Disfunctional Finance: The Case of The California Community Colleges

1. Assembly Bill 21, June, 1982.

2. ‘Deletion of Selected Credit and Noncredit Courses from the Curriculum.’ California Community College Report, August 16, 1982, p. 6-6.

3. For a classic statement of principles, see Eugene S. Lawler and Proctor Thompson , ‘Taxation and Educational Finance,’ in Problems and Issues in Public School Finance, edited by R. J. Johns and E. L. Morphet , New York: National Conference of Professors and Educational Administration, 1952, pp. 111-148. David W. Breneman and Susan C. Nelson, Financing Community Colleges. Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1981, pp. 207, suggest a set of criteria which includes such items as state and local sharing, equalization, program costs, complexity, budget strategy, sources of revenue, intersegmental equity, size factors, and basis for apportionment, pp. 171-194.

4. Clark Kerr , ‘Changes and Challenges Ahead for Community Colleges.’ Community and Junior College Journal, May, 1980, Vol. 50, No. 8, pp. 4-10.

5. Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education, Giving Youth a Better Chance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1979. Specific proposals for the community college are listed on page 25, but other parts of the report are also pertinent.

6. Breneman and Nelson, op. cit., p. 207.

7. Howard Bowen , The Costs of Higher Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1980, pp. 23-23, 24-24.

8. Ed. Code 72233, See 60 Ops. Atty. Gen. 177, 6-30-77, and 61 Ops. Atty. Gen. 75, 2-28-78.

9. Proposition 5 amended Section 14, Article IX of the California Constitution to add the paragraph: ‘The Legislature may authorize the governing boards of all school districts to initiate and carry on any programs, activities, or to otherwise act in any manner which is not in conflict with the laws and purposes for which school districts are established.’

10. Ed. Code, Sec. 71023.

11. See Stephen M. Sheldon , Statewide Longitudinal Study. Project 19-64741-3-8453, P. L. 94-482, Title II, Part A. This report concludes that the colleges have little or no control over attrition. p. 1-19.

12. Alexander W. Astin , ‘Why Not Try Some New Ways of Measuring Quality?’ Educational Record, Spring, 1982. pp. 10-15.

13. See New Directions for Community Colleges, Vol. 8, No. 2, Summer, 1980, for a comprehensive discussion of part-time faculty issues.

14. Frank Bowen and Lyman Glenny , ‘Institutional Responses to Financial Stress,’ in Higher Education Financing Policies: State/Institutions and Their Interaction, edited by Larry L. Leslie and James Hyatt . Tucson: Center for the Study of Higher Education, 1981, p. 145-145.

15. Paul R. Mort , ‘Cost-Quality Relationship in Education,’ in Problems and issues in Public School Finance, op. cit., pp. 9-64. Mort presented evidence of a strong relationship between cost and quality as measured by normative or process approaches as well as by what he referred to as the ‘adult life and early schooling approach,’ also known as ‘outcomes’ measures. the relationship had no discernable point of diminishing return. In fact, he found it to be an accelerating relationship.

16. Bowen, op. cit., pp. 19, 20.

17. Ed. Code 66014.5.

18. Ed. Code 66201.

19. Initial steps toward understanding this problem have been taken by CPEC. See the eight-page report of May, 1981. ‘A Simulation of the Enrollment and Revenue Effects of a $50 Annual Fee Increase at the California Community Colleges.’

20 .Breneman and Nelson, op. cit., 110, 111.

21. For a discussion of how the California system is a model of accessibility, see Mary Jo Bane and Kenneth I. Winson , Equity in Higher Education. Cambridge: Harvard Graduate School of Education, 1980. 211-211 pp.

22. Chancellor's reports to the California Community College Board of Governors in 1980 and again in 1981 have addressed many of these issues and made recommendations. See Chuck McIntyre , ‘Fiannce Project: Agenda Item 8.’ Sacramento: Board of Governors, December, 1980. 65-65 pp. and Chuck McIntyre, ‘Community College Finance Plan, 1981.’ Sacramento: Office of the Chancellor, January, 1981, 74 pp.

23. ‘Community College Finance Coalition Reestablished.’ Ad. Com., Newsletter of the Association of California Community College Administrators. November, 1982, p. 1-1.