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On Quality of Life: CSU Budget Cuts; Job Training

Segment I: California State University Budget Cuts - California's publicly funded state university system, the CSU was once the envy of the nation, providing accessible and affordable higher education to millions of Californians. While the 23 campus system is still the largest in the country, the recent budget crisis has taken its toll. Under Governor Brown's latest "May Revise" budget, the system faces as much a $1 billion budget cut (36 percent) and a potential student fee increase of as much as 32 percent for the coming year. We ask Fresno State President Dr. John Welty, and CSU Bakersfield President Dr. Horace Mitchell what the cuts will mean to their campuses and the future of the system.

Segment II: Job Training - It sounds like a paradox: while Valley unemployment rates remain among the highest in the state at nearly 20 percent, a number of jobs for skilled workers continually go unfilled. What’s being done to try to solve this problem, better train the Valley's workforce, and fill these jobs? Blake Konczal, Director of the Fresno County Workforce Investment Board; and Carole Goldsmith, Vice Chancellor of Education Services and Workforce Development at West Hills Community College join us to talk about Career Technical Education and other programs that help to address these issues facing the Valley's unemployed.

Joe Moore is the President and General Manager of KVPR / Valley Public Radio. He has led the station through major programming changes, the launch of KVPR Classical and the COVID-19 pandemic. Under his leadership the station was named California Non-Profit of the Year by Senator Melissa Hurtado (2019), and won a National Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting (2022).