Sample Resolution in Support of Community College System Budget Priorities and the Governor’s November Ballot Initiative

WHEREAS, community colleges have taken extensive cuts to funding over recent years, while trying to educate the largest high school graduating classes in California history and need funding to provide the programs and services necessary to increase the number of successful degree and certificate holders;

WHEREAS, community colleges have been forced to turn away as many as 130,000 potential students in a single year due to the need to reduce course sections, generally from 5 – to 15 percent annually per district;

WHEREAS, community colleges have carried an estimated 252,000 students over the last five years (2007-08 to 2011-12) for whom they have not received any apportionment, categorical, or student support funding;

WHEREAS, community colleges are operating with $996 million (23%) less in total programmatic support in 2011-12 than in 2007-08, including cuts to both apportionment and categorical funding;

WHEREAS, community colleges have operated on per-student funding which has been reduced from $5,659 in 2007-08 to $5,115 in 2011-12, a loss of 9.6% over this five-year period, while the unfunded cost-of-living (2008-09 to 2011-12) has increased by a compounded 20.5%;

WHEREAS, the changes to the Cal Grant B and Cal Grant Community College Transfer Entitlement programs which would require a higher grade point average under the governor’s proposal, would eliminate an estimated 30% of Cal grant entitlement recipients; and the governor’s proposed caps on grants for those transferring to independent, nonprofit institutions would primarily affect community college students who are disproportionately African–Americans and Latinos, with an average parental income of $19,184, and who receive the grants to buy books and assist with necessary living expenses;

WHEREAS, the Legislature has increased fees from $600 annually in 2008-09 to $1,380 for the 2012 -13 school year, while the majority of community college students have incomes so low that they are eligible for the Board of Governors’ (BOG) Fee Waiver;

WHEREAS, the California community colleges are essential for providing higher education opportunity for over two million Californians annually;

WHEREAS, California community colleges are essential for providing students with the skills to be economically success in the California economy,

WHEREAS, without the “Temporary Taxes to Fund Education” Initiative, community colleges and other segments of education in California are likely to have funding curtailed for years;

THEREFORE, the Board of Trustees of the _____________Community College District supports the passage of the Governor’s initiative, which has the official title, “Temporary Taxes to Fund Education. Guaranteed Local Public Safety Funding,” is proposed to be placed on the November 2012 ballot, and will limit the cuts which would otherwise be made to community college and K-12, while providing budget stability from the temporary increases in sales and personal income taxes for four years.

THEREFORE, the Board of Trustees of the ____________Community College District also:

• Opposes the reduction of general fund moneys for assumed redevelopment revenues until increased revenue from the wind-down of redevelopment materializes and other deficits are addressed;
• Supports development of an alternative to the proposed deferral buy-down that would include a positive trigger with some funds for debt buy-down as well as funds for access focused on job training, student success, and veterans’ issues;
• Opposes the apportionment and categorical language in the budget bill which provides increased flexibility to the Chancellor’s Office and Board of Governors;
• Opposes cuts to the Cal Grants that disproportionately impact community college students, both before and after transfer.
• Opposes cuts to the CalWORKs and child care programs that will limit educational opportunity in community colleges for parents transitioning from welfare-to-work.
• Opposes any re-characterization of general obligation bond debt from non-Proposition 98 to Proposition 98, and will work to support other solutions that mitigate non-Proposition 98 general fund cuts.