Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

Community College Students To Get Squeezed Out

San Diego Community College District officials say are being forced to turn away a record number of students this Spring semester. KPBS Reporter Ana Tintocalis has more.

San Diego Community College District officials say are being forced to turn away a record number of students this Spring semester. KPBS Reporter Ana Tintocalis has more.
 

More than 6,000 students are currently on waiting lists to get into classes that are already packed full of people. Officials say many will be turned away.
 

They state budget cuts have forced the community college district to drastically scale back on courses offered this Spring.
 

Advertisement

The districts' Rich Dittbenner says it's a dire situation for many people who want to go back to school because they've been laid-off.
 

Dittbenner: Certainly the faculty and staff have never seen anything like this. The counselors have never seen anything like this. Everybody seems to know somebody who has been laid off. And a lot of those people are coming here because we have programs that help people retrain. The problem is we're (the community colleges) being jammed.
 

Dittbenner says more than 600 classes have been cut so far. And they expect to cut more classes in the summer and fall semesters.
 

Ana Tintocalis, KPBS News.