Our View: Community college tuition hikes put education out of reach for many

A report this week from U.S. News & World Report confirmed what we already know: Merced's got a jobs problem. One out of five people in Merced simply can't find work.

While there may be a shortage of jobs, there are a lot of ideas about what we can do to fix things in both the short and long term. Reduce fees and streamline permitting processes to make it easier for companies to do business in Merced. Do a better job of marketing the area to potential employers. Serve as strong advocates for high- speed rail and the location of a heavy-repair facility in Merced County.

But ultimately, there's just one sure-fire answer for the long term: Education.

Companies are often more willing to locate where there's an educated workforce with the skills they need. As much as we would like -- and expect with the maturation of UC Merced -- to have high- paying, white-collar jobs in Merced, today's reality is that we need to appeal to call centers, distribution warehouses and agriculturally centered jobs.

Unfortunately, UC Merced doesn't provide the kind of vocational education many of these jobs require. This is where Merced College comes in, providing access to recent and long-ago high school graduates in areas of nursing, auto mechanics and public safety, among dozens of other subjects.

Unfortunately, it just got a lot harder to be a student there. State budget cuts prompted a raise in community college fees to $46 a unit. That's more than four times what students were paying for community college just 12 years ago.

Starting this summer, a standard three-unit course at Merced College will cost close to $150, not counting the cost of books, parking and whatever else is required of the class. A full-time student taking 12 units will pay $552. For many would- be students, the fee hike is going to put a quality education out of reach -- and that's not acceptable for Merced.

As we have said before, we need white-collar jobs in our community, but we also need jobs that require steel-toed shoes and strong backs. We need auto mechanics. We need nurses. We need police officers. And we need Merced College to continue to be the place Mercedians can turn to learn those types of careers.

There is no doubt that the financial outlook for public education is bleak. With Gov. Jerry Brown encouraging schools to plan their budgets with the assumption his tax initiative will pass in the fall, but common sense dictating conservative planning, our educational institutions are struggling to find a clear direction.

We urge residents to contact their elected representatives to point out the logical fallacy of raising community college fees while relying on our local college to train people for jobs. But we also like the Legislative Analyst Office's approach which calls for some sort of tax credit to cover 100 percent of the first $1,200 in fee costs. The LAO also recommends that the Legislature adopt a fee strategy that raises the annual level of community college fees to an amount covered by whatever tax credit is in effect. In that scenario the state could hike fees to as much as $60 a unit and still let full-time students take full advantage of the tax credit.

But it's clear this gap between jobs and training in Merced must be filled. It will take a combination of popular will and smart lawmaking to bridge this gap.

Tough decisions are ahead, and strong and clear leadership will be required at all levels. We encourage those involved in education to continue to find creative solutions that address the financial challenges while minimizing the burden on its students and our region's future workforce.

Editorials are the opinion of the Merced Sun-Star editorial board. Members of the editorial board include Publisher Eric Johnston, Executive Editor Mike Tharp, Online Editor Brandon Bowers and Guest Editor Jessica Boerner-Grissom.