When Southwestern College was about to drown in debt in 2012, California taxpayers tossed a life preserver by passing Proposition 30.
This year voters have the opportunity to provide a lifeboat.
Proposition 55 calls for an extension of a tax increase for high-income taxpayers approved by voters who passed Proposition 30 in 2012.
SWC received almost $38 million from Proposition 30 for the 2012-15 academic years and is set to receive another $27.1 million in estimated revenue for the 2015-17 academic years, according to California budget forecasts.
Jim Miller, professor of English at San Diego City College, said he participated in the California Federation of Teachers’ 2010 March For California’s Future, where educators walked from Bakersfield to Sacramento to support public schools.
“On that march we talked about the need for progressive taxes to help fund education and vital services in California,” he said.
Their efforts resulted in Proposition 30.
“It has been an extremely successful measure,” Miller said. “It’s taken education funding in particular from the brink of disaster in many districts around the state to a (place) where we’ve kind of managed to fill the gaps and holes in budgets all over California.”
Miller said he recalled the effects of the recession on local schools.
“All districts had the situation (of) having to cut class offerings,” he said, “which is terrible for students because it makes it harder for students to get classes and move through the institution.”
Andrew Rempt, president of the SWC Academic Senate, recalled similar cuts at SWC when former president Raj Chopra and vice president Nicholas Alioto eliminated 439 classes – 40 percent of the entire schedule.
“Our president at the time was making unilateral class cuts without consulting faculty or without considering the ramifications to the curriculum,” he said.
Tim Flood, vice president of business and financial affairs, said he was at Grossmont College during the recession.
“It was really horrific during those times,” he said. “It was catastrophic. We were slashing classes, the state was limiting the number of students that we’re able to serve.”
Flood said categorical programs such as Extended Opportunity Services and Disability Support Services faced some of the hardest cuts.
“(Prop 30) didn’t restore (the budget), but it helped kind of stop the cuts to that point,” he said.
Awareness for the difficulties adjuncts face has been gaining traction in recent years. Unions are out in force supporting the measure.
Miller said part-time instructors are in the most danger.
“For part-time instructors (budget cuts) means layoffs,” he said. “When we cut classes that’s usually cutting a class for an adjunct instructor.”
Rob Shaffer, president of the Southwestern College Education Association faculty union, agreed.
“(Prop 55) supports the whole community: elementary schools, high schools, middle schools, and without that funding some of the services we have now will probably go away,” he said. “Anytime there are cuts generally adjunct faculty and students are the first to feel it.”
Proposition 55 would raise funds by increasing taxes on individuals making $263,000 or more, and add $4 – $9 billion annually to the state budget until 2030. Funds would be allocated toward education, healthcare, budget reserves and debt payments.
“People really do benefit from a system where the affluent pay their fair share of taxes,” Miller said. “Beyond our particular California educational needs, this is an important example, politically and socially, that there’s a different way of doing thing, not just on a local level, but a national example of funding the public sector and having the public sector run more efficiently.”
