Enrollments and Course Offerings Bounce Back at California 2-Year Colleges

This entry was posted on 09.26.13, in Community College, Enrollment, Funding, Postsecondary. Bookmark the permalink.

The California Community Colleges, bolstered by voters’ passage of Proposition 30 last year, are beginning to see increased enrollment and the restoration of class sections after years of state-budget cuts caused declines in both areas, according to the results of a systemwide survey.

Proposition 30, approved last November, triggered slight rises in the state’s sales tax and income tax for top earners. The ballot measure gave the community colleges, the country’s largest system of its kind, an extra $210-million in the 2012-13 state budget and an extra $600-million in the 2013-14 budget.

That windfall has resulted in a projected median enrollment increase this fall of 2.5 percent across the system, along with a 5-percent increase in course sections offered, according to a news release summarizing the survey results that was issued by the system chancellor’s office on [last] Wednesday.

Last year enrollment fell by 4.8 percent and course offerings by 3.3 percent, according to the release. <Read more.>

Via Andy Thomason, The Chronicle of Higher Education.