Proposition 92, the Community College Initiative – may have failed at the polls on Feb.5, but community colleges are nevertheless, likely to emerge as winners.
“If anything, I think Prop. 92 focused attention on California’s community colleges and the needs of their students,” said CCA president Ron Norton Reel. “There’s no question that people support community colleges, but I think voters are worried that there would be no funding for the measure given the state’s budget crisis.”
CCA supported initiative
Although CCA supported the initiative, its much larger affiliate organization, the California Teachers Association, was one of the opponents of Prop. 92.
“We strongly support community colleges, but Proposition 92 was a flawed measure that would have hurt California public schools and led to cuts in other critical programs,” said CTA President David A. Sanchez. He noted that CCA/CTA has a proposal that will give community colleges more money than Prop. 92, in the long run.
“One of the strengths of CTA is that we can have disagreements. We’ve had a disagreement with CTA, but in the end, we’re still part of CTA – and that’s a valuable relationship to have,” said Mary Ann Pacheco, a Rio Hondo professor who was a former CCA president as well as a CTA board member.
Proposed legislation
Rather than back the ballot initiative, CTA made it a priority last fall to sponsor legislation to obtain additional resources for community colleges. That legislation, AB 2277, is being carried by Assemblymember Mike Eng (D-Monterey Park) and will have its first policy committee hearing in late March. The bill would guarantee that community colleges get the full 11 percent of the funding due to them from Proposition 98, the law that sets a minimum annual funding level for California’s schools and community colleges.
Although Proposition 98 funding is supposed to be divided between K-12 and community colleges, the colleges have never received the full 11 percent of the funding. Currently, colleges receive about 10.93 percent of the funding, which is the highest it’s ever been, thanks to the lobbying efforts of CCA/CTA. There have been years when they only received 9.45 percent.
“We are very excited about AB 2277. For years, the community colleges have lost money because of not getting their fair share of the Prop 98 funds. With a guarantee of 11 percent of these funds, we can look forward to more consistent budgets in the future,” said CCA Vice President Lynette Nyaggah, chair of the CCA Legislative and Political Action Committee.