This article is from Cal-Tax Digest, published
by the California Taxpayers' Association.
Cal-Tax Home Page | About Cal-Tax | Subscribe

Yet for every promising prediction, another analysis questions California's ability to sustain economic growth. Transportation networks are clogged. Affordable housing is in short supply. Schools are overcrowded. And while many employers strain to find and retain qualified workers, many Californians are shut out of the new economic opportunities.

The Little Hoover Commission believes that California already has much of the infrastructure needed to address that last problem. In a report released this spring, the commission found California's 107 community colleges are well positioned to address the needs of employers and residents. The community colleges receive $4 billion in public funding and educate more than 2 million adults each year.

But the commission also found that the colleges could play a much larger and more important role in their regional economies, in their communities and in the lives of their students.

The potential of the colleges can be seen in those that are responsive and innovative. They partner with civic and business leaders, colleagues at nearby universities and their students to develop meaningful educational programs. They teach skills that are needed in the marketplace to those who want to succeed in the workforce. And they do so in ways that empower people to become lifelong learners.

Some of the colleges aggressively seek out those who otherwise would have the narrowest hope of succeeding. For some students, the colleges are delivering a real chance to graduate from the University of California and the California State University. For other students, success amounts to a skill and a job, and the community college is the link between them. For their communities, these colleges are satisfying the demand for skilled workers and entrepreneurs - before those jobs and those paychecks leave the state. These colleges also recognize that the people of California are increasingly diverse in terms of the languages they speak, their cultural references, their learning styles, their hopes and needs.

Unfortunately, students, voters, community leaders and policy-makers have a difficult time distinguishing the enterprising colleges from the stagnant ones. The state funds both equally based on the number of students in seats on the fourth Monday in each semester. The primary financial incentive for colleges is to enroll students, rather than to teach them.

Absent a huge scandal, or when voters go to the polls to elect college trustees or vote on bond measures, they do not know whether the local colleges are responding to community needs and providing quality services. Perhaps most importantly, students do not have the information necessary to make smart choices as consumers. They may find their opportunities limited by colleges that inadvertently create barriers to success.

These issues are compounded by the surge of students who are passing through the K-12 system and will soon be at the college doors. The Little Hoover Commission concluded that the best way for our community colleges to deliver more education is to deliver better education. Specifically:

Richard Terzian is chairman of the Little Hoover Commission, formally known as the Milton Marks Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy. The commission conducted public hearings and recently issued a report titled "Open Doors and Open Minds: Improving Access and Quality in California's Community Colleges." The commission can be reached at (916) 445-2125 or visit its website at www.lhc.ca.gov

• The state needs our community colleges to develop lifelong learners and a new commitment to teaching quality. The California Community College Board of Governors recognized in 1991 that few faculty come to our colleges as skilled teachers, and few colleges devote resources to develop faculty's teaching skills. Nearly 10 years later, University of California researchers assert that little has been done to remedy this critical problem.
• Access has been defined too narrowly as only low cost, when it must include schedules and teaching methods tailored to student needs. Limited research shows that many factors besides fees deter students from participation, including access to counselors and attractive course offerings. Overall, 19 percent of students who start classes do not finish them; 39 percent of the students who take a class one semester do not re-enroll the next.
• There is wide recognition that higher education funding should create incentives for quality improvement. Under the Partnership for Excellence program, the state offered the community colleges $2.8 billion in supplemental funding over seven years to improve performance. Despite this years-long effort to tie funding to outcomes, the bulk of community college funding remains tied only to the number of occupied seats.
• The perennial fight over governance has not paid sufficient attention to student success and accountability. In 1988, the Legislature directed the Board of Governors to establish an annual accountability report, yet the board's Effectiveness Report presents data only for the state as a whole. It does not identify which colleges are excelling and which are not. It has not created accountability.

Our colleges must publicly and assertively work with their students, businesses and communities to determine whom they are going to serve and what services they are going to deliver. They must track and publicly report their progress on each of these fronts.

To encourage and enable our community colleges to live up to their potential, the state needs to provide colleges with financial incentives to design and deliver high-quality programs. Students should also have incentives to participate in and complete those programs. The state needs to facilitate regional cooperation and ensure that statewide interests are served. And it needs to promote accountability by publicly reporting the performance of individual colleges.

With accurate information, students and voters and community and business leaders will be able to make smart decisions about their colleges and therefore about their lives and their futures. And over time, Californians will see colleges that better prepare individuals and communities for succeeding in an increasingly competitive economy. With focused attention, California's economy can continue full-steam ahead and more Californians will be on board.