State lawmakers approved a series of midyear budget cuts
proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week that jeopardizes funding for
the California Student Opportunity and Access Program, which has led the
program’s local chapter to eliminate several outreach services and lay off
almost half of its student staff.
During the 2008-09 school year, Cal-SOAP programs will see a
10-percent funding reduction statewide. The local branch of Cal-SOAP, which is
administered through UCSD and serves all schools within the
Diego
District
annual budget this year, cutting $325,000 from its funding. Its current budget
sits at $938,000, which may decrease by another $94,000 next year.
Cal-SOAP serves students from low-income families,
first-generation college students and students from schools or geographic areas
with documented low college eligibility or participation rates. The programs
inform applicants about college education and financial aid to elementary,
middle and high school students while raising their academic achievement
levels.
The student staff consists of about 75 college peer advisers
and 75 tutors.
Schwarzenegger’s budget cuts have forced Cal-SOAP to turn
its focus to high school students while slashing or limiting several early
college awareness and academic enrichment programs.
“It’s not necessarily a retreat, but it is who we provide
direct services to that’s going to shift,” Cal-SOAP Director Linda Doughty
said. “Further cuts are still undecided because of the reduction in the amount
of students we can hire to do the job. We’re probably going to start by pulling
tutors out of the middle schools. We’re trying to start at ninth grade and
follow them through high school.”
Outreach programs that were cut include “Students with
Advance Advisement Training,” which provides two presentations at high schools
regarding admissions and financial aid, “Cash In On Community College,” which
assists students who miss the March 2 financial aid deadline, and elementary
school tutoring programs such as “America Reads” and “Math Counts.”
“I think who is going to get hurt the most is students in
low-income families,” Doughty said. “They’re really going to get slammed.”
Remaining outreach programs such as “I’m Going to College”
have been modified or limited to selective schools. The “College: Making It
Happen” program now only serves 21 of its previous 41 schools, and because
advisement is limited to a skeleton crew of CPAs, peer-to-peer advising has
shifted to large-scale presentations.
“I don’t really know if there will be a Cal-SOAP future,”
said Vanessa Nuñez, Cal-SOAP’s student assistant to the director and
scholarship coordinator.
Nuñez emphasized the importance of preserving peer-to-peer
relationships.
“You build up the student’s confidence and empower them,”
Nuñez said. “You get them to open up to you. These kids need the hand-holding.
Now, it’s not going to be as personal.”
Cal-SOAP also lost five members of its full-time staff last
year, including those who worked with middle schools and the “College: Making
It Happen” program and one staff member who was responsible for student data.
“We might as well not have the program as a whole because
cutting several components of outreach means that student staff can’t be out
there doing their job,” Lead College Peer Adviser Tou Fang said.
CPAs compose the program’s primary training resource. They
are taught to provide support for high school counseling personnel, working 10
to 12 hours a week to address the needs of over 4,000 seniors.
“I don’t see that there’s anyone who does what I do,” said
at
in
50 students a day. I teach them how to fill out FAFSA. They don’t know who else
to go to.”
As a legislative program, Cal-SOAP works under the direction
of the California Student Aid Commission. Student data is sent to the
commission, and CSAC reports the information to the Legislature.
“We can’t anticipate how the individual programs will be
affected,” CSAC spokeswoman Yvonne Stewart-Buchen said. “But we’re doing everything
we can to minimize the effect on students.”
