“Will I See You in September or Lose You to the University of Phoenix?”

California has too many students and not enough cash. Last semester, De Anza college opened with 8,000 students still looking for classes. Sorry, kids! Most schools cap their enrollment to the number of students the state will fund; above that number, colleges cut sections, classes, and programs trying to stop the bleeding. Problem is—there are no consistent and transparent criteria about who decides what gets cut or on what basis. Some community colleges, having made their cap, have decided to close for the summer. See you . . . in September! Call it what you will: rationing, triage, enrollment management; I like “educational death panels.” How did this mess happen? First, our 110 open-door community colleges have an impossible triple mandate to deliver quality transfer curriculum but also to provide career and technical education (CTE) but in addition to remediate basic skills for nearly 3,000,000 students. Meanwhile, the CSU system is swamped with students, many of whom (up to 80% at some campuses) are unprepared for college level work. Many are unprepared for high school work meaning six years to a BA. Other students survey the unemployment figures and decide to hunker down. Euphemistically called “super seniors,” they conclude that between college dorms, college health services, cafeteria, library, gym and pool, hey, life is good! Why graduate? The big losers are first-time college students who find their seats filled by superslackers. The CSU solution is to “redirect” them back to community colleges that are already choked with students who can’t transfer. Add to this toxic brew the fact that money is just going to get tighter because Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer are fed up with paying college professor salaries to teachers of yoga and spelling. According to Patrick Perry, CCCO Vice Chancellor of Technology, Research and Information Systems, California far and away has the greatest access to higher education, but it has a mediocre success rate (defined as granting degrees and certificates). Perry says states with both high access and high success have: • Strong Statewide Articulation/Transfer Agreements • Common Core Curriculum • Common Course Numbering • AA transfer guarantee or Statewide General Ed guarantee • CTE pathways • Strong online student academic planners and support • Common assessment tools • Statewide Transfer scholarships California comes up short in virtually all these areas, and community college students, sick of plodding through the maze, are transferring instead to for-profit and online schools such as The University of Phoenix. So far, it’s just a small leak in a big boat but the number has grown five-fold since 1995, and change is in the wind.