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| Faculty members of the Community College Association were joined by colleagues in the California Faculty Association and in the K-12 system during a rally and news conference at Butte College to protest proposed $4 billion in cuts to education. |
With proposed state budget cuts to higher education approaching more than $1 billion dollars, CCA President Ron Norton Reel joined CTA President David A. Sanchez and other faculty association leaders in a news conference and rally at Butte College in May to warn of the dire consequences for the future of students and higher education.
One of several activities
The Butte College event was just one of several activities focusing on higher education around the state that may have played a pivotal role in the restoration of millions of dollars to higher ed when the governor announced his May Revise budget on May 14.
While these proposed cuts are down from the governor’s original budget proposal in January, higher education is still taking a hit. College and university students will face their sixth fee increase in seven years. CSU students are looking at a 10 percent jump in fees, while UC students will pay over 7 percent more. These cuts will mean layoffs of lecturers and part-time faculty, a reduction in the number of courses offered, larger class sizes, and longer graduation periods.
Reel and CCA Vice President Lynette Nyaggah have participated in a number of news conferences and forums on the budget that have been variously sponsored by CTA, the Education Coalition and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi in Fresno, Visalia, Chico and Sacramento, where they’ve decried the cuts to higher education that had initially been proposed by the governor in January.
Part of a great coalition
“We are part of a great coalition that includes our colleagues in the California Faculty Association in the CSUs and in K-12 who want to send a message that the proposed state budget is bad for schools, bad for colleges, bad for our students, and bad for the future of this state,” Reel said.
That coalition was very much present at the May 5 event at Butte College which was part of the Northern California leg of CTA’s “Cuts Hurt” Bus Tour that stopped in a dozen cities throughout the state over a six-week period in April and May. The bus tour, in which CTA officers traveled in a school bus that had been shrink-wrapped with their Cuts Hurt logo, garnered media coverage everywhere it stopped and brought public focus on the proposed cuts.
Among the faculty leaders participating in the Butte College news conference were Butte College Educators Association President Nancy Retes; Susan Green, president of the Chico State University CFA chapter; John Halcón, secretary of the California Faculty Association; Maria Adame, a Butte graduate who is now in the CSU Chico teaching program; and George Young, president of the Chico Unified Teachers Association representing educators in the local K-12 district.
The proposed state budget “will be devastating for higher education,” Sanchez told an audience of faculty and students from Butte College and Chico State University at the Oroville campus. “We cannot allow students to be denied a college education. This is their education, and this is our future.”
Turning students away
A recent study from the Campaign for College Opportunity shows that, due to the compounding effect over time of the proposed higher education cuts, funding would be lost for 23,000 community college students – and that 27,000 students would be turned away from University of California and California State University campuses in the next two years. “If we want to continue to improve student achievement and invest in California’s future, we must put more money into our schools and colleges, not less,” said Sanchez.
CTA Vice President Dean E. Vogel made a personal statement about the value of California’s community colleges.
“I went into community college when I was uncertain where to go – and the instruction I received there gave me focus and direction,” Vogel said. “It launched me into obtaining a bachelor’s and master’s degree and a 30-year career in education. So I’m grateful for what community colleges have done for me.”
Student Maria Adame also made a plea for more funding for education. She noted the irony in the 14,000 layoff notices that had been sent to teachers.
“They should be hiring, and not firing teachers,” she said.
