Opposition is mounting to an educator-backed initiative to reformulate Proposition 98 for California's community colleges, and some of the objections are coming from teachers.

The California Chamber of Commerce this week announced its board had voted to oppose the Feb. 5 ballot initiative -- known as the Community College Governance, Funding Stabilization, and Student Fee Reduction Act -- because it would lock up more money at a time when the state already is struggling to pay its bills.

While advocates say California's 109 community college campuses -- serving 2.5 million students -- are "notoriously underfunded," the chamber's opposition vote comes on the heels of a similar action by the state's largest teachers union with members involved from kindergarten to college.

It's not clear whether the business community or the California Teachers Association will mount a formal campaign. But their opposition has dealt a blow to other education groups supporting the initiative, mainly the California Federation of Teachers and the Community Colleges League of California.

Over the summer, the CTA board voted to oppose the measure to guarantee community colleges a bigger slice of education funding in the state budget. Uncomfortable with changing the formula set under Proposition 98, CTA officials said they worried the proposal could hurt other educational needs, as well as social services.

"They did vote to oppose the initiative because they believe it is flawed," CTA spokeswoman Sandra Jackson said about the board vote. "We do believe community colleges need to have an increase in funding ... but part of the problem is it could impact Prop. 98 school funding."

The initiative would dedicate 10.46 percent of current Proposition 98 school funding to community colleges and lower fees to $15 per unit from the current $20 rate. It's estimated the state would lose $71 million in 2007-08 if the fees were reduced.

In addition, legislative analysts say, the state would pay $135 million in initiative-mandated costs in 2007-08, and the annual total could grow to $470 million in 2009-10.

"The goal of the initiative is to give more students a chance to go to college," said campaign spokesman Andrew Acosta. "It's not a secret that community colleges are notoriously underfunded."

Backers have formed a fundraising committee known as Californians for Improving Community Colleges. The committee has raised more than $2.3 million so far, and spent $2.1 million raising awareness for the initiative.

Education now accounts for the biggest chunk of the state's $102 billion general fund budget. Under Proposition 98's formula, the lion's share of education funding goes to K-12. Community colleges receive less than 11 percent of the $57 billion generated under that formula.

Initiative supporters would like to secure more money for community colleges, which saw a 3 percent enrollment gain last year, by tying funding to fluctuations in the college-age population. Under the current formula, funding is tied to enrollment changes only at the K-12 level.

The initiative also would require the state to give community colleges a funding priority equal to its public higher education counterparts.

The state Chamber of Commerce's president, Allan Zaremberg, said in a statement that the chamber believes the proposed constitutional amendment lacks accountability, puts too much stress on the general fund and "would result in prioritizing one higher education system's funding priorities over the needs of two other important systems -- the University of California and California State University system."

Acosta noted that not all business groups oppose the measure. He said the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce has broken ranks by endorsing it.

There's even dissension among community college members of the California Teachers Association. The president of the Community College Association of California, Ron Norton Reel, urged members in a June 21 letter to support the measure despite the CTA's opposition.

Reel noted that the CTA had legitimate concerns that the initiative would require a four-fifths legislative vote to overturn any part of the initiative.

The initiative also would make funding growth faster for community colleges than for K-12, Reel said, potentially undercutting Proposition 98's intent to make K-12 education the state's budget priority.

But, he said, there's a need to stabilize funding for community colleges.