With the state of California’s current economy, many people are talking about what will be cut next. In times like these, many have different ideas of where the money should be taken from and what should be done with it. Recently, the most popular cut has been in education.
John and Ken, two popular AM radio talk show hosts, have recently been blasting California’s Community Colleges. In their program, they briefly discussed Community Colleges, and said they’re “the first thing you should cut.” They then go on to say that there aren’t many jobs you could get out of it and call community college students “parasites.”
Although I do not think that funding for community colleges should be cut, I do understand what John and Ken’s reasoning is behind why they think it should be.
One reason they said, was that “so many people are wandering around with useless degrees; they’re not getting jobs because these degrees don’t represent any particular skills.” They used a liberal arts degree as an example.
This I feel is true; many students that I know attending community colleges are doing so because they don’t know what they want to do. At Bakersfield College, the most popular major is undeclared. Other students simply pick majors because they think they’ll make a lot of money in the particular field, or think it is easily obtainable, not because they enjoy the profession.
What they end up with is a degree in something that either has no demand for, or is difficult and time consuming to get into.
Although a lot of students who attend community colleges are doing so to better themselves, there are probably more who only attend school for the money they get from Financial Aid or other programs.
The two talk show hosts spark up all kinds of political conversations on their show daily, to create controversy. Like all radio talk shows, especially one of a political nature, ratings are important.
The John and Ken show is one of the most listened to radio talk show in America. John and Ken’s charm or lack of charm in no way corresponds with these ratings.
Conversation topics are most likely the reason people tune in. Creating arguments is their job; people shouldn’t take it so seriously. They’re just entertainers.
California Community Colleges have already suffered drastic cuts, totaling in $1.4 billion, according to the California Community College Chancellor’s office website. If policymakers pass an “all-cuts” budget, more money could be cut from these schools.
I cannot even slightly comprehend how anyone could believe that cutting money from education, in any area, will help us get out of the recession. Money should be cut elsewhere.
Instead of taking money from community colleges, I think funds should be cut from state prisons instead, as John and Ken also recommended.
With more money being cut from education than state prisons and penitentiaries, I can see our state getting even more criminal and dimwitted in the future.