Gov. Jerry Brown is working on policies for community colleges that will change the price of units, how students are able to get credits and when the schools get paid for the students.
“There is still a lot of language that needs to be written regarding it, but on the broad scope we are excited,” said Cerritos College President Dr. Linda Lacy.
One of the changes will be that after 90 units community college students will no longer be paying the subsidized price of $46.
Bringing the cost of one unit at Cerritos College to $206.
“Trying to limit the credits and having to pay the full prices does not sound good at all,” said undecided major Haylee Weeden.
Psychology major Sabina Sandoval Saucedo feels that it would make her think twice about going to a community college.
While students feel that the raise in price is a bad thing, Lacy sees it in a different light, “There’s a part of me that says we want to get students in and out, and 60 units is what you traditionally have at a community college so 90 (units) does give that leeway.
“There is a point that it’s good for the rest of the students because it frees up those seats… some of those things are going to make the student a more serious (about college).”
If the legislation gets through a student who feels proficient in a subject can take a test so he or she no longer has to take that course, and will still receive credits.
Sandoval Saucedo said “(Testing out) would be better because you wouldn’t be waisting your time in a class if you already have knowledge (about) that class.”
Brown also wants to hold off on paying community colleges for the students until the student has completed the course successfully.
“The issue with that is we’ve paid the full salary of the instructors as soon as they start their class. So it becomes an accounting nightmare,” said Lacy.
“There are numerous reasons why a student would not complete (a class) successfully, there’s work, family obligations, there are a lot of factors in it. It would be nice to have 100 percent, but realistically that’s not going to happen.”
Brown has said that the money for the students who don’t finish out the semester isn’t going to be lost, it will go into another fund according to Lacy, but the wording is still very vague.
