The landslide failure of California Proposition 92 is indicative of how union clout and skillful misinformation can defeat a well-intended initiative that was essential to the continued success of the California Community College system.
The California Teachers Association, realizing it would lose the extra elementary and secondary education they manage to steal from community colleges every year under the current Proposition 98 standard, went against the wishes of some of their own union members and opposed 92. tuition fees to $15 a unit and ensured community colleges would receive the 10.56 percent of Proposition 98 funds the legislature had been promising them since 1988. This pragmatic approach to union politics is a poor way of representing community college students and faculty members.
Californians For Fair Education Funding, the umbrella group that opposed Proposition 92, of which the CTA is a member, framed the debate to make it look as if community colleges were asking for too much, but they were simply asking for was what they were promised from the legislature all along.
With the reaction from K-12 organizations to Proposition 92, it greater illustrates the need for community colleges to be funded independently of K-12. Basing the growth formula that determines funding on young adult population rather than K12 enrollment, which was one of the factors addressed in Proposition 92, is a more accurate estimation of growth, as K-12 schools have fundamentally different needs than community colleges, which have wider-stretching socioeconomic and cultural disparities. While California is in the middle of a budget crisis, Proposition 92 was necessary to protect community college students from being scammed like students in the California State University and University of California systems, whose tuition hikes continue to make four-year education increasingly less accessible to less-affluent Californians.
Community college is supposed to be a place where disadvantaged and non-traditional students can get a quality education at a reasonable price. In turn, these people can attain successful careers, thereby supporting California and the nation’s fledgling economy.
Critics claim Proposition 92 fails to hold community colleges accountable for their funds. In actuality, it’s holding Sacramento accountable for the funds they’ve promised community colleges. Sacramento wasn’t very accountable in 2004, when tuition rates rose to $26 per unit and 305,000 people were unable to attend school.
California is home to one of the cheapest community college tuitions in America, but it might not last that long if the legislators and the California Teachers Association get their way.