A new budget was proposed at the beginning of the year to increase funding for California colleges.

Governor Jerry Brown proposed a new budget for the state of California, to increase funding in regards to higher education. Some of this funding is specifically geared towards community colleges, which got an increase from $8 billion to $9 billion from 2015-2017.

Much of the money comes from Proposition 98, which allocates 40 percent of California tax revenues to community colleges and K-12 education. A statement from California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice W. Harris commented on these funding increases and the impact it will have on community colleges, namely that it “includes a commitment to improve and expand our efforts to build a stronger workforce…improve remedial education, and help close achievement gaps.”

But what might it mean for students of Skyline College?

For students of Skyline College looking to transfer to a four year college in the UC system, there are a few proposals that are meant to make a transfer more efficient. According to the budget itself, there is also a goal of having one new transfer student per two transfer students, which the new budget proposal plans to make happen in a few notable ways, including standardizing the required courses for transfer for 20 majors, similar to those of an associate’s degree for transfer.

Skyline College does offer many programs that stand to benefit from the funding increases. For one, Skyline College has a wide variety of Career Technical Programs, such as Early Childhood Education and Business Administration, and the Center for Workforce Development. These programs work with outside companies to create new internship and employment opportunities.

The funding will provide new programs known as “transfer pathways” which are known as a tool to aid transfer students on which classes to take for transferring with a specific major to a UC campus. In all, there are supposed to be 10 “transfer pathways.”

Skyline has a transfer center that also boosts students to transfer to a four year university with use of programs such as TAG (Transfer Admission Guarantee) and the Honors Transfer Program. Skyline also offers priority registration and concurrent enrollment for high school students, and programs such as MathJam aid students who are struggling with mathematics coming into community college.

The budget also includes many proposals also meant for easing the transition of high school seniors into college level courses.

There are also many propositions in place for funding towards transitioning from California community colleges to the workforce, particularly for those in Career Technical Education programs. A $200 million increase is proposed for the Strong Workforce Program. The funds going towards this program are meant to “provide resources for community colleges to develop, enhance, and expand technical education programs.”

So what does this mean as a student of Skyline College? In short, there seems to be a focus on career technical programs, readiness for transfer students from community colleges into either the UC or CSU system, and readying incoming college freshmen for college level classes.