Santa Monica College to offer tiered pricing

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (KABC) -- When college classes at Santa Monica College fill up, some students could soon pay more -- a lot more -- for the same instruction in a controversial plan.

This year alone, Santa Monica College faced $10 million in funding cuts, and next year isn't looking any better. They've had to lock 230,000 students out of the system, and that's why they want to offer supplemental classes to students who can afford it.

Higher fees are never a popular subject for college students, and now Santa Monica College has devised the only plan of its kind in the country: To offer more expensive classes to students who need them, approving a fee structure of $200 per unit to create extra classes. The normal cost is $36 per unit.

Deep and continual budget cuts have forced the college to eliminate more than a thousand courses since 2008. The remaining classes are filling up and some students are forced to wait, sometimes for years, for the ones they need.

That's why SMC Transfer Center Coordinator Dan Nannini says it may actually benefit everyone involved.

"The student who is of means and wants to move from point A to point B knows that they need that class, they're going to pay that extra money to take that class," said Nannini. "The main point for the student that is not of means: That is one less person they have to compete with to get the course at the $36-a-unit fee."

Still, some students say they are barely making ends meet, and there are concerns the state will make even more cuts if the college sets this precedent.

But SMC President Dr. Chui Tsang says it's still more affordable than other educational alternatives, and there is little choice.

"We have a lot of other students who are locked out of the system, and we need to allow them an opportunity to go forward so that they don't lag behind," said Tsang. "Many of the students have an opportunity to get a seat in the college, they're the lucky ones. The unlucky ones are the ones who cannot get a seat in the system right now."

A spokesman from the chancellor of California community colleges said he may challenge this because it's forcing some students to pay more than other students.

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education, budget, los angeles news, rudabeh shahbazi

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