The Human Face of Budget Cuts

[Karmadillo]

Wonder if some of the $30,000,000,000 for the escalation of the Forever War: Afghanistan could be sent their way.

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/23302

By David Bacon
Source: t r u t h o u t

David Bacon's ZSpace Page

Oakland, California - Cesar Cota was the first in his family to attend college. "Now it's hard to achieve my dream," he says, "because the state put higher fees on us, and cut services and classes." Cota, a student at Los Angeles City College, was encouraged by the internship program of the LA College Faculty Guild to describe the human cost of budget cuts in the community college system.

David Robinson, who's worked since he was 14, hoped he'd get automotive mechanic training, and a good job at the end of it. "But by cutting these programs and raising fees," he says, "you're cutting opportunity for a lot of people who need it."

Another endangered student is Tina Vinaja, a mother of three teenagers whose husband took a weekend job to help pay her tuition hikes. Monica Mejia, a single mom, wants to get out of the low-wage trap. "Without community college," she says, "I'll end up getting paid minimum wage. I can't afford the fee hikes. I can barely make ends meet now."

LA City College even suspended its sports programs for a year. The school had a legendary basketball program that gave low-income students a pathway out of poverty. JaQay Carlyle says City College basketball sent him to UC Davis and on to law school.

These students make up a small part of the picture of suffering engendered by the economic crisis in California's community college system. According to Marty Hittelman, president of the California Federation of Teachers and a former community college instructor, the system will turn away more than 250,000 students this year alone. "Where can they go?" he asks. "UC? CSU? The work force? None is a viable option - for both economic and political reasons." California has a 12 percent unemployment rate, one of the nation's highest. UC enrollment plunged by 2,300 students this fall, and the regents plan 10 percent tuition hikes in each of the next two years. The state universities dropped 40,000 students this year alone. UC fees have gone up 215 percent since 2000, and CSU fees 280 percent. Community college fees, once nonexistent, rose 30 percent just last year.

"As a result," Hittelman says, "hundreds of thousands of students enrolled in California community colleges are unable to get the classes they need and thousands of temporary faculty are without classes to teach. So, as in the universities, the student returns for paying higher fees are increased class size and fewer available classes."

Brenna Fluitt will face an especially difficult situation because of class cuts. Fluitt is a homeless student at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo. "I'm not the only one," she says. "I see them on the campus a lot, although to most people, we tend to be kind of invisible."

Fluitt's been on the streets for three years. Part of what keeps her there is anxiety itself, which is so serious that she's classified as a disabled student. Clearly budget cuts produce even more anxiety. The two programs she depends on to keep in school, DSPS and EOPS, are both facing cuts. "The reality is that people who need these services won't be able to get them," she predicts. While she often says that a homeless life doesn't bother her, she sometimes lets the reality reveal itself. "I'm sick and tired of being homeless," she declares. "The cops harass you here, and it's a very expensive community to live in."

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