Chancellor Jack Scott says 400 million dollars is more than a six percent reduction from the California Community Colleges budget. He says that would mean having to turn away as many as 350-thousand potential students.
"Tragically many of them will be first time students because we normally allow our returning students to register first and so we don't really have lack of demand in community colleges, we just have a lack of supply."
Scott says demand is high at community colleges because of the recession. Last year, 140-thousand potential students were turned away.
Governor Brown's budget proposal also calls for a 10 dollar
tuition increase for each class credit taken. Scott says for
the average student, taking 30 units a year, that would be a 300
dollar tuition increase annually.