The State of California's State Colleges

My friend sent me this link today from Yahoo News titled "College cutbacks make it harder to earn degrees."

It isn't just tuition increases that are driving up the cost of college. Around the country, deep budget cuts are forcing colleges to lay off instructors and eliminate some classes, making it harder for students to get into the courses they need to earn their degree.

The news isn't news to me. While I haven't graduated in large part due to my priorities shifting in the wrong direction for a time, once I regained my determination this issue has certainly contributed to holding me back. It is the reason that I needed to still get once specific class to graduate, rather than having already completed it. And it is part of the reason that I'm not currently in school now.

Redoglia unsuccessfully crashed 26 different classes, hoping to find space that would move him closer to a hospitality management degree.

I know that many majors are impacted, but even with going to school at San Francisco State, that is a surprising number. That really makes me sad. It's not the school's fault specifically. There's just no money. The budget got cut.

As an example of what the school system is doing to try to keep teachers and classes, the school has instituted "furlough days" into the school semester. There are, I believe, two additional extra long weekends that students get off this semester. Besides Thanksgiving break, there are two extra Friday/Mondays off, where the school is completely shut down, and all the lights turned off. The school saves on electricity and there are unofficial pay cut across the board for all instructors, and probably all campus employees.

I know what the counter argument said at the end of the article, but education should have a higher priority in the state's budget than it does.

The schools are in a tough spot and so are we.