Schwarzenegger meeting focuses on higher ed cuts

Over the past five years, state budget cuts have caused student fees to rise by 61 percent at UC, $8,000 per year for resident undergraduates, and 68 percent at CSU, to $4,900 per year. Fees at the state’s 110 community colleges dropped during that period but shot up 30 percent this year.

The schools, which serve a combined 3.5 million students each year, also have been forced to reduce enrollment, limit course offerings and — in the case of UC and CSU — institute employee furloughs and pay cuts.

With a state budget deficit of $20 billion, Schwarzenegger said he had done his best to limit the fiscal pain inflicted on colleges and universities.

"We’ve done everything we could, but the bottom line is it’s not enough,” he said after Wednesday’s meeting. "We need to put pressure on the Legislature not only this year in a year of crisis, but in the future, how do we guarantee enough funding for education?”

Schwarzenegger in January pledged to preserve higher education funding at least at its current level.

He also proposed a constitutional amendment guaranteeing that at least 10 percent of general fund spending would go toward UC and CSU. No more than 7 percent would go to state prisons.

Since Schwarzenegger took office in 2004, prisons have eaten up an increasing share of the general fund — 10.9 percent this year compared to 8.7 percent in 2004.

Meanwhile, higher education funding has consistently lagged behind, dipping below 7 percent of general fund spending in 2006 — the lowest level in at least 27 years, according to the state Department of Finance.

Funding to UC and CSU dropped this year to 7.5 percent of the general fund. Community college funding is covered under a separate section of the fund.

To protest such cuts, a series of marches, rallies, teach-ins and class walkouts are scheduled to take place Thursday at college campuses and public spaces in California and other states. The demonstrations, part of a "National Day of Action for Public Education,” will include a rally on the steps of the Capitol.

Wednesday’s late-afternoon gathering at the Capitol included California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott, Sacramento State University President Alexander Gonzalez and UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, among other top administrators and student leaders.

Victor Sanchez, president of the UC Student Association, said the funding cuts were putting a public good in jeopardy. But he said he thought the governor’s budget proposal was a step in the right direction.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said the meeting was just the start of a long road ahead to secure the necessary support for education.

"We’re willing to go up and down the state to find that elusive, long-term, stable funding,” he said of himself and the other participants.