April 18, 2006
The Honorable Jack Scott
California State Senate
P.O. Box 942848
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Re: SB 1709--Support (as amended 04/17/06)
Dear Senator Scott:
The League of Women Voters of California completed a two-year study of the
California Community College system in 2003. Our study showed us how essential the
colleges are, and how inadequate the funding is for the tasks they are asked to
accomplish. Last-minute budget cuts, increases in student fees, suspensions of essential
student services were occurring even as we presented units to over 1100 League
members in the fall of 2002. Our consensus voiced strong concern to sustain "Access
for all who may benefit," the mandate for the Community Colleges since the 1960
Master Plan.
In the intervening years, however, the burden of complying with that mandate has been
left almost entirely to the college system alone. The state government has consistently
honored few obligations toward ensuring universal access, either to provide consistent,
adequate funding or to underwrite a broad outreach effort to historically underserved
communities.
Therefore, we are grateful for your introduction of SB 1709, the College Opportunity Act of
2006, and we support it wholeheartedly.
Many of the provisions of your bill begin to remedy conditions that League members
found very worrisome during their study.
- SB1709 renews our commitment to the 1960 Master Plan by setting timelines and
goals for improved access and completion of college degrees to meet today's
educational and workforce needs.
- It improves state accountability by calling on the Governor every two years to hold
a meeting with all higher education segments and other leaders on our progress in
meeting state needs.
- It improves outreach to all by notifying families with children in the 6th, 8th, and
10th grade that college is within reach for their children.
- It improves preparation at a critical transition point--from high school to community
college--through the wider adoption of early assessments.
- It would enable educators to plan for their institutions by requiring the appropriate state
agencies to develop an enrollment plan, a financing plan, and an efficiency plan.
We hope that in the course of legislative deliberation on the bill, some way is found to set a date
for the creation of a financing plan to stabilize the funding of the college system. A firm
commitment to year-to-year financial stability, especially during this period of "Baby Boomer II"
growth in the college-age population, will be essential in enabling our institutions of higher
learning to accommodate all Californians and to create a workforce skilled enough to sustain the
growth of our economy.
We thank you for your initiative in introducing this legislation.
Sincerely,
/signed/ Jacqueline Jacobberger
President
