Governor won't sign budget without higher ed funding

By Donna Hemmila

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has committed to restoring funding for California's public colleges and universities, pledging that he won't sign a state budget unless it includes the financial support he has proposed for UC, CSU and the community colleges.

Schwarzenegger delivered the good news at a roundtable discussion in Sacramento on April 27 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the California Master Plan for Higher Education.

UC President Mark Yudof, CSU Chancellor Charles Reed and California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott were at the Capitol to advocate for the restoration of higher education funding in the state's 2010-11 budget.

In January, Schwarzenegger introduced a state spending plan that would return more than $848 million to the three public higher education systems following a year of drastic cuts that led to higher student fees, enrollment cutbacks and employee furloughs.

"I will not sign a budget without those increases in there," he said, calling higher education the best investment the state could make. He also said he wouldn't sign a budget if funding for the state's Cal Grant financial aid program isn't included.

UC Regents Chair Russell Gould and the chairs of the CSU and CCC governing boards, as well as student association leaders and Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, also attended the roundtable.

Schwarzenegger praised the three higher education systems for working together to protect access to education in California. He noted nearly 500 new businesses started in California during the last 30 years were founded on UC technologies, and that 80 percent of the state's firefighters and 70 percent of the state's nurses are trained at public institutions.

"All of the people in this room need to make sure our colleges have the resources to serve the people of California," the governor said.

Yudof called the governor's promise to support funding in the state budget "visionary."

The three systems can work to be more efficient, Yudof said, and to build a better transfer pipeline between community colleges and four-year institutions. But to build the capacity of the state's public colleges and universities to erase the projected shortage of 1 million college-educated workers the state faces by 2025, he said, those institutions need funding support.

"We have to ask this generation of Californians, ‘Are we willing to build the human infrastructure that will make the state successful?' " Yudof said. "I think the answer is ‘yes.' "

More than 250 alumni and stakeholders from UC, CSU and community colleges joined the Tuesday advocacy efforts. They planned to visit all 120 legislative offices to ask lawmakers to make higher education a priority in the 2010-11 budget.

Chancellor Scott called the day an historic celebration of the joint advocacy campaign and the 50-year anniversary of the Master Plan.

That document launched a golden age in public higher education support in California, but that support has eroded in recent decades.

In 1960, UC received about 7 percent of the state's budget. Today it is slightly more than 3 percent.

"We're all here together because we're in the same business, the business of education," Scott said. "We're in the business of changing the lives of millions of students."

If just 2 percent more of California's population earned associate degrees and 1 percent more earned bachelor's degrees, the state's economy would grow by $20 billion, Scott said, quoting a report from the nonprofit Campaign for College Opportunity. Those educated workers would generate state and local taxes of $1.2 billion a year, and 174,000 new jobs would be created, the report concluded.

"We're not talking about something that is a cost," Scott said. "We're talking about something that is an investment."

Together, the three California higher education systems saw a $1.7 billion cut to their state budgets this year. They are asking legislators to make funding higher education a high priority in the 2010-11 budget by supporting the governor's budget proposal. They also are asking for support for Cal Grants, which provide financial aid for California's neediest students, many of whom would be denied an education without them.

In January, Gov. Schwarzenegger introduced a budget that included a restoration of $305 million in UC funds cut this year, plus $51.3 million to preserve access for 5,121 students. The January budget included $305 million for CSU and $60.6 million to fund 8,000 students. For California Community Colleges, the budget proposed $126 million to fund 60,000 students.

On May 14, the governor will present his revised spending plan for the state. The Legislature then must approve a budget for the governor to sign. 

Donna Hemmila is managing editor with the UC Office of the President Integrated Communications.