From “bad” to “very bad” is the conclusion of a study released today on the availability of summer classes at fifteen local community colleges. The survey, prepared by researchers at Santa Monica College, details how state budget cuts have caused local colleges to make cuts to their summer sessions.

In Summer 2009, the drop in workload was 30 percent. In Summer 2010, the drop was 20 percent. In Summer 2011, the drop was 25 percent. This year, for Summer 2012, the drop will be about 25 percent.

Cumulatively, SMC and its neighboring colleges will be offering in Summer 2012 only a third of the courses offered in Summer 2008. That’s a loss of roughly 6,000 teaching assignments and the loss of about 168,000 classroom seats compared to Summer 2008.

Santa Monica College offers the most sections, 745, followed by East Los Angeles College with 349 sections.

Credit programs, offering students the classes needed to make progress on certificates, degrees, and transfers, have been cancelled at six area community colleges (LA City, LA Harbor, LA Mission, LA Southwest, LA Valley, West LA), and all but cancelled (fewer than 50 sections) at two others (LA Pierce, LA Trade Tech). A few nursing classes for credit are being offered at LA City and West LA. The program at Long Beach is reduced by one-half compared to last year and the program at East LA reduced by one-third. The programs at Compton, El Camino, Glendale, Pasadena, and Santa Monica are roughly the same as last year, but reduced significantly from prior years.

In addition, a few noncredit continuing education courses in basic skills and ESL, funded by grants, are being offered at LA City and LA Trade Tech.

The complete report is available online at http://www2.smc.edu/updates.

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