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Shop Talk with Ramona |
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What is Happening with the State budget today? Welcome back to the beginning of the spring semester! There have been many interesting developments in the state budget since the end of fall. This article will focus on those updates from the state and their effects on Glendale Community College. On a statewide level, the governor proposed his budget on January 8, 2010. As is expected every year, this is only the introduction of the state budget. After this, various legislators and committees at the state capitol will work to develop it. These changes will take place until what is known as the May Revise, when the budget with revisions is once again presented. In the governor’s first introduction of the budget in January, as presented by Scott Lay in the Community College League of California on January 8, 2010, he proposed the following: Major points of the proposed community college budget
The proposed cuts of $10 million each to Part-time Faculty Compensation and EOPS are a further blow to programs that have already suffered large cuts at GCC last year. Along with these further cuts, another very real threat to our students currently being discussed in Sacramento is the cutting of the Cal Grant competitive grants. According to the CC League, The proposed elimination of the competitive Cal Grant program would hurt the neediest community college students at a time when California’s citizens are deeply concerned with college affordability. This program provides 44,000 community college students grants of $1,551 for textbooks, transportation and supplies. These are generally older students whose income averages $14,000 and who are ineligible for the state’s entitlement program because they worked between high school and college. As can be seen, community colleges are getting squeezed financially from every direction: classes, services, part timers and especially, our students. According to the CC League, even with the additional funding for 26,000 additional full-time students, our enrollment continues to exceed state support. We will be asked to prioritize basic skills, transfer and career technical enrollment. At Glendale College, the discussion of these priorities will take place at the Budget Committee meeting. At this meeting, our union representative, Sarkis Ghazarian, along with other constituent groups on campus, confer on how to prioritize funding or cuts at GCC through the shared governance process. Fortunately, as a result of our collective bargaining agreement ratified in the beginning of January, our adjunct faculty will not have to endure another year of cuts to their income. Our agreement with the district is to freeze part time salaries for one year, but we will need to prepare for the following year. As the months proceed, we will hear more about the adjustments to the community college budget. In the meantime, this is the time for our faculty and staff to get politically involved. Organizations such as the CC League, FACCC and California Federation of Teachers (CFT) are already lobbying to try to get legislators to reconsider these huge cuts. Even if it is by participating in the letter writing campaign, or point and click feature of FACCC (www.facc.org) or joining Professors for Quality Education (PQE) at GCC, or by participating in the various marches coming up, such as the March for California’s Future taking place on March 5, organized by the California Federation of Teachers (http://www.cft.org/index.php/component/content/article/526.html), this is the time to become involved politically in our state and at the college. Once again, I would like to welcome you to the beginning of a new semester and hope that we will be able to continue to work together to do what is best for our faculty, staff and students. & In
solidarity, |
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