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Community colleges ask Ways and Means to protect funding, expand student basic-needs supports
Summary
Mount Hood and other community college leaders urged the Joint Ways and Means Committee to fund community colleges at current-service levels and preserve student basic-needs programs, noting tuition shifts costs to students and citing data on housing and food insecurity among students.
Senators and representatives convening the Joint Committee on Ways and Means heard multiple community college leaders and trustees ask that the legislature preserve funding for community colleges and expand supports for student basic needs.
"Our ask to you is that community colleges be funded at current service levels, which is the governor's proposed budget plus $60,000,000," Andrew Spear, vice president of the Mount Hood Community College Board of Education, told the committee. Spear traced rising tuition over decades and said the state's funding shortfall has shifted costs to students.
The request focused both on operating support and on programs that address students' basic needs. Tim…
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