Keep the Community in California’s Community Colleges!
In the summer of 2012, prior to the passage of Prop 30, when there were hundreds of thousands of students that the community college system was not able to serve, the Community College Board of Governors passed regulations that prohibit a student who successfully completes a class from repeating it, except under certain circumstances. (Students can repeat courses required for transfer to the University of California or California State University, related to participation in intercollegiate athletics, or required for vocational or licensure reasons). The regulations became effective in the fall of 2013.
In the context of five years of some of the worst budget cuts colleges had ever seen— the Chancellor’s office reported that some 20% of classes had been cut system-wide—these measures made sense to some.
Then, in November of 2012, voters passed Prop 30 (primarily a tax on the wealthy to fund education). Prop 30 helped resuscitate public education in our state, where all levels of education had been severely reduced. Funding for the community college system more or less stabilized.
But these restrictive regulations are still in place. And, they are bad news for all kinds of students. First, they impact basic skills, bilingual, at-risk, and slower learning students who need to repeat coursework in order to sufficiently absorb all of the material. Think of the student of Early Childhood Education, who has just learned English and needs to repeat the coursework to truly grasp all of the content and vocabulary, or the reading student who could hugely benefit from taking a lab course a second time prior to moving up to transferable courses.
Second, they impact anyone who ever wants to return to community college for anything they have done before unless they are now doing it for transfer, a license or a certificate. This eliminates access for the small business owner who took an HTML course years ago and needs to repeat it in order to maintain a website or the handy-woman that wants to beef up her welding skills in order to get more work. This list goes on and on . . . note that we are compiling information on how students are affected in all programs; send your concise information to ccft@ccftcabrillo.org.
by Maya Bendotoff
What you can do to participate:Spread the word: Keep the Community in Community Colleges! Sign up for email alerts by sending an email to ccft@ccftcabrillo.org; please include repeatability advocacy in the title. Support rescinding or modifying these regulations. We need support from:
Participate in our Day of Action for Community Colleges: Wed., April 23, 2014. Event to take place in the Cabrillo quad between 12-2pm. Attend our FORUM to Keep the Community in Community Colleges on Thurs., May 1 from 6-8 at the Horticulture Center, room 5005. CCFT will take a resolution to the CFT Convention; we have also put together templates of resolutions. Info to be posted online soon. |
Third, at Cabrillo they impact international students with limited employment options who must enroll in a course in order to work off campus. This effectively limits these students to one semester of off campus work, something they may desperately need to pay their expenses while in this country (note we are just learning about this at Cabrillo; how this pans out at other colleges may vary).
And then there are the arts. Lack of repeatability in performance and skill-building courses severely hinders the success of students who learn by practice and repetition.. In most disciplines, there is no limit on the number of levels or variations that can be created. However, in the visual and performing arts (and physical education), students may have no more than four enrollments in any given group of active participatory courses that are related in content (commonly known as a family of courses). This is a huge blow to anyone serious about art, especially those students who didn’t (and don’t) have access to private music, theater, or other arts classes. In many cases, the new regulations make the maximum number of courses allowed in community colleges the minimum needed for transfer to State or UC. This doesn’t take into account the fact that some students may need more than that minimum to build proficient performance skills and portfolios that will be needed to get in many four-year colleges. Cabrillo has sent many students of the visual and performing arts to top-notch institutions in the past; will now be restricted from following similar paths of success.
There are so many things not covered here, including the impact on physical education/kinesiology, human services, languages, etc., but I will leave it to say that the regulations have significantly limited both student success and access (see Sharon’s Took Zozaya’s article for more information).
The time for such regulations, if there ever was one, has passed. By approving Prop 30, Californians decided not to completely gut education. These regulations continue the gutting of access although there is now money in the state budget to fund community colleges. It is time to un-ration our colleges. Let’s stand not only for the students in basic skills, transfer, or occupational programs, but for all our students, and for our communities.