When I was completing training to become an Administrator, I was fortunate to be able to attend the California Governor’s Budget Workshop in Sacramento a couple of times. I didn’t attend during my tenure as a Dean, but since those days, I have kept up my attendance because it is so informative and critical to my area of interest!

This year, the Workshop was held virtually, and while I listened intently to the panel discussion and questions at the beginning, I was anxious to hear this year’s presentation on the economic forecast! Some of those presentations can be quite dry, but more and more I have come to find them so informative and entertaining! – I know, strange right?! So, I will begin this blog post as a feedback mechanism on the Workshop as a whole, will start with the economic forecast, and summarise the budget presentation!

This year’s economic forecast presentation was loaded with charts, supplemented by great explanatory dialog. The presentation helped to clarify what has been happening in our state economy, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and where we are most likely going from here. Of course, the presentation provided a foundation on which to better appreciate the Governor’s proposed budget for the California Community College system. Of special interest:

Most educators are familiar with the fact that when unemployment rises, so do post-secondary enrollments! However, less familiar to us educators is the picture presented by the 2020 data that shows a steep rise in unemployment, but also a decline in enrollments.

• CA real GDP is back above pre-pandemic levels and is forecast to continue on an upward climb well into 2024.
• Inflation remains elevated, a little higher than originally forecast, however, the forecast is showing we have gone over the hump and are moving down from a current 5.8% toward a 2.8% by the end of 2023.
• Employment Development Department statistics reflect CA highest job losses during Feb to April 2020 align with the US job losses, mostly 50% losses in Leisure & Tourism, 30% in other services, 18% the Retail Trade, and about 11% in Health Care and Social Services.
• Migration of people OUT of CA appears to be around 500,000 people between 2019 and 2021.
• There is a mismatch in job openings and job hires – meaning, there is a demand for people, but a short supply of workforce

And so to the Governor’s Proposed Budget:-

In short, the state is flush, growing revenues from income and property taxes, therefore, a proposed growth in the allocation of funding for education, in particular:

• $409.4 million to fund 5.33% COLA for apportionments which is applied to the rates within the SCFF (the student-centered funding formula).
• Of interest is that the Gov did not propose additional funding to the CalSTRS and CalPERS employer contribution
• the CalSTRS cost is increasing from 16.9% to 19.1%
• Part-Time Faculty Health Insurance—To support community college part-time faculty, the Budget includes an increase of $200 million ongoing Proposition 98 General Fund to augment the Part-Time Faculty Health Insurance Program to expand healthcare coverage provided to part-time faculty by community college districts.

So, as districts are being held harmless for the loss of funds due to low enrollments, they also have growing staffing costs – above the COLA amount – just a heads up folks!!!

Hope you have enjoyed my summation 🙂

I have been a California community college educator in both face-to-face and online classes for the past two decades. As the Covid-19 pandemic began, the community colleges in my state began the urgent shift to fully online offerings in order to service the needs and goals of our students. Now here we are, having completed three-plus semesters, and moving into a fourth semester under pandemic conditions.

So, what is being written about the online teacher and student experience during the Pandemic? Having an interest in online education, and being a scholar myself, I think it is important to share, if only in a summary form, what is being expressed in the body of literature.

It is no secret that widespread distance learning has increased the workload of teachers. There has been significant training and resources dedicated to supporting instruction to develop their online instruction. Some teachers report emotional exhaustion and burnout. What resources are being dedicated to assisting the teachers in handling the exhaustion and burnout I cannot comment on, I simply haven’t seen the research on that yet! However, stresses reported by teachers have included:

· difficulty in making their face-to-face content fit the virtual setting

· time-consuming creating assignments & prep

· feeling inadequate due to asking for tech support because of technical problems

· redesigning content for the unseen audience

· doesn’t play to their strengths – it is not what they trained for

· concern for how they are being understood

· concern for how the students are coping

· self-recording video lessons is stressful and time-consuming

· the need to be extra motivational to the students

It is reported by many teachers that through all of this they are thankful for the patience and understanding exhibited by the students. It is also reported that support of the faculty by their institution is critical in terms of faculty development programs and incentives. Effective communication among all parties is critical to faculty satisfaction and student success.

Students have also been challenged in this new online world, and some of the challenges reported by students are:

· interaction within the class

· technology difficulties and accessing technical support

· engagement with the instructor

· less satisfied with online than face to face

· time to download resources

My own experience has been positive, but that is mainly due to the fact that I am a technology geek teaching technology in a space that I have been comfortable with for a long time. Meeting the requirements to be an “online teacher” during the Pandemic was somewhat different and more challenging than the requirements pre-pandemic. I am sympathetic to the teachers who have had a steeper learning curve than I. I am very proud of my students who adjusted and succeeded in their fully online environment, but I am confident that they would have been just as successful in the face-to-face classroom. I know though that they welcomed the opportunity that the flexibility of online classes has afforded them.

If you are interested in reading more about this topic, I encourage you to take a look at the research study that has just been published by Elshami W, Taha MH, Abuzaid M, Saravanan C, Al Kawas S, Abdalla ME. “Satisfaction with online learning in the new normal: perspective of students and faculty at medical and health sciences colleges.” Med Educ Online.

The study is loaded with information, analysis, and recommendations 🙂