By: Li Kong and Tatiana Woodside
On March 19th, student representatives and administration attended the New Jersey Council of Community Colleges legislative public hearing to advocate against the proposed 12% budget cut for community colleges in New Jersey, as outlined by Governor Phil Murphy’s fiscal year 2026 plan. Attendees from Bergen Community College included Student Government Association members Kimbrely Abbas, Jensy Jimenez, and Treasurer Ryan Ruiz Varela, Student Activities Board. chair Pamela Tavera, SGA President Hanieh Kachooee, Vice President of Student Services A.J. Trump, Office of Student Life Director Gregory Fenkart, and Coordinator of Student Leadership and Technology Jared Farra. Students and administrators alike advocated against this cut, testifying how state funding benefits schools and students. Each attendee sent in their testimony, with one attendee advocating against the budget cut and joined the other community colleges in that common goal.
The Fiscal Year (FY) plan is a year-long plan made for financial and tax reporting purposes. Oftentimes, these plans feature budget cuts or allocation of resources; for states, governors are responsible for creating the FY plan for the following year. In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy recently announced his FY26 plan, which includes continuation or increases in budget for infrastructure, K -12 education, and pharmaceutical assistance for aged or disabled populations. Despite these increases and continuations of budgets that improve the quality of life for New Jersey residents, FY26 also calls for a 12%, or twenty million dollars, reduction in state investment for community colleges in New Jersey. This would bring NJ community colleges $149.1 million dollars in federal funding instead of $169.1 million. There are 18 public community colleges in the state of New Jersey, each benefiting from state funding. The significant reduction will have real and sustained negative impacts on the community colleges’ operation and development, including but not limited to staffing, programs for students who are food insecure, students with disabilities, increased tuition, and even support services.
The average tuition for full-time students at a public four-year university in the state of New Jersey is approximately $15,121, compared to the $5,627 average tuition for full-time students at community colleges. Because of this large gap in tuition prices, community colleges have become more popular for students, especially those who have freshly graduated high school. If state funding for community colleges is reduced, it will be disastrous for students trying to afford higher education, and the financial situation of the community colleges will become more severe under the roaring inflation rate.
According to the NJCCC, a $20 million dollar decrease in state funding could devastate New Jersey’s economy as a whole, leading to higher tuition, fewer students, and a labor shortage with fewer graduated and trained students. More seriously, subsequent layoffs of educators with reduced programs and a lack of funding support will cause a higher unemployment rate and social instability. In addition to this, New Jersey has one of the lowest total state funding for community colleges per full-time equivalent enrollment.
One of the attending students, Jensy Jimenez, says, “To allow New Jersey to become a center for education, people need to be ensured to get degrees here, live here, and work here. New Jersey is a beautiful state, [a] second home for me, and Community Colleges are just one of the ways that we allow students like us to thrive here, no matter where they are from.” As advocates for community colleges, our student representatives from BCC, together with NJCCC, call on each student to support in pushing Phil Murphy to prioritize funding for NJ community colleges.
