Dollars and cents are on the forefront of Long Beach City College leaders’ minds as the school year begins Aug. 27.

The college recovered most of its $10.7 million budget deficit in the nick of time, one week before the 2018-19 school year starts. And for the past year, college leaders are grappling with how to handle a new state funding formula that aims to benefit low-income and disadvantaged students in community college.

In the past, state funding for community colleges was based 100 percent on enrollment. LBCC is pegged as a large community college, with a student population of approximately 21,000-plus.

“We’re talking about a systematic change,” Trustee Uduak-Joe Ntuk said Wednesday, Aug. 22. “It brings an equity lens to the budget and it’s forcing us to change how to do things on how we’re serving all students.”

Ntuk compared the community college funding formula to the one for the state’s K-12 public schools, which allocates funding for schools based on factors such as low-income and disadvantaged student populations, including foster students….

…Ntuk said that quite often, students don’t take advantage of earning credentials that they are already qualified for along the way while earning higher degrees. Similar instances are students who transfer, but don’t take the associate’s degree even if they are qualified, or students who aim shy of a few credits of a degree.

Source:
Long Beach Press-Telegram