California community colleges need to raise student fees
Raising fees would qualify the colleges for more federal money, helping to offset budget cuts and opening up space in classes students need.
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California must make community college more affordable by raising student fees. Seriously.
In the second round of federal stimulus money for higher education, California's community colleges received $5 million this month. That's nice, but not half as much as they would have gotten if they'd raised fees by a mere $1 a unit from the current $26. For the average full-time student, that would amount to a total increase of perhaps $30 a year; it would have boosted the colleges' budget by $12.5 million. A $10-a-unit increase would bring in $125 million more a year, and the state would still have the least expensive community colleges in the nation.
That $10 increase, or about $300 a year, would in fact save students money. Because of budget cuts, students are competing for seats in the classes they need for a vocational certificate or to move on to
