some classroom space for the college’s nursing program.
“The business community has been largely supportive of local community colleges,” said Terrence Burgess, president of San Diego City College. “But somehow that message never gels at the state.”
Election Hopes
San Diego administrators cross their fingers in hopes that voters approve Proposition S on Tuesday. That $685 million bond issue would renovate and repair existing facilities and build more classrooms.
Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District in El Cajon is hoping voters will approve Proposition R, a $207 million bond measure. Buildings originally constructed to serve a combined student population of 8,300 now enroll 26,000 a semester.
California’s full-time equivalent student funding for community colleges averages $4,814, according to state officials. Worse yet, a complex state funding formula puts some San Diego County community colleges near the bottom of the payment structure.
Southwestern sits third from last, receiving $3,506 per full-time equivalent student. Top dollar of $8,209 goes to the West Kern district near Bakersfield.
San Diego Community College District receives about $3,700 per full-time pupil.
Compared to the state’s four-year university system, local community colleges fare even worse. For example, the University of California system receives $16,191 per student. California State University gets $10,822.
Community college vocational programs train the technicians that keep San Diego’s local economy humming, Keir said.
Among other disciplines, Miramar teaches public safety personnel and auto mechanics. “Demand for auto service technicians far exceeds the supply,” Keir said. “Without additional funding and facilities, we are limited in the numbers of students we can accept into these programs.”
Michael Murphy, director of San Diego operations for American Medical Response, depends heavily on local community colleges for his work force.
The company runs 82 vehicles in San Diego and employs 160 emergency medical technicians and 114 paramedics. The need is constant, Murphy said.
“There has been, over the past year, a shortage of qualified paramedics and (emergency medical technicians) in the San Diego work force,” he said.
During economic downturns, enrollment soars at community colleges as displaced workers return to classrooms to update skills and make themselves more marketable.
History of Cuts
But during a recession, the state can’t ante up for that unexpected student growth. Community colleges,at a time when they and students need help the most,see budgets cut.
It happened during the recessions of the early 1980s and 1990s, said Thomas Nussbaum, chancellor of the state’s community college system, in a speech earlier this month.
He called the high-enrollment-limited-spending phenomenon the “cycle of retrenchment.”
It’s being repeated, Nussbaum said.
The state suffered a $23 billion budget shortfall this year as enrollment at the state’s community colleges peaked.
“Our fall 2002 enrollment survey tells us that colleges are increasing class sizes, exhausting reserves, deferring maintenance and repairs, using more part-time instructors and not replacing departing employees,” Nussbaum said.
The state’s projected shortfall for 2003-2004 is between $10 billion and $15 billion, he said. Nussbaum fears community colleges will be asked to cut budgets. nBeasley Jones is a staff writer with the San Diego Business Journal.
