Merced College copes with historic budget crunch

Along the very contemporary theme of financial turmoil, my latest article on community college funding is out on the Merced County Times Web site. Here's a snippet:

Things are fairly quiet at Merced College, with classes out until summer session starts June 22.

When students do return en masse, though, they will have almost 50 fewer class options than they did a year ago because of California's dire budget straits. Fall courses stand to be cut as well.

The college is in the double bind of having its funding slashed just as it is registering a jump in enrollees who have nowhere else to turn.

"We're basically trying to keep programs intact, trying to keep staff here," said Robin Shepard, director of the college's public relations office. "Unfortunately it's going to fall on the students. They may have to wait another semester or two to get the classes they need."

With jobs eroding, people are going back to school for a career 2.0 transition, a decision all the more meaningful in Merced County, with its 20 percent unemployment.

In a much-quoted commencement speech in the Midwest, President Barack Obama recently celebrated community colleges as "increasingly important centers of learning where Americans can prepare for the jobs of the future."

First lady Michelle Obama, however, gave her commencement speech at the upstart UC Merced campus, where she noted the region's "record high unemployment and foreclosure rates" even as she cheered some graduates for being the first in their families to earn a degree.

Many Merced College alumni have achieved that same feat in the past four decades, but how doable that will be in coming years is questionable while the country struggles financially.

You can read the rest here; believe it or not, there's a hopeful side to things, too.