Where is the budget hitting us the hardest? For just twenty dollars per unit, community colleges were once a reasonably- priced alternative to a four-year however, with recent cuts to the EC budget, higher education just got a bit pricier.

Fees have increased by 30 percent going from $20 to $26. The overall budget since 2008-2009 was cut by $2.3 million. There were also 300 courses that have been cut from the fall schedule as well a cut in the online courses for the winter session.

Being enrolled full-time went from spending $240 to $312; the same you would spend if you were paying for an extra 3 units at the former price. However, we must acknowledge that this increase could have been worse as we look at other colleges like for example Phoenix. As a resident of Maricopa county fees are $71 per credit hour; so you would be paying $852 as a fulltime student. Community colleges from Arizona, Oregon, and New Mexico range from $41 at El Central College in Dallas. Central New Mexico Community College in Albuquerque is at $74 at Portland Community College.

To spend $26 a unit seems extremely reasonable in comparison. EC is faring better, budget-wise, than other colleges in California. Many community colleges have been forced to cut sports programs, such as L.A. City College, where every sports program, except women’s volleyball, was cut. Universities are suffering as well, U.C. Irvine, Moorpark, and Fresno State all took hits to their budget.

President Thomas Fallo, and the administration has done an excellent job of preserving EC’s budget as much as possible, allowing for the students to continue receiving their education. Thanks to conservative spending and budgeting by the school, there is a fairly large reserve to function on until the California economy evens out. Despite the number of classes that were cut, the college is still in fairly decent shape, with many of its programs intact.

President Obama has earmarked $10 billion in federal stimulus money for community colleges, but where are we left once that one-time fund runs out? We’re right back where we started, or possibly even worse off. Students, those who are being depended on as the future of the U.S., the ones to bring us out of a financial crisis, may not even be able to get the education they need to do so.

Many students are either working, or reliant on financial aid in order to afford an education, and with more and more workers being laid off, and financial aid being threatened; charging more per unit wouldn’t be beneficial.

Students who worked to pay for their classes would have to work more hours; that means less time for classes possibly, which means less units. For those on financial aid, fee waivers have been increased in response to this $6 increase per unit; more money the government is paying. Community College students shouldn’t be forced to pay for the mistakes of the government-literally.

Gov. Schwarzenegger and the California state legislature is taking the wrong approach to solving the budget crisis. Charging community college students more per unit will, in the long run, be even more detrimental to the budget overall. The best solution would be legalizing marijuana, and taxing it.

By legalizing it, California could easily solve their budget deficit; if it was legalized throughout the U.S., the recession could be ended within just a few years, due to the revenue the sale and taxing would bring. Doing so would do for the state’s budget deficit what years of reducing funding for schooling couldn’t.