Don’t Jump Yet!

By David Yancey, FA, AFT 6157 President

Colleagues,

The last time I wrote to you I was advising patience until we knew more real data regarding the actual budget numbers and how much we may have to cut our services. We know now that this special session yielded no solution to our state’s current budgetary crisis.

The next legislative session began December 1, 2008 and will undoubtedly take up this crisis as its first priority. You have heard from our own chancellor predictions of layoffs and class cancellations in an article in the local media. The wave of pessimistic predictions seems almost “tidal” in its size and projected destructive effects on school districts around our area including our own. So, why am I again urging patience when Rome seems to be burning?

There are several reasons:

· First, we still don’t know any real facts or data about the size of any cuts coming at community colleges, although the situation seems increasingly more severe and some cuts may be necessary,

· Secondly, the rhetorical tactics being used by many in the media are part of the political gamesmanship that requires a certain amount of drama. There exist fairly exact political rules for cobbling together a budget and right now the rules call for “dire descriptions or impacts” if budgetary requests are not met and to some extent we are seeing that now,

· Thirdly, there are always sources of savings within our own district and college budgets where savings can be made (i.e. vacant administrative positions, some long time vacant faculty positions and cut backs in vacant classified positions). Using these tactics will mean fewer cuts that are ultimately required,

· Lastly, if the history of our state and district budget process over the last several years is to be our teacher, and it should be, then the cuts that come won’t be as severe as those predicted and we need to move prudently toward any reductions until we can see real data to support them.

There is also a need to be patient because the tide may be shifting. If you read between the lines in the “official” word from Eric Skinner in the State Chancellor’s office you see the following nugget of information. It seems in the last attempts at a settlement in the waning days of the special session in Sacramento there is a reality setting in about the importance and community colleges as vital members of this state’s economic engine and the role they play in bringing the state’s economy and workforce back into productivity. Eric reported the mindset for cuts has not have been completely thwarted but that the severity of the cuts, particularly to community colleges has shifted in our (community college’s) favor.

Of the $2.5 billion in proposed current-year reductions to Proposition 98, we have been told that approximately $95 million was proposed to come from the California Community Colleges. This aspect of the budget proposal provides a strong indication that the budget advocacy efforts of community college stakeholders has been effective at shifting priorities in budget negotiation. Recent budget proposals from the Governor and Legislature had directed a much larger share of the Proposition 98 cuts to the community colleges—closer to 13 to 14 percent versus less than 4 percent in today’s package.

As you can see in the ebb and flow of the budgetary battle taking place in Sacramento the multitude of voices supporting community colleges, from CFT at the state level to the many local unions around the state, including our own AFT 6157, have now been joined by the chorus of educational leaders like out Chancellor Rosa Perez and many other chief executives from community colleges and K-12 districts and we are having an impact. To hear the legislative discussion move away from draconian cuts in our community college budget ($332 million around the state) downward (toward perhaps $95 million) is an encouraging change.

Bluntly speaking, some powerful people may call my admonitions “pie in the sky” thinking, but my point is twofold: 1) they do not currently have any better information than the rest of us to make data driven decisions about cutting our budget, and 2) cuts made in fear seem likely to lead to significant errors and miscalculations that have been disastrous for our district in the past. We need to hold to our convictions and values that have turned this district toward growth and productivity for the first time in years and not let fear and panic drive our decisions, especially now. We all remain committed to our main function which is education and our students.