According to a September LA Times article, high unemployment rates are driving some Californians back to school. With more than 1 in 10 out of work (10.1% of our workforce) are Californians turning this downturn into an opportunity? Will the economic hardships facing our state become California’s diamond in the rough?

Higher education is considered by most Californians to be a pre-requisite for a good job. In fact, a college degree now represents what a high school diploma did thirty years ago. But in the last thirty years, budget cuts have devastated California’s high school and elementary schools. Students are left without the critical support they need not only to prepare and apply for college but also to stay in school.

For years these California students have been the innocent victims of bad governance at the state level - with low graduation rates and college attendance as the result. Just last week a school district in my county – which has already sacrificed teacher’s aids, janitors, clerks and school bus services in past cuts – was forced to put dozens of teachers’ jobs on the line, despite the district’s success in the classroom and rising test scores.

In July, using a new and improved system for tracking dropouts, the LA Times reported that one in four California students quit school before graduation. But this shouldn’t come as a surprise. With each new budget cut, California has made it increasingly more difficult for students to stay in school and succeed. My county is not unique. Throughout the state almost 10,000 custodians, bus drivers and food service workers have lost their jobs. California schools boast the largest class sizes and the greatest shortage of librarians, counselors, and other support staff in the country.

It is time for the state to rectify the neglect and burden placed on yesterday’s students. We can do this by creating educational opportunities for those Californians who never had the support to make the transition from high school to college and who now find themselves out of work. These Californians should be able to return to school and earn their degree. And somehow, despite today’s dismal economic climate, California must support them in their effort to do so.

Unfortunately, instead of measures to support out-of-work Californians returning to school, California’s recent budget will slash $8.4 billion in cuts for schools including community colleges.

The state of California has three public higher education systems – the University of California (UC), the California State University (CSU), and the California Community College (CCC). Both the CSU and the CCC have traditionally been more accommodating to older re-entry students than the UC. Both offer more degree programs in the evenings and additional online courses. The requirements for admission to the CSU are generally less stringent than the UC system and the cost to attend is roughly half. The California Community College system is open to all adults, and California residents do not pay tuition to attend. They pay an enrollment fee per unit, which is substantially less than the cost to attend a California State University. With 110 Community Colleges in the state, the CCC system is the largest system of higher education in the world.

But unfortunately, like the UCs and CSUs, many of our community colleges are strained beyond capacity. Some of the strain is produced by the overflow from our four-year universities. This year, the CSU system faced an enrollment boost, forcing the closure of its freshman application period early and cutting off an estimated 10,000 students. And in January the UC Board of Regents voted to cap freshman enrollment for 2009-10 in response to continued underfunding by the state. According to the LA Times, while community colleges can absorb the cost of educating more students in the short term, by next spring or fall they will have to receive more funding or be forced to cut back course sections.

One opportunity California’s students will have is in the federal stimulus package, which increases spending on Pell Grants from about $19 billion this year to $27 billion. This federal grant, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, does not require repayment and is awarded to candidates based on financial need.

California has the unique opportunity to take the worst job market our state has faced in decades and make it a time to prepare and train Californians for a better tomorrow. But California’s workers cannot do this alone. California must innovate and reinvent its system of higher education to best serve the needs of its students. We must make higher education more available and affordable – especially to those out-of-work who may also be the same Californians robbed of a decent education when they were younger.

It is my hope that government will recognize that now is not the time to slash funds for education. Instead, in this time of great hardship, we have the opportunity to train and strengthen our workforce so when we rise again we will do so better prepared and more able to meet tomorrow’s challenges.

My blog is part of a month-long series on education in California,
published in partnership with the University of Phoenix and our publishing platform
Six Apart. WIP Contributor Kimberly Chase is also participating.
Be sure to look for both of our articles, as features and Talk blogs each Monday in March.