March 2000 

Your responses will be posted here as received, and may be used in other FACCC publications.

Please e-mail responses to Communications Director Katherine Martinez, k7martinez@aol.com, by March 31 (use the subject "March Question").

Answers received:

• Your answer could be here
  
• gmorgan@dock.net—What it takes for community colleges, and education as a whole, is a
  governor who will not go back on his word.—Gary Morgan
  
• smithj1@mail.rsccd.org John Smith - "The defeat of prop 26 rests on the ad campaign, itself. The lack of support among So. Cal counties just underscores how firmly entrenched our anti-tax feelings are here. The minute the Howard Jarvis group ran an ad on tax increases and we didn't answer it, we lost a large chunk of support. People didn't need to be repeatedly told that finally school bonds would tell them where the money was going to be spent...voters needed to be told that no new taxes would come into being without majority support.
  Ads should have made a pre-emptive strike by emphasizing how close bond measures have come, recently. Play up the notion that the majority was well over fifty percent, yet a minority holds schools for ransom. I believe the fact that 1 no vote equates to 3 yes votes would rile people up if only the 1-person, 1-vote idea would have been advertised."
  
• George Drake - "The problem is not inadequate support amongst the electorate. People really do mean it when they rank education at the top of their priority list for governmental attention. The problem really lies in the temerity our "leaders" show whenever an issue may be perceived as running counter to the icon of Proposition 13. The opponents of taxes are well organized and, whenever any attempt to counter any of the abuses that constitute Proposition 13 and the many subsequent like-minded pieces of legislation which followed it is made, they are all over it. In the absence of elected officials--or at least prominent candidates for office--who will stand up to these bullies, the people will continue to exhibit confusion and disunity, despite their true, clear, desire to see education saved.
  
  Our real problem is cowardly leadership, from the governor down to local school boards. What the education community needs to do is identify and elect candidates who will take a prominent stand diametrically opposed to the effects of Proposition 13 and openly advocate correction of its numerous flaws, including the dastardly effects it has had on education.
  Californians are ready to admit that, at least in some cases, Proposition 13 was a mistake. If leaders would reinforce that perception by taking public positions in favor of such proposals as Proposition 26, the electorate would come along."
  
• Charles Lunt - "I don't feel that I agree with those who feel that the voters who voted against Prop. 26 were all against public education-or other educational values. I am sure there are those who probably did.
  However, many perhaps felt threatened by loss of the 2/3rd. requirement as
  now standing. The majority or simple majority could be easily influenced by those who might "buy" votes using all sorts of payback. No, I would like to feel that if enough people feel so strongly about gambling to pass it twice, I think we in education must work harder to secure the vote next time.
  In addition, I think we need to "draft" the young people and convince them that the money will be to their benefit primarily- and especially when it come to re-building of our run down schools. Let's not give up... let's get up, and get the job done[simple majority or otherwise]!"
  
• Mona Field - "I do not think the failure of Prop. 26 indicates lack of support for education. It indicates the failure of "our " governor Davis to openly support 26. If he had come through, that 2.4% vote difference might have swung the other way! It also indicates the continuing strength and cleverness of the Jarvis-Gann crowd who ran such disinformation in their commercials.
  It also was caused by the failure of the labor movement to focus on 26. Instead, the labor phone banks (at least the ones I know of) were all revved up for Gore and other Dems, most of whom were shoe-ins. I sure wish that effort had gone into Prop 26! We would have won.
  Finally, the Belmont fiasco (unfortunately made even more prominent by our true friend Scott Wildman) turned the tide in LA. The public is not generally knowledgable enough about the difference between K-12 and CCs, so we got tarred with that brush.
  Meanwhile, all the CCs still have to sell their stories better. Good PR about our successes is still sorely lacking in almost all districts."
  
• Lee Liddle - "I don't think voters are convinced that funds for education are spent where they are needed the most. I talk to teachers who see money wasted on worthless programs every day. Fresno Unified spent millions on a special technology school (CART) instead of improving the existing classrooms and campuses.
  Rats, leaky roofs, graffti, broken toilets, poor heating and A/C, new (not portable) classrooms, obsolete computers, textbooks, etc. etc. should be priorities. Schools in lower income areas of Fresno Unified, such as Roosevelt and Edison, receive little or no attention and have the least experienced teachers (many on emergency credentials). Clovis Unified, a high income area, seems to have money for everything they want. Equal education is nonexistent in the Central Valley.
  
• Teresa Aldredge - "We, as educators, need to "educate" the public on how the educational process works and that we need their support and assistance as partners to create the best learning environment for our children and the community."
  
• Virginia Scales - "Katherine, I think people would respond to a tax increase that was not going to affect their property. Property is sacred; that's the way it is. Older folks on a fixed do not want to be driven out of their homes because they cannot pay the property taxes. In fact, I talked to some older people and they underscored this point. They do support education. "
  
• Fran Chandler - "I don't believe it is a lack of support for public education that caused the unfortunate defeat of Proposition 26 as it is fear of big government and the perception that lowering the bar will result in an explosion of taxes. California citizens already pay the second highest tax rate in the country, and that doesn't take into consideration out-of-control fees, state gasoline
  taxes, etc. Somehow we have to make the public believe that spending on public education won't mean the mushrooming of the dragon known as "Big Government."
  

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