Chapter Highlights Printable Budget Documents Additional Information

Higher Education
Proposed Budget Balancing Reductions

• Total budget-balancing reductions for the Higher Education segments amount to $1.1 billion in 2008-09. Of this amount, $649.4 million is for General Fund programs and $483.5 million is for Community College Proposition 98 local assistance programs.
• Programs exempted from reductions include general obligation bond debt service and lease payments securing lease revenue bonds for all segments, State Teacher's Retirement System contributions for CCC, emergency loan repayments from Compton CCD, mandate deferral amounts for CCC, and the Cal Grant Program.
• The major reductions in 2008-09 are described below:
• $331.9 million for the University of California. Of this amount, $32.3 million is allocated to the Institutional Support program (which includes campus administration and the Office of the President) and the remainder is unallocated to allow the Regents the flexibility to meet the reduction in a way that minimizes impacts to core instructional programs. It is anticipated that the Regents will address this reduction through a combination of fee increases, limitations on enrollment levels, increased efficiency and reductions to other existing programs, including research, student services, academic support and public services programs.
• $312.9 million for the California State University. Of this amount, $43.2 million is allocated to the Institutional Support program (which includes campus administration and the Chancellor's Office) and the remainder is unallocated to allow the CSU Trustees the maximum flexibility to meet the reduction in a way that minimizes the adverse impacts to core instructional programs. It is anticipated that the Trustees will address this reduction through a combination of fee increases, limitations on enrollment levels, increased efficiency and reductions to other existing programs including student services, academic support, and public services.
• $2.2 million for the Student Aid Commission. Of this amount, $1.6 million is allocated to the state operations administrative support budget and $637,000 is allocated to the California Student Opportunity and Access Program local assistance budget. Also, the number of new APLE warrants is reduced by 10 percent, or 800 awards, for a revised total of 7,200 awards for 2008-09. Policy changes for Cal Grants are addressed in the Other Budget Reductions section below.
• $1 million for the Community College Chancellor's Office state operations administrative support budget. This reduction is anticipated to reduce discretionary technical assistance service levels to districts for various categorical programs.
• $483.5 million for Community College local assistance. Of this amount, $291.7 million reflects a reduction to apportionments by eliminating the 4.94-percent workload COLA and $111.8 million reflects a reduction to enrollment growth. The remaining $80 million reflects similar reductions to categorical programs. It is anticipated that colleges will respond to the reductions by limiting low-volume course offerings and reducing service levels in various categorically funded programs. It is further proposed that the statutory COLA factor be changed to reflect the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W), consistent with K-12 education. This measure would adjust the COLA to 3.65 percent and better accounts for the underlying cost pressures on school budgets which are primarily wages. This specific change is subsumed within the overall reduction amounts for both apportionments and categorical programs.
• $1.1 million for the Hastings College of Law. Of this amount, $252,000 is allocated to the Institutional Support program and the remainder is unallocated to allow the Hastings Board the maximum flexibility to meet the reduction in a way that minimizes adverse impacts to instructional programs. It is anticipated that the Hastings Board may address this reduction through a combination of reductions to public and professional services, student services, and academic support in order to preserve instructional quality and enrollments at or near the current year levels.
• $223,000 for the California Postsecondary Education Commission. It is anticipated that the CPEC will meet the reductions through prioritization of discretionary studies. Reviews of proposed new instructional programs and facilities from segments would not be affected.

CAL GRANT COSTS ARE CONTINGENT ON UC AND CSU UNDERGRADUATE FEE INCREASES

• Costs for the Cal Grant Program will increase based on actions taken on mandatory undergraduate student fees by the UC Regents and the CSU Trustees.
• As noted in the Proposed Workload Budget section for the Student Aid Commission, a $106.7 million increase in cost has been included in the Cal Grant budget pending final actions of the Regents and Trustees.
• Should the Cal Grant budget be insufficient to fund resulting costs, the enabling statute authorizes augmentations from the reserve for economic uncertainties to meet any deficiency that may ultimately occur.