Never has the phrase, “pinching pennies” been truer than it is now.

Statewide budget cuts have called for the raising of community college tuition throughout California, hiking tuition from $36 per unit to $46 per unit.

What does this mean for students?

Other than the obvious fact that we all have to pay more for classes, it also means that we may need to be more conservative when choosing said courses.

If we’re going to have to pay more for classes, shouldn’t that mean that we need to reconsider our selection process come registration time?

It’s time we start being pickier with our class choices. We don’t exactly have the time nor the money to be wasting our college lives with unnecessary courses.

This means that Johnny Student should reconsider when proceeding to step two of three on his bowling course.

Or maybe that means that flag football may be low on enrollment for a while.

The point is, we need to actually crack down on choosing courses and only choose what we need to move forward in our college career. If we’re paying more for our classes, it’s time we get our money’s worth.

If we don’t do this, we’re directly buying into another community college predicament: a lack of student success rates.

If we don’t choose classes that will give us a return on the fees we pay, we’re staying at school longer. If we’re at school longer, we are taking up valuable space for any student that may seriously want to pursue his career.

Staying as a Cerritos student taking meaningless classes totally defeats the purpose of pursuing a degree, especially when it’s time to be frugal with our class-selection spending money.

Being more considerate with our college careers should be our No. 1 priority as students. Let’s actually take some time when we’re registering for our classes to make sure that the $46 per unit is worthwhile.

We need to consider our future. It’s time to get serious with the money we’re spending on our classes or leave. In short, it’s time to do our business or get off the pot.