Education

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Written by: Editor

Published: 11 January 2013

SACRAMENTO – California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice W. Harris praised Gov. Jerry Brown for including in his proposed 2013-14 budget additional funding for community colleges and for his leadership of an initiative to help more students achieve their academic and career goals through improved online education.

“Gov. Brown’s leadership in passing Proposition 30 means California community colleges can begin to make room for some of the hundreds of thousands of students who have been shut out of our system due to recent funding cuts,” Harris said. “This budget represents a good start toward financial recovery for our system. The governor and voters deserve credit for beginning this overdue reinvestment.”

The governor’s budget would provide $197 million more to the college system in 2013-14 and directs the California Community Colleges Board of Governors to determine the best way to allocate the money to districts.

The funding increase would allow colleges statewide to add back thousands of classes to serve some of the nearly 500,000 students turned away over the past four years during the state’s financial crisis and at the same time continue the system’s work to improve student success.

The additional funds, as well as $179 million to make good on funding commitments that were deferred during the recession, will leave colleges with less debt and better positioned to meet the needs of an economy that increasingly is demanding college-educated workers.

Harris said that the California community college system has already laid the groundwork for the governor’s desire to improve online education.

Twenty-seven percent of community college students take at least one course online each year, nearly 17 percent of all courses offered are through distance education, and almost half of all classes currently offered involve some online components.

The California Community College Online Initiative would improve students’ access to courses and increase rates of transfer and degree attainment in the following ways:

• Creation of a centralized “virtual campus” that brings together several existing distance education services into a single hosting system with a 24/7 support center for students. Leveraging the purchasing power of the 112-college system would save money and help students find and take the courses they need through a common on-line course management portal.
• Expanded options for students to obtain college credit by exam. Working with the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, the Chancellor’s Office will create challenge exams for core courses for Associate Degree for Transfer majors as well as remedial courses. Students would have the option of acquiring the skills and knowledge necessary to pass these exams through Massive Open Online Course (MOOCS) and credits awarded would be transportable California State University and the University of California.

The governor’s budget proposal also recognizes the significant role California’s community colleges play in workforce development, with significantly expanded resources for clean energy job training.  

The proposal also calls for shifting additional apprenticeship responsibilities to community colleges and shifting adult education responsibilities performed by K-12 to the community colleges.  

Over decades, uneven approaches to adult education have developed, with K-12 educating some students and community colleges educating others.

Recent funding cuts have limited access to these classes, which help adults become economically self-sufficient.

“We view this budget proposal as a vote of confidence in our ability to provide workforce training and basic skills instruction to adult learners, and we look forward to conversations on ways to better serve these populations,” Harris said.

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Written by: Editor

Published: 04 January 2013

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Office of Education and the Lake County Literacy Task Force are excited to announce a new literacy program that will benefit babies born in Lake County.

Thanks to a partnership with Sutter Lakeside Hospital, the first 100 babies born at the Sutter Lakeside Hospital’s Family Birth Center will receive a scholarship for a one-year enrollment in Imagination Library.

Imagination Library was developed in 1995 by Dolly Parton to support literacy in her Tennessee hometown.

Since that time, the program has spread nationwide and was recently adopted as a primary initiative of the Lake County Literacy Task Force.

The goal of Imagination Library is to ensure that literacy begins at the earliest age possible with the child’s first teacher: the parent.

Children enrolled in the program between the ages of 0-4 will receive a book each month through the mail to read, enjoy and keep in their home.

Learning to read is a process that begins at birth. Research shows that students who are successful readers by the age of eight are more successful citizens in their communities.

Sutter Lakeside Hospital, the Lake County Office of Education and the Lake County Literacy Task Force are working to ensure that all children born in Lake County have a strong foundation in literacy.

“We’re honored that the Lake County Office of Education approached us with this opportunity. Sutter Health strongly believes in helping the communities that they serve and Imagination Library is a great way that we can positively affect the future of Lake County kids,” said Chief Administrative Officer, Siri Nelson.

You can support Lake County’s Imagination Library by sending a donation of $25 to the Lake County Office of Education c/o Literacy Task Force, 1152 S. Main Street, Lakeport, CA, Attention: Imagination Library.

If you have any questions, or if you need further information about this program, please contact Stephanie Wayment at Lake County Office of Education, 707-262-4163 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Your donation is tax deductible.

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Written by: Editor

Published: 27 December 2012

UKIAH, Calif. – Mendocino College third semester nursing student Corinne Chaulk is the proud mother of three kids ages 11, 12 and 14, who are so excited about their mother becoming a nurse that “the youngest even wears her stethoscope around the house.”
 
Scheduled to graduate in May 2013, Chaulk wants to work for Howard Hospital in Willits.  

In fact, she will complete her preceptorship, a required training component of the nursing program at Howard Hospital in the spring.

Chaulk maintains a 3.6 grade point average at Mendocino College and recently expressed her gratitude to all of the generous donors who provide funding for student scholarships.  

“I wouldn’t be where I am without the financial support from the college and foundation,” she said.

For more information about the Mendocino College Foundation or to donate towards the Nursing Shoe or State Board Exam Fee fundraising programs, call 707-467-1018 or visit http://foundation.mendocino.edu/site/ .