CPEC to Examine How Well Community Colleges Are Serving Rural and Remote Areas of California
The California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) is in the process of convening a statewide advisory committee that will look at the challenges that community college districts confront when trying to serve rural and remote communities. To guide their discussion, CPEC will address several policy questions, including:
- What are some of the most difficult challenges confronting local districts in serving rural and remote areas? How might CPEC, as the state’s higher education planning and coordinating body, be of assistance at the statewide and regional level?
- What specific types of strategies and institutional arrangements do community college districts use to enhance educational services in rural and remote areas? What has been the relative success of those strategies and arrangements?
- What proposals are currently under consideration by lawmakers and educators to address community college access issues in rural and remote areas?
- Should certain aspects of program-based funding and CPEC’s facility review guidelines be changed or modified to better reflect the service-delivery and enrollment constraints faced by districts in serving rural and remote areas?
It is also the intent of CPEC to consider SB 362 (Scott, D-Altadena), the pending proposal to create a new funding formula for community colleges.
CPEC points out that the ability of local community college districts to serve all communities in California will be determined by population growth, industrial and labor market training needs, and the academic aspirations of residents. The Department of Finance estimates, based on recent birth and migration trends, that the state’s population will jump from 36.8 million in the year 2005 to 43.8 million in the year 2020, with the state passing the 40 million mark in the year 2012.
Although rural areas of the state are expected to grow at a slower pace than the general population, CPEC’s 2005 regional enrollment study found that all regions of the state will face significant capacity pressures over the next 15 years. Regions that are anticipated to post above-average annual growth rates include: the Sacramento area, the North Central Valley, the Riverside County region, and the Imperial County region. Regardless of where Californians reside, CPEC believes that it is its responsibility to ensure that all geographic areas of the state are served adequately, since capital outlay funds are used to expand the state’s higher education enterprise.
For planning purposes, CPEC will clarify the terms “rural” and “remote.” Across all age groups, nearly 87% of the state’s population resided within a 10-mile radius of a California community college in the year 2000. According to CPEC, if you apply a statewide mean community college participation rate of 7.0% to the proportion of adults who reside outside a 10-mile radius (13%), it yields an enrollment demand estimate of 191,338 prospective community college students. The numerical challenge to the state of serving students in remote areas, i.e., those residing more than 60 miles from a community college campus or center, is likely to be a small fraction of this latter figure. Even so, instructional, support service, and capital outlay costs could be substantial.
It is anticipated that CPEC will consider for adoption at its September 2006 meeting a set of recommendations proposed by the advisory committee that address the needs of serving students in rural and remote areas.
Legislation has been introduced to repeal SB 1419, which severely restricted the ability of local K-12 and community college districts to contract out for personal services. Since the passage of SB 1419 in 2002, five bills have been introduced in an effort to repeal its provisions. Those bills have failed passage despite the support of Governor Schwarzenegger, who even included the repeal of SB 1419 in his proposed 2004-05 State Budget. 