Can you imagine running a business and having to make spending commitments a year into the future without any idea of how much revenue you’d have?

That’s the business of community colleges right now. As has been reported, Sierra College has about 7% student population growth, with expected state funding for only 3%. So we’ve tried to hit the right balance between being safe with our budget, and increasing access to college right now, when our students need it the most.

All this to say…the uncertainty about the state budget is beginning to wear thin.

I’m a strong believer that now is exactly the wrong time for a big state tax increase. That would have a hugely negative impact on the part time labor market that our students rely on to work their way through school. (We’d be glad to let the state come and take a look at Sierra College’s last four years of balanced budgets if they’re curious on how this works!)

But the Governor and our State Legislative Leaders need to step up and get a good budget passed, and one that doesn’t balance the budget on the back of our students.

Here’s a News 10 story on the effect of the ongoing uncertainty…

"If you look at our core classes, they’ve been full since June," said Chavez. "We’ve been unable to add sections primarily because of the uncertainty."

It’s the uncertainty of funding – the school doesn’t know how much they can plan to spend.

"Whether it will be adequate, totally inadequate, or anywhere in between," said Chavez. "We know it will not be great."

He believes that if the problem exists at Sierra College, it’s probably happening at community colleges across this state. They all operate off the same source of state dollars.

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