As job market tightens, more Californians are heading back to college

Introduction to California’s Economy

If you want to gauge the health of California’s economy, start with its community colleges. “When the economy is doing well, our enrollments are down, and when the economy is in a tough stretch or in a recession, we see our enrollments go up,” said Chris Ferguson, an executive vice chancellor with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, which oversees all of the state’s 116 community colleges.

Economic Indicators and Enrollment Trends

Ferguson said the state has yet to release authoritative data on fall enrollment, but early numbers show upward trends. Some college presidents said they’re seeing over 10% more students compared with last fall. But they said the state hasn’t provided enough funding to keep up with their growth. California is not in a recession, but some economic indicators are grim. Unemployment is rising, and it’s getting harder to find a job. The cost of consumer goods, such as toilet paper and cosmetics, is going up, and economists say tariffs and President Trump’s increased deportations could lead to further economic declines in the state.

Factors Influencing Enrollment

“Typically when the economy gets a little crazy, like it is right now, people need to upskill or find new work,” and workers look to colleges for help, said Nicole Albo-Lopez, deputy chancellor for the Los Angeles Community College District. In the Los Angeles district, students between the ages of 35 and 54 are coming back to school in droves — up 28% compared with last year, she said. Other factors may also be bringing students back to school. The COVID-19 pandemic created a sudden and historic drop in college enrollment, and some schools say the influx of students this year is just a return to pre-pandemic levels. A large portion of recent enrollment growth comes from high school students taking college courses, which has exploded in popularity in the past few years.

Quitting a Job, Starting School

Carla Gruhn, 29, has worked as a medical assistant in San José for 10 years. At one point she was making roughly $50,000 a year, but it wasn’t enough. “In the last year, eggs started becoming super expensive,” she said. “That’s when I started paying more attention to gas and groceries.” Together with her husband, she started planning ways to scale back — fewer coffee runs, less travel with their truck, cheaper gifts this Christmas. But they needed a long-term solution, too. In July, she quit her job and enrolled in a two-year radiologic technology program at Foothill College, in the south Bay Area, which will teach her how to read X-rays, CT scans and MRIs. Her salary could double, maybe even triple, once she graduates with the new credential — a “life-changing” raise, she said.

Enrollment Increases in Various Fields

At Foothill College, enrollment is up, especially in science and technology classes, said Simon Pennington, the school’s associate vice president of community relations. Many of these students are looking to fulfill prerequisites to enter careers in the healthcare sector, he added. Healthcare is one of the largest and fastest-growing job sectors in the state, according to a recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California. In Merced, hours away from major urban centers like the Bay Area, Sacramento or Los Angeles, students are clamoring for classes in electronics, where the fall waitlist numbers have nearly doubled compared with three years ago. Demand is also up for classes in criminal justice and mechanized agriculture, according to James Leonard, a spokesperson for the school.

Colleges Call for More Funding

California’s community colleges receive most of their funding based on the number of students they serve. When enrollment declined during the pandemic, colleges were set to lose funding, but the governor and the Legislature granted the community college system a special exemption, delaying many funding cuts. Now that enrollment is ticking up, many colleges say they have the opposite problem — they aren’t getting enough money to serve the influx of new students. That’s largely because the state’s funding formula is based on the college’s average enrollment over the past three years, so sudden changes this year are slow to have an effect. Rodriguez said his Sacramento area district is serving about 5,000 more students than the system is funded to support, representing about $20 million in lost revenue.

Request for Policy Change

This summer, the state agreed to send more money to California’s community colleges to account for recent enrollment growth, but Ferguson said it isn’t enough to fully fund all the new students. Last month, presidents and chancellors from 10 different community colleges or community college districts, including representatives from Los Angeles and Sacramento, sent a letter to the governor, asking him to change state policy and allow colleges to get more funding in next year’s budget. Though he did not sign the letter, Ferguson said the state chancellor’s office is asking the governor for similar changes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the current economic situation in California is driving more individuals to seek education and training, leading to an increase in community college enrollments. However, this surge in enrollment is not matched with sufficient funding from the state, posing challenges for colleges to provide adequate services and classes. The call for more funding and a revision in the funding formula highlights the need for the state to recognize the importance of community colleges in supporting the workforce and adapting to economic changes.

FAQs

1. Why are community college enrollments increasing in California?

   • Enrollments are increasing due to economic uncertainty, the need for upskilling, and a return to pre-pandemic levels after a historic drop during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. What fields are seeing the most enrollment growth?

   • Healthcare, science, technology, electronics, criminal justice, and mechanized agriculture are among the fields experiencing significant enrollment growth.

3. Why are colleges facing funding issues despite increased enrollment?

   • The state’s funding formula is based on the average enrollment over the past three years, which does not account for sudden changes in enrollment numbers.
4. What are colleges and the state chancellor’s office asking for?
   • They are asking for a change in state policy to allow colleges to receive more funding based on current enrollment numbers rather than the three-year average, to adequately support the influx of new students.