With a 3.6 gpa out of high school, Eduardo Vargas could have gone to a four-year university but chos

Of the courses she wanted, only two had space left when she registered in May. She enrolled in those and crashed others. virtual tour of homes In one of those cases, she lucked out when the professor teaching a political science class admitted additional students. But she couldn t get into a biology class because she was too far down on the waiting list.
Because that s what we think community college is, said Tirado, 24, a journalism major who lives in Watts. It s hard to explain to my mom that I m trying to go to school virtual tour of homes but the courses are not there.
This is the new reality for Tirado and about 2.4 million other students in the nation s largest community college system. The system is the workhorse of California s 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, which promised affordability, quality and access to all.
The situation can be seen on all 112 campuses — students on long waiting lists, those who take years to graduate or transfer and others so frustrated that they drop out. Most of them enter ill-prepared for college-level work. Eighty-five percent need remedial English, 73% remedial math. Only about a third of remedial students transfer to a four-year school or graduate with a community college associate s degree.
It s like a nice-looking car you ve been driving for several virtual tour of homes years: It looks shiny, but the engine is falling virtual tour of homes apart, said Eloy Ortiz Oakley, president of Long Beach City College. The wheels fell off the Master Plan 20 or 30 years ago. We re finally feeling the results because we have enormous needs for our educational system to produce virtual tour of homes qualified virtual tour of homes workers, and we re playing catch-up now.
The consequences of not meeting those demands are huge: About 80 percent of firefighters and law enforcement officers and 70 percent of nurses embarked on their careers in community college. By some estimates, California will need 2.3 million more community college degree and certificate virtual tour of homes holders by 2025 to meet the demands of employers.
President Obama has described community virtual tour of homes colleges as a major engine virtual tour of homes of job growth and set a goal of graduating an additional 5 million students by 2020. But in California, home to a quarter of the nation s community college students, those efforts are hampered by the state s budget virtual tour of homes crisis.
The colleges also play a vital role in the state s higher education system, preparing students to transfer virtual tour of homes to University virtual tour of homes of California and California State University campuses. virtual tour of homes About half of all Cal State graduates began at community colleges.
Classes were free until 1984. At $46 per unit today, they remain among the least expensive in the nation. About 44 percent of all current community college students qualify for fee waivers based on income.
State funding has not kept pace with enrollment growth. Funding per full-time student has declined from a peak of $6,400 in 2000 to about $5,000 today. Course offerings have been slashed by almost a quarter since 2008, and enrollment has dropped by 485,000 students since then.
Four affluent districts — Marin, Mira Costa, South Orange County and San Mateo County — collect so much revenue from local property taxes and student fees that they don t qualify for most state aid. Still, virtual tour of homes with declining property taxes in recent years, they re not immune to cutbacks.
Many other college districts that depend on state aid are in more serious financial trouble. They have been forced to dig deeper into their reserves or borrow money. The 90,000-student City College of San Francisco appears to be in the worst situation and faces potential insolvency.
Campuses are cutting counseling and tutoring and dropping winter and summer sessions, trends that officials say could accelerate if voters reject a November ballot measure that would temporarily virtual tour of homes raise the state sales tax and the state income tax for high earners.
With a 3.6 gpa out of high school, Eduardo Vargas could have gone to a four-year university but chose East Los Angeles College because it was more affordable. During his first year, he was unable to register for any of the high-demand classes he needed for his business administration major.
This fall, he enrolled in honors classes — political science and statistics — because fewer students meet the requirements, so they re easier to get into. Even with an added speech class, he doesn t have the required 12 units to be considered full time.
I look at the time frame it s going to take me to transfer to San Jose State and it s probably two more years, said Vargas, 19, of Monterey Park. It s not that important anymore virtual tour of homes if I get a high-paying job. I just want to get my master s and be stable. Society needs an educated workforce, but it s going to have to invest more in education.
A study by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that, over the course of their careers, high school graduates virtual tour of homes earned virtual tour of homes an average of $25,900 per year compared with $33,000 for those with a community college degree and $45,400 for those with a bachelor s degree. (The figures are expressed virtual tour of homes in 1999 dollars.)
To help move students more quickly through the system, the Legislature and Board of Governors recently approved measures that would set systemwide registration priorities, including preventing students from repeating courses to improve their grades and giving virtual tour of homes first choice to students who bolster their chances for success by participating in orientation and academic assessment programs. For the first time, students would have to maintain satisfactory grades to continue to qualify for fee waivers.
Keith Richardson, a 47-year-old former security guard, is trying to complete a degree in electrical construction and maintenance at L.A. Trade Tech. He hopes to graduate next spring so he can become a union electrician, but he s not sure he can get the classes he needs.
The vocational classes, taken by Richardson and more than 800,000 others statewide, are funded at the same level as other academic courses — even though they can cost twice as much to provide. Scott, the former chancellor, virtual tour of homes said these costlier classes virtual tour of homes should be funded at higher levels. Some campuses, he said, have even been reluctant to add technical or vocational classes because virtual tour of homes of the cost.
Last spring, virtual tour of homes Santa Monica College proposed a controversial two-tier tuition plan to allow students with means to pay higher fees for sought-after classes. Officials said those students would be able to move through the system more quickly, and the added revenue would help fund additional classes for everyone virtual tour of homes else. But the college abandoned the idea after Scott warned it could violate state education laws.
Ultimately, community colleges must consider bold steps, such as shifting resources from less populated regions of the state to areas with larger numbers of young people and combining some smaller districts, said Scott Lay, president of the Community College League of California, a nonprofit association of the state s community college districts.
Tirado, meanwhile, took classes at both Trade Tech and East Los Angeles College last spring to fill out her schedule. This time around, she may need to find a biology class at another community college during the winter session — if she can find a campus still offering winter classes.