Editorial: Close CCSN funding gap

Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2005 | 9:46 a.m.

For at least the past 10 years, state government has been shortchanging the Community College of Southern Nevada. And each year the funding gap has grown wider. For the 1994-95 fiscal year, on average, CCSN was receiving $1,539 less for each full-time student than Nevada's three other community colleges. In the current fiscal year, the gap is $3,438 -- a 123 percent increase.

Although the Legislature and CCSN officials have known all along about the growing gap, it was never closed. But there's a new player in town now -- Richard Carpenter. In August, newly installed as the college's president, he gave a speech to the faculty and staff. They cheered when he said closing the spending gap would be one of his top priorities. "We can't be quiet about this," he proclaimed.

True to his word, Carpenter is making an issue of this long-standing problem. "There is no legal justification for funding CCSN at far less (per student) than the other colleges," Carpenter said Monday during a meeting with the Sun's editorial board. He said the time to act is now, because the longer the state waits, the heavier its financial burden will be when it does, inevitably, grant equity to all the colleges. Closing the gap now would cost $58 million, he said. But given how rapidly the gap is expanding, he said, it would cost $75 million three or four years from now.

Carpenter said he doesn't want "court involvement," but issued a "soft warning" of that recourse if the disparity is not rectified. He even mentioned a legal tactic that could be used if a lawsuit is filed. One could argue, he said, that the state is not providing Southern Nevada's students with equal access to education. The most compelling argument, he said, would involve the college's minority population. More than half of all the minority students in the University and Community College System are enrolled at CCSN. Carpenter said he's aware of successful lawsuits in other states that were based on funding disparities affecting minorities.

State officials say the spending gap exists because funding is based on growth projections, and CCSN's growth over the past decade has always exceeded those projections. Southern Nevada has been growing long enough now, however, for projections to be in line with reality. We agree with Carpenter that the state has an obligation to close the gap -- and not by siphoning money from the other colleges' budgets. Gov. Kenny Guinn and the 2005 Legislature need to address this problem -- before the courts address it for them.