Op- Ed
Don't Dismantle The Career Ladder
BY GAIL O. MELLOW

Gail O. Mellow is president of LaGuardia Community College, Long Island City.

For low-income New Yorkers, it is a slippery and difficult climb up the career ladder to a middle class job. Mayor Michael Bloomberg just made it harder by removing the bottom rungs of the ladder. He proposes to slash the budgets of City University of New York's (CUNY's) six community colleges by $26 million. If the City Council supports Bloomberg's cut, New York City will see severely reduced educational access at the one place--CUNY's community colleges--that help low-income and workingclass New Yorkers get ahead. This reduction comes at the worst possible time, during an economic recession.

The deteriorating national and state economy will not impact everyone equally. As the gap between rich and poor in our city and across the country widens, New York must make sure that the support necessary to help people get and keep family-supporting jobs is strengthened, especially during tough fiscal times. The only form of "recession insurance" proven to produce results is education or training beyond high school.

As president of LaGuardia Community College, I see on a daily basis the power of education to open doors to the middle class for the more than 50,000 people who study with us each year. Let me tell you about two students who exemplify upwardly striving New Yorkers. After Marcy returned from military service, where she drove 18-wheelers between Afghanistan and Iraq, she enrolled in an occupational therapy program at LaGuardia. She works full time at JFK Airport at night, and is also a full time student during the day. When she graduates this summer, Marcy will enter a profession that will move her from poverty to a starting salary of at least $35,000 a year with benefits.

A former student who has climbed very far up the career ladder is Umberto. He did not even speak English when he started at LaGuardia as a cleaner. Umberto persisted to learn English, finish an associate's and then a bachelor's degree in computer programming, and went on to get his master's in public administration.

Marcy and Umberto are not extraordinary; thousands of ordinary New Yorkers are leveraging low-cost public education to enter middleclass professions and fill critically needed jobs in our local economy.

Community college students have a dream of using education to move into the middle class. When students achieve their goals, the return on investment of city dollars is impressive: family income goes up 17 percent upon graduation for LaGuardia Community College's students. These students don't need or want a handout, but they do want a hand to help them climb the ladder.

The mayor's proposed $26.5 million community college cutbacks are part of an overall planned reduction of $48.1 million in city funding for CUNY. They come just when the demand for an affordable, high-quality community college education is at a 30-year record high. Enrollments are booming, with almost 80,000 degree credit students, and another 118,000 students in workforce development education and training annually. The cuts will reduce classes, curtail library hours, limit tutors and close computer labs.

I implore the mayor and the members of the city council not to dismantle the ladder to economic progress for our lowest-income New Yorkers. Restore funding to our community colleges!