2010

House leader pledges help for community The chairman of the House Universities and Colleges Commmee pledged to sup– porters of the 1 5 community and junior colleges Thursday, Feb. 18. that State representa– tives \\ill do what they can to make progress toward mid– level funding in the face of three FY 1010 state budget cu~ on top of system-wide record enrollment increases this year. see more than just numbers when it comes to talking about a budget, when it comes to talking about educa– tion,• Buck said."We see peo– ple. We see families. We see families dlat are having to pay more for tuition, families that are having to dig deeper in their pockets." But neither Barbour nor Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant gave any hope to college upporters of increased funding this year. governments; Clark said. "If you look at the numbers over the past decade, community colleges have been under– funded compared to other parts of our government and other parts of our educational system. That situation has become much more severe in the past 12 months because of our booming enrollment. c. c. f d -f ' t:f r / ~l 7

Willi'i Lott, president of Mis– sissippi Gulf Coast Communi– ty College and ch..ill' of the Mi~sissippi Association of Community and Junior Col– legell commended the com– mururr college faculty for per– severing through repeated budget cuts and chronic underfunding. "Our faculty are where the rubber hits the road in the classrooms and they're the on~ making the positive dif– ference in the 85,000 lives of the students enrolled today; he said."We are being asked to do more with less.We have 25 percent more people enrolled today than we had two years ago. We are doing more with less because we have less per student.We're getting l~ for a full-time student today than we were in d1e year 2000.That

Rep. Kelvin Buck, D-Holly Springs. told the crowd of approximately 200 communi– ty coll<:ge sntdems and ft~culty gathered in the Capitol roruo– da that HoU'>e members understand the two-year col– lege;-~ need funding to pro..,ide services when they have dou– ble digit enrollment mcreases in d1e faU and spring. "Anybod} who knows any– thing about government now knows dlat if there are priori– ties on the table we e-m find the funds to do what we need to do.... We're committed in the House of Representatives to the importance ofmid-level funding," he said. In 2007, lawmakers and Gov. Haley Barbour commit– ted to mid-level funding through Senate Bill2364.a his– toric measure endo~ing per– student funding for communi– ty colleges that is midway between per-student funding for K-12 students and regional public university students.The colleges are asking for $6-!.7 million for mid-level funding in FY 2011. "All of our colleges are experiencing record enroll– ment.The demand is d1ere.We

The tate official were llpeaking Timrsday at a n~ conference calkd by the 3.000-member Mississippi Faculty ~rion for Com– munity and Junior Colleges to spotlight the record-breaking enrollment in the face of three budget cuts already this year. Enrollments at the 15 com– munity college soared in the fall.Preliminary figures for fall 2009 showenrollment was up nearly 10,000 students system wide from fall 2009, an increase of 13 percent. Eleven of the 15 colleges had increas– es of more than 10 percent with the largest increase near– ly 20 percent. That trend continued this spring with credit enrollment up 16 percent over last spring, said Dr. Eric Clark, executive director of the State Board for Community and Junior Col– leges. "Community colleges are the institutions primarily responsible for getting folies off welfare, and out of mini– mum wage jobs and letting them make a good living for their families and pay more taxes to their state and local

impact community colleges is not responsible support have on all our lives," he said. from anybody" "This is my story, but it is a Mack-Arthur Turner Jr. of story that many people can Thpelo, a sophomore at identify with.~ Itawamba Community Col- One of those is LaTrisha lege, shared his personal Miller of Raymond, a health story of dropping out of information technology stu– school twice but frnaJiy dent at Hin

class at ICC. "I know the

"Being a single mother,and • .,.L-...,11'-'~""' --···--·- .• ----- SCOTT COUNTY TIMES____

vl"'\l' 1 1 1'"'v 11' 1'"'1' -------- NEWTON COUNTY APPEAL___

SPIRIT OF MORTON------- WINSTON COUNTY JOURNAL___.__ CLARION-LEDGER----- MERIDIAN STAR______