Through the recession and so-called jobless recovery, community colleges have assumed a heavy burden: Get people ready for jobs at a time of tight employment and tight budgets.

Tomorrow, Brice Harris takes over the California’s community college system, the biggest in the U.S. In fact, California’s community colleges make up the country’s biggest higher education system, of any kind.

Harris has worked in community colleges almost all his career, and he’s taking over on the same day as California voters could deal his system a $340 million budget cut with their vote on a ballot proposition — Prop 30.