Science classes are so underfunded at California's community colleges that biology instructors at Diablo Valley College still use slides made in the 1950s. They have to reuse cadavers in anatomy and physiology. There aren't always enough microscopes for all the students.

Instead of pushing to the cutting edge of modern technology, DVC is making do. Students in entry-level biology labs have told instructors, "We did this in high school."

Yet DVC in Pleasant Hill is a community-college powerhouse, ranking among the top seven in transferring students to California's four-year public universities.

Smaller community colleges with less money have an even harder time.

"We have amazing professors with amazing credentials, but they don't have the supplies to work with," said Rosemarie Russo, dean of DVC's biological and health sciences division. "They're limited by money. Basically, every semester we go to the business manager and beg for money. ... In other states, they fund the sciences higher."

DVC, along with many other community colleges across California, lacks the money to offer enough biology, anatomy and physiology classes.

This semester alone, DVC was forced to turn away 300 students. Los Medanos College in Pittsburg had to turn away 200.

The crowding will only get worse as the state grapples with its budget crisis: The governor has proposed that the University of California and California State University redirect thousands of their eligible students to the community colleges for two years to save money.

The UC regents worry that the plan could backfire if science instruction lags at the community colleges. They want transfer students entering UC their junior year to have had as rigorous an educational experience as students who entered UC as freshmen.

Community college officials say their concerns are well-founded.

"We don't receive enough money to teach science at the level they're asking us," said Carlos Murillo, dean of the Division of Natural and Applied Sciences at Contra Costa College. "UC wants us to teach the first two years here and transfer them as juniors. We don't have close to the amount of money UC has. We have less than the amount the high schools have to teach."

Statewide, the 108-college system receives an average of $4,132 per student, while the kindergarten through 12th grade system receives $6,940. Nationally, California ranked 45th of 49 states in spending per community-college student in 1999-2000, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

But that's not the only problem, say community college officials. Science courses are expensive, and the colleges receive the same level of funding whether for English or science.

"It's really odd," said Russo, who has worked at community and junior colleges in Colorado and Ohio. "I'm really shocked."

Some teachers unpaid

To be sure, Contra Costa College in San Pablo has much to boast about when it comes to science. Administrators consider the faculty top-notch. It has an award-winning Center for Science Excellence, which tutors students in math and science. And it has a biotechnology lab, something DVC would like to have.

But Contra Costa can't afford a full-time faculty member in biotechnology and doesn't have the money to promote its program. So enrollment is low.

Like DVC and Los Medanos, the college has had to turn away hundreds of students from biological sciences courses because it can't offer enough sections. It is so desperate for faculty that one of its retired physics instructors, Don Wieber, teaches a section free of charge. Murillo, the dean, has pitched in, teaching a mentoring class for 12 students on his own dime. Many instructors at the colleges across the district admit more students into their classes than they're supposed to, sometimes ignoring fire safety regulations because students need the courses.

Contra Costa biological sciences instructor Debra Barnes has spent $1,000 of her own money this year on supplies and such basics as photocopies of assignments for her students. She always spends some of her own money, but never this much.

"This is highly unusual," she said. "There is no money."

While DVC anatomy instructors may share a cadaver for a semester, Contra Costa College instructors must use the same one -- cadavers run about $2,000 each -- over and over again. Its newest cadaver is four years old and has gone through 50 different lab sections.

Much of the science equipment, from the EKG machine to the computers, was bought with grants. Individual community colleges receive funding based on enrollment growth, and Contra Costa hasn't grown much. So Murillo said the college ends up applying for grants to buy equipment more often than other community colleges do.

While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed deep cuts for UC and CSU, he has proposed giving the community colleges $121 million for another 59,000 students to help absorb the cost of redirected university students and other enrollment growth. But the colleges are already serving 61,200 students they aren't being paid for. Education observers don't think the new money will make much of a difference.

Crowding means delays

Desperate to find more money to fund science labs at DVC, Russo went to Sacramento in January to ask state Education Secretary Richard Riordan how to solve the dilemma, but she didn't get a chance to ask her question. She now plans on writing a position paper to present to him in which she will advocate that California change the way it funds science education.

She believes the colleges should get more per-pupil funding for science. And she believes colleges should be able to charge lab fees. The state now allows only courses like ceramics to charge fees because in those classes, students take home something they made. Even if higher fees limit access, she would rather have fewer students and quality courses, than crowded labs on a shoestring budget.

Already, regular per-unit fees have increased from $11 to $18. Schwarzenegger proposes increasing them to $26.

DVC student Tracie Campbell wouldn't mind paying a lab fee if it meant students could get the courses they need. Many students eager for a career in the health profession fight and fail to get them.

"A $50 or $100 lab fee is a lot less than not working because you can't get your degree," she said.

But lab fees are a sensitive issue that elicits a range of opinions. Murillo doesn't want to see Contra Costa College students, who tend to be socioeconomically disadvantaged, have to pay extra money for labs.

"Some students will have a hard time," he said. "My opinion is the state is responsible for giving us the resources to do a good job."

Redirected CSU and UC students aren't the only ones who need these science courses. The state has a nursing shortage and many community college students are trying to take the prerequisites for nursing school, classes such as microbiology and human anatomy and physiology. Adding to the problem is the number of working medical lab technicians who need the same classes. In April, Russo will make a case to more than a dozen hospitals that it is in their best interests to help DVC financially.

Student Elizabeth Moulton, 26, who plans to be a nurse, got into her microbiology class the third semester she tried. Each time, she took part in a lottery to vie for a space. She has been doing the same thing to get into the anatomy prerequisite for nursing school and still hasn't gotten in, drawing numbers 42, 55 and 36.

In December, she wrote Diablo Valley College President Mark Edelstein an e-mail:

"I am at the point where I am out of options. I cannot afford to spend more time at DVC than I planned. I am hardworking and have achieved A's and B's in my other classes. I know there are a lot of students like myself that cannot get into the (bioscience) classes. I know that the budget has been cut and you have to make difficult choices everyday. I would like to stress the need for more of these classes."

Edelstein agrees it's a serious issue.

"Because we need so many people in the medical profession, it's crazy students have to wait two or three semesters to get the anatomy course they need to make progress."

The science infrastructure at DVC is new and excellent. With state bond money, the college built a brand new physical sciences building two years ago. Renovations to the life sciences building will be finished soon. It's the operating expenses that are at issue.

Biology instructor Martha Dixon says the tight funding pits people at the college against each other as they compete for limited funds. To save money, when she finishes with a cadaver she gives it to another community college to use that will pay the $300 for cremation. She has also started asking DVC's dental hygiene program to pay for the head and neck from the cadaver, which she used to just give to that department.

The colleges have been underfunded for so long, that a huge infusion of cash wouldn't solve all the problems right away, said Edelstein

"Even for DVC, we would have to take a few years to really offset the mindset that it's impossible to develop new programs because the funding won't be there," he said.

"Things deteriorate to a certain point after years of chronic underfunding that cannot be immediately remedied by more money. So we have to start making not just a one-year commitment but a long-term commitment to rebuild the educational system that made the California economy what it is."