By Anna Bloom and Maggie Fazeli Fard

The following was broadcast on KQED-FM.

The California budget crisis is affecting all levels of public education, and community colleges are getting pinched in a surprising way. Increasingly, students from elite four year universities like UC Berkeley are enrolling in classes at community colleges and bumping two year students out of their seats.

Check out the video to see how these new dynamics are playing out for one community college student, Jessica Martin. Plus, you'll get to watch Jessica discover whether she gets into her dream school, UC Berkeley!

Previously:

• UC Students Turnout for Budget Cut Protest
• Recession Affecting My Education
• A College Grad's Education Bailout Plan

EconomyBeat, a user-generated site focusing on- strangely enough- economy stories has begun delving into the wild and woolly reaches of Craigslist, panning for comedy gold and a ground -up view of a cratering economy:

Dear Future late 20/early 30 Hipster Neighbor from the Mid-west/South/Idaho:

I know you are the coolest kid in Iowa/Ohio/Idaho/Texas/Florida/etc but…

While scanning CL for a cool vintage apartment near Hawthorne or Alberta, a sweet barista job and a new fixie to ride around on once you arrive, please reconsider your decision, and please do not move here.

There aren’t any jobs for the people who already live here….

Regards,

Your previous future neighbor

The first collection culled from the "Best of Craigslist" section proved so popular they're working on a second. Maybe we'll get a regular feature... assuming people can still afford internet access as the year goes on. (from EconomyBeat)

Our friends at American Public Media's Marketplace recently camped out in front of Amoeba records in Hollywood and asked shoppers what music gets them through these harsh economic times.

Check out the original post for the Marketplace Playlist, and a whole lot of listener playlists in the comments!

Young people discuss how the recession is affecting their education. They describe overcrowded classrooms, long lines at financial aid offices, and stress.

Lately, I find myself waking up at 5 in the morning and hitting the sack at around midnight. With the constant stress of tests like the SAT, early morning AP classes, and the ultimate fear, college applications, my senior year is not turning out they way I would expected it would. 

There's been plenty of talk about college and financial aid. But what people haven't been mentioning are the reverberating effects of the economic climate. I go to a charter school in Los Angeles and was hoping that my in-state applications would be my "safety schools." But that's turning out to be a pipe dream. With the budget cuts, the University of California and California State University systems have less money to go around and are raising their minimum GPA requirements and lowering their acceptance rates. Since they can service only a smaller number of California residents, the competition among high school seniors will get more intense.

And I thought this year was going to be fun.

More after the jump...

As LAPD Chief Bratton announces his resignation to pursue opportunities into the private sector, I can't help but wonder if the move is in response to the economic uncertainty of the workforce spreading to the public sector.  Two weeks ago my father unexpectedly told me that after 30 years of working for the telephone company, he retired so he could pursue his own artistic passions. As more baby-boomers are entering the age of retirement, I wonder how people of their generation, who have been defined by their value of hard work, will define themselves now that their work is done. While Gen-Xers are defined by their entrepreneurial savvy and the current generation is being defined by the economic crisis that has gripped the nation, it looks like baby-boomers might be the last to successfully navigate the job maze.

After I graduate from high school this December I have a choice: either move out of my parents home and live with friends or just stay put in my childhood bedroom. Being an independent person I'd like to move out, but because of money and some experiences I've had living with strangers it seems like it's going to take a lot longer than I'd hoped. This is a real setback and slightly frustrating.

by Lauren Silverman

I've been ducking and dodging the unfamiliar economic terms since the first financial bailout was announced, hoping phrases like "credit default swaps" and "short selling" might disappear. Well, they haven't; in fact, those pesky financial terms are showing up everywhere from Vanity Fair to Star Magazine (although Star chose to talk not about lost assets, but lost "cashola").

I’ve never had $5,000 a year to spend at the mall, but that’s the average amount teens spend per year on retail, or at least it was. A new study from Piper Jaffray says teen spending is down 14 percent this year. My friend Rose Powell and I know all to well about cutting back, “Now we definitely go, oh we should go do this. And then the first question is always like, how much does that cost?”

By Ata-ul-Malik Khan