The Legislative Analyst is proposing that the Legislature raise fees at community colleges by $14 per credit – more than 50 percent from the current $26 per credit (which, in turn was raised last year from $20). It sounds like a whopper, but many  students wouldn’t pay it because of fee waivers for low-income families and new federal income tax credits for the middle class. However, the increase would provide $150 million to the system at a time when enrollments statewide have been falling because many colleges have significantly cut the number of sections they’ve been offering, shutting students out of courses that they need.

Even at $40 – $1,200 for a student taking a fulltime load of 30 credits – fees would remain the lowest in America.

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By John Fensterwald on February 28th, 2010

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It’s about to get a lot easier for instructors at community colleges to start using free digital textbooks in their courses. And once they do, the rest of the nation will  follow – eventually.

This week, the Open Educational Resources Center for California went online. The web site will act as a clearinghouse for community college faculty interested in free digital textbooks but  unsure how to use them. They’ll find links to the 450 or so texts now available,  and soon they’ll see peer reviews of many of the titles. The course materials and textbooks are openly licensed or available in the public domain.

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By John Fensterwald on February 9th, 2010

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If baby boomers need another persuasive reason  why it’s critically important to invest more now in higher education in California, they should consider this: They’ll need more workers with college degrees,  if they want to make  money selling their homes in the next 20 years.

University of Southern California demography professor Dowell Myers made this pitch to self-interest Tuesday during the second hearing of the Joint Legislative Committee on the Master Plan for Higher Education. He and others  have warned about the coming threat to the state’s economy from a shortage of workers with college degrees.  Thirty-five percent of workers 55 to 59 years old have at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with 26 percent of workers aged 25 to 39.  Workers with a college degree earn on average 90 percent more than workers with a high school degree in California.

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By John Fensterwald on February 2nd, 2010

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Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposed constitutional amendment to protect higher education budgets and slash prison spending is the fiscal equivalent of a death-row conversion. Better late than never to see the light – but look at the mess he created.

“Spending 45 percent more on prisons than universities is no way to proceed into the future,” he said in the State of the State address. “What does it say about a state that focuses more on prison uniforms than caps and gowns? It simply is not healthy.”

University of California President Mark Yudof couldn’t have said it better.

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By John Fensterwald on January 6th, 2010

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Foothill College President Judy Miner

By John Fensterwald on November 30th, 2009

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