Sep 20, 2013 03:24 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

City College of San Francisco (CCSF) could lose its accreditation and be shut down in 10 months, but a recent hearing to quantify the school's economic impact could influence that decision, KQED News reported.

The school hosts about 80,000 students and is the largest community college in California. At a Budget and Finance Committee hearing Wednesday, it was revealed exactly how much money the school meant to the community: $311 million.

Committee supervisor Eric Mar called the evaluation "groundbreaking" and said CCSF's impact went beyond monetary value.

"I think this report is groundbreaking because it quantifies a huge economic impact to the city and county of San Francisco and so many families and people of San Francisco, young and old, that have improved their lives [by taking classes there]," Mar said.

The two main categories involved in quantifying the school's value were grant funding and jobs. A representative of the city's Budget and Legislative Analyst's office, Severin Campbell, presented the report.

2,400 people working administrative, classified and faculty jobs would become unemployed if the school were to shut down. During the 2011-2012 fiscal year, CCSF received $188 million in federal and state grants, while its graduates got jobs worth a total of about $123 million during the same time period.

Still, despite staying open, the looming loss of accreditation has weighed on CCSF's staff.

"The report doesn't fully capture what has happened in the last year or so since the accreditation challenges really came to the forefront," said Alisa Messer, president of the faculty union AFT Local 2121. "There are at least 150 less faculty at City College of San Francisco compared to [last] fall."

Like any community college, CCSF helps students transfer to bigger four-year school and also anyone who wants to learn a new skill, all for an affordable tuition. Low tuition cost and accessibility helps community members to climb out of poverty, Mar said.

"City College is part of the city's economic ladder that allows some level of mobility," he said. "To lose City College would be like kicking the ladder out from under the most vulnerable populations."

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