Prop. 92's Fans Need Education

The people pushing Proposition 92, a.k.a. “Community College Governance, Funding Stabilization, and Student Fee Reduction Act,” must think that the public is deaf, dumb and blind if they really believe they can hoodwink the electorate into amending the California Constitution to, in their words, “stabilize funding” and lower student fees $5 per unit for community college students. They are, in fact, just lining their own pockets.

First off, if anyone decides that without the $5 per unit reduction in fees, they cannot afford to go to a community college then please don’t go! The good citizens of California are already giving you a $5,500 gift for your future, and if you do not think the extra $75 bucks per semester (full time) is worth it, then maybe we shouldn’t either. The student fees going full-time is $320 per semester. Not only will the state taxpayers completely subsidize your education, but if you really do not have the money, the feds will give you a grant to pay your fees and books.

There is no reason why anyone, no matter how poor, cannot afford a community college education. Try this — you can pay for your complete education by just brewing your coffee at home and passing on your daily Starbucks (OCC has one on campus). It is just about choices.

Before anyone says that I am just bagging on our local Coast Community College District, I am not. I may not agree with them when they basically gave away a $32 million TV station to a bunch of wealthy donors. But that only speaks to how they value taxpayer resources. I do not want to mix the good mission of the States Community College system with how some of the districts handle their finances.

With that being said, the fact that they now want the citizens of California to change the State Constitution so that they can forever lock in an ever-increasing percentage of the state treasury with no accountability is a bit more than this former community college student can take.

This Constitutional Amendment not only locks in a fixed percentage of all state revenue; it would also reallocate the revenue not by how many students the college has or how many courses the students take. No, they actually changed the definition of “changes in enrollment” to mean “the change in the population served by the public community colleges.” What that means in English is that if half the students at OCC did not show up next year, they would still receive the same amount of funding from the state as long as the population of the area served has not gone down.

Another disingenuous part of this Constitutional Amendment is where it states, “Community Colleges should be accountable to taxpayers through the election of local boards facing regular elections.”

It then proceeds to create a brand new state bureaucracy, “The Board of Governors of the Community Colleges.” By this amendment it would require that the majority of this board be composed of people who are either employees, faculty or administrators of the college system they are entrusted to govern. It also adds a new chancellor and six deputy chancellors. That is called the fox guarding the hen house.

I could go on more, but I am feeling charitable with it being Christmas and all.

All in, California spends more than $17 billion for its community college system. On balance, with the need for lifelong learning, it has served the citizens well. Adding another layer of bureaucracy run by a un-elected unaccountable insiders is not a class we need to take.