More than 100 Chico State University students and businesses all over the area have had a dramatic and painful introduction into what a state budget cut really means.

A state work-study program that last spring placed 101 students in paying jobs with various businesses, schools and charitable organizations died in the mid-summer compromise that led to the creation of a California budget.

Steve Irving, coordinator of Chico State's student employment office, said the state work-study program brought just under $132,000 to the campus, but the impact was substantially greater, both practically and academically, than the dollar total would suggest.

Irving explained the jobs had to have direct application to the students' academic programs or to their career goals. Employers had to pay the students at least what they would pay to an entry-level worker for the same position, and the students' wages were subsidized by the state dollars.

A for-profit company got a 50 percent subsidy on the wages, and a school or non-profit could get a 70 percent subsidy.

"Students got valuable experience working, and employers got good workers. For many that were participants it was a win-win experience," said Irving.

Germain Boivin, owner of the Floral Native Nursery in Chico, said his company has participated in state-supported work study for four years.

Boivin said the subsidy side of the program had it cost effective for him to take the time to teach the student workers what they needed to know to do the job.

He said he'd had students studying biology, botany and landscaping.

"The program was so nice. You could teach the guys. It was like school but from the practical," he continued.

The nursery owner said he had one student who had worked with him for three years and when a summer came when the work study program wasn't available, Boivin kept the student on and just paid the salary on his own.

In the face of climbing fees at the university, the student decided to take an exceptional load of classes starting this fall so he could graduate faster, according to Boivin, and the student said he couldn't keep the job and keep up with the classes, so he quit.

Boivin said if this particular student had wanted to keep his job, the nursery would have been happy to have him and pay for his services without the state subsidy.

"Through all these years he became very good, and I considered him an expert nursery worker," Boivin said.

While the loss of the program has an obvious economic impact on the student participants, it can also hit the employer as well.

Jay Harris, with Independent Living Services of Northern California, a non-profit firm working out of Chico, said the loss of work-study students cut into what his agency can do.

The subsidized workers "allowed us to do an incredible amount with the resources that we have," said Harris.

Harris concedes the program wasn't magical in that he had some students who did an exceptional job and others that didn't work out too well. But even so, the additional staff help freed his permanent workers from some of the more mundane tasks.

He said he had some "incredible students who contributed greatly to the services" Independent Living could offer.

The agency, according to Harris, will be keeping one of its work study students on the payroll, even with the end of the program, because she is "such a high-quality employee."

However, in the past the agency has been able to have two to four work-study students on staff, and with the loss of the subsidy, that is not possible.

The loss of student staff has meant "I have had to ask my staff to hold off on certain projects that aren't critical," said Harris.

Tracy Claflin, director/teacher at the Montessori Elementary School, said her pupils have already been asking where the Chico State work-study students, who they call "student teachers" are this year.

For four years the school has "always had one or two (work-study) students a semester," said Claflin.

The students, who mostly were liberal studies majors, who generally are preparing for teaching careers, made it possible for the private school to "fulfill a lot of needs we would not have been able to fill otherwise," explained the director.

Claflin said, even with the end of the program, the school has retained one of its former work-study employees.

"He is helping us with PE supervision at lunch and as an aide," she said.

The work study contact "provided an opportunity for us to really get to know him,' she explained.

Irving said the student participants had to file applications to qualify for state work-study, and on average, they have greater financial need than most students.

The university was informed early in the process of grinding out the 2003-2004 California budget, that work study was still on the table, but it was in jeopardy.

"In the initial stages (of budgeting) it was part of the funding for 2003-2004," said Irving.

However, his office told the student participants the program was very much on the bubble, and when it killed, the students and employers were all told there would be no money for this fiscal year.