Efficiency Not The Answer To a Quality Education

Cabrillo students, professors, counselors, and alumni gathered at the Swenson House on Cabrillo campus May 15th to give voice to the possible detriments the Student Success Act would have on community colleges if passed. The Student Success Act , proposed by Jerry Brown in 2012, aims to improve community colleges’ success rates by compelling  students choose an immediate education plan that will give them the opportunity to transfer to a four-year school  in a timely manner. 

If passed, the bill would restructure the way student support services, such as financial aid, are delivered, require students whose fees are waived because of their economic need to meet minimum academic standards, and mandate colleges receiving student support service funds to post a student success scorecard of completion rates for all students. Although congress views the Student Success Act as a way of lending a hand to community colleges, the Cabrillo College Federation of Teachers claims bill that would put already disadvantaged students at jeopardy of losing financial aid, and being unable to retake necessary courses for graduation.

The discussion panel, led by Cabrillo counselor Arturo Cantu, history professor Michael Mangu, director of counseling Barbara Perez, Vice president of teachers union an digital media teacher John Govsky, director of learning skills program, Deborah Shulman and students, Brittany Moore, Adrianna Mee, and Carter Frost gave students and faculty an opportunity to inquire about the direct effects of Student Success Act- particularly the 90 unit cap on financial aid, and the three strikes rule on repeating classes.

  Cabrillo counselor, Arturo Cantu, strongly believes that the act will predominantly impact the poor and disenfranchised. “It’s the people who are already struggling to get resources” said Cantu.

During the discussion Cantu recounted a typical day in the Cabrillo College Counseling office, in which he sees well over 20 students within a four hour period, “That’s only about nine minutes per student; with the complexity of this business that is not enough.” According to Cantu, there is currently a 1,300 to 1 student counselor ratio at Cabrillo College, “Unlike teachers, counselors do not get a cap on how many students we get.”

 John Govsky, a digital media teacher at Cabrillo, has seen a lot of changes since he began teaching at Cabrillo 18 years ago. “Traditionally, college was about experimenting, trying different things. Maybe you don’t know what you are going to major in in your first or second year and that used to be ok, now were trying to push students out the door as fast as possible.” He considers the Student Success Act’s strive for efficiency as just another way to skimp on funding for education in California. “You can’t do quality education on the cheap;” Govsky insists, “a lot of the caps on financial aid and repeatability of a course are results of the fact that [the government] doesn’t want to adequately fund education.”

Those in favor “three strikes rule” that prevents a student from repeating a course more than three times, consider it a way to keep those students who aren’t serious about education out of community colleges. Although the three strikes rule may seem generous to many, Govsky thinks schools and government should be careful when making these comprehensive rules. “There are a lot of different kind of students, students from different backgrounds, students with advantages, disadvantages, maybe they’re not native English speakers, so you want to be careful when you try to apply a broad brushstroke to how these policies work.” 

 When Andrea Hernandez heard that the Successful Student Act would put halt on financial for students who have taken 90 units or more she knew that she has to attend the forum. Although she is only 20, she is at risk from having her financial aid taken away, and no longer being a candidate for the Board of Governors fee waiver that permits enrollment fees to be waived for students under a certain income bracket.
Hernandez understands that sometimes crises that interrupt educational plans are simply unavoidable.
 Last spring Hernandez underwent crucial surgery to get her gall bladder removed just weeks before midterms, making it impossible for Hernandez to finish the semester. “Even though my teachers knew my experience they still gave me F’s instead of incompletes” she said. After overcoming her setback raising her GPA, Hernandez now faces a new hindrance in her education plan.
“I need to learn what I can do to stop that 90 unit cap because I really want to keep striving to get my AA as well as my BA, and I know financial aid is one of the only things that will help me do that.”

 The Student Success Act has been signed in to law since September 2012, but according to student panelist Brittany Moore it is the constant revisions of the act that have begun increasing concern on campuses. “We started to see the first implication of it with three strikes rule. Now it’s just revision after revision. They shouldn’t be able to so that.” Moore advises students as well as community members to research both pros and cons that the act would have on community colleges and to take action by attending city council meetings, school board meetings, joining the CCFT affiliates, and reaching out to our state representatives.

“It painted as a very pretty picture right now unless you know how detrimental [the act] could be to our education.”