el Don NewsSTAFF EDITORIAL:
From enrollment to completion, the time it takes to transfer has doubled, but voters must remember the good that community colleges offer.
The days of completing community college in two years are over, but students should embrace this, not condemn it.
This issue is money oriented: Budget cuts lead to fewer classes, rising tuition and a reduced number of admissions for prospective transfers. Students also grapple with the means to pay for tuition and new textbooks, leading to working more hours.
Yet with these reasons to drag their feet through a longer path to transfer, students rarely appreciate the positive side of the community college system: its low cost.
California still has some of the most affordable colleges in the U.S. Compare SAC’s in-state tuition of $46 per unit to $62 in Austin, Texas and $161 in Cape Cod, Mass.
Finding new streams of revenue is the only way to solve our current problems. Proposition 30 on the November ballot proposes to raise taxes on the wealthy or education will suffer $6 billion in cuts.
Whatever the outcome, the beauty of the community college system still exists in its affordability and the flexible time to secure a promising future.
