The president of the Community College League of California told a Fresno City College audience on Monday to remember to register by the Oct. 22 deadline and to vote on Nov. 6.
Scott Lay told a small crowd in the Skylight Room in the OAB about Propositions 30 and 38 and their significance for education.
He said the two propositions will greatly influence funding for education, from K-12 to community colleges, the CSUs, and the UCs.
Although Lay would not state if he supported or did not support any of the propositions or any of the election issues, he did say that the Community College League, the organization he heads, supports Proposition 30 and Proposition 39 but does not have a position on Proposition 38.
Proposition 30 is a ballot measure that would increase sales tax and income tax for high income individuals. According to available estimates, this measure could raise $2.2 billion to $6.4 billion over the next seven years. All revenues from the taxes will go into a protected account for K-12 and higher education. It would also allow California schools to pay back the $159.9 million in debt that is owed.
“In last year’s budget deal, the governor and the democrats in the legislature agreed to make the budget contingent on the passage of a ballot measure,” Lay explained. He said the passage of Proposition 30 would increase the access to higher education.
“For every full time equivalent student (FTE), that’s two students, which means Proposition 30 passing gives room for 10,000 FTE students,” Lay said. “20,000 new students would be able to enroll, and this debt would be undone.”
Proposition 38, also known as ‘Munger Initiative’ or ‘Our Children, Our Future’, is a measure to increase income tax rates. It is estimated that as much as $10 billion could be raised but that money would be used for K-12, child care and early education. That funding would be on top of the already mandated funding of Proposition 98.
If Proposition 30 fails, it would trigger cuts to the education budget that would eliminate the funding for 75,000 full time equivalent which according to Lay is similar to 150,000 students.
“If Proposition 30 fails, the trigger amount for community colleges would be: we would not get the $50 million in growth and $159.9 million deferral buy back,” Lay said. “We also take a $338.6 million triggered cut or what is called workload reduction, which is one of those fancy names for kicking kids out of college.”
According to Lay, this loss would translate to a net loss in the current year of 170,000 students at the CSUs, UCs and community colleges or roughly 10 percent of California’s student body.
