Tuesday, 5/26/09, hearing postponed; More cuts and fees proposed
May 21, 2009
Dear James,
Today, the governor's Department of Finance unveiled $5.5 billion in additional cuts. Included in those cuts were the elimination of the entire Cal Grant program (all new awards), which currently serves 125,000 community college students. Also discussed by the committee today was a suggestion by the Legislative Analyst's Office to raise community college fees to $60 per unit. Simply put, the cuts are so devastating across the budget as the state tries to return to 1999 spending levels that everything is on the table.
Because of the significant new issues today, the Conference Committee has postponed the Tuesday public testimony session on education. We thank all of you who had signaled you were coming, and hope that you can still attend when it is rescheduled.
Also, it has been confirmed to us that three categorical programs will be exempted in the governor's formal proposal (expected May 28). With CalWORKs, Student Financial Aid Administration and Telecommunications and Technology exempted, the cuts will be deeper to all other programs subjected to the across-the-board cut. The cuts for all other categoricals will be 14.7% in 2008-09 and 57.2% in 2009-10. For more information, download the League's updated budget chart.
To match these unparalleled times, the League is preparing a more significant and public campaign to highlight the cuts to community colleges and other threats, which will be unveiled Tuesday. Thank you for your great advocacy ideas, and we will be working to incorporating them along with our community college coalition partners.
Thank you for your patience,
Scott Lay
President and Chief Executive Officer |
