"For years, Higher education has been under attack. With the economy, community college enrollment has skyrocketed. At the same time, the state is balancing its budget on the backs of students with draconian cuts to education. While all people are affected, Black students will bear the greatest brunt.
The California Community Colleges are the largest system of higher education in the world. Community colleges are an affordable option for basic skills, career training or preparation to transfer for a four-year college. Legions of people in our community have benefited from the education they received in community college.
But after the 1996 Proposition 209 - which eliminated affirmative action for education - enrollment of Black students at the UCs and CSU's plummeted.
Nationwide, one of every 14 Black collegians attends a California Community College, and one of every seven Black students in community college attends school in California.
As education spending is being chopped, spending on prisons continues to increase.
The state Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) estimates that by 2012 the state of California will spend more annually on prisons that it spends on higher education. Black and brown people are incarcerated at rates much higher than their population."
The California Community Colleges are the largest system of higher education in the world. Community colleges are an affordable option for basic skills, career training or preparation to transfer for a four-year college. Legions of people in our community have benefited from the education they received in community college.
But after the 1996 Proposition 209 - which eliminated affirmative action for education - enrollment of Black students at the UCs and CSU's plummeted.
Nationwide, one of every 14 Black collegians attends a California Community College, and one of every seven Black students in community college attends school in California.
As education spending is being chopped, spending on prisons continues to increase.
The state Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) estimates that by 2012 the state of California will spend more annually on prisons that it spends on higher education. Black and brown people are incarcerated at rates much higher than their population."