Question of the Month

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Question of the Month

November 2002

If you became Gray Davis' secretary for education, what three priorities would you advise him to set for community colleges in his second term?

Please e-mail responses to Communications Director Keri Goulart, kgoulart@faccc.org by Nov. 30 (use the subject "November Question")
Your responses will be published here at www.faccc.org and may be published in other FACCC publications.

ANSWERS RECEIVED:

Wed 11/20/2002 9:26 AM, dkinley@glendale.cc.ca.us (Deborah Kinley)
I would push for more full-time faculty folks so many of the part-timers could stop the freeway flying all over town.
Of course, a plus might be better health benefits for staff, too.
The topic of information competency is new to me, but sounds like an excellent program to require since the internet has just taken off and seems a bit unwieldy.
Since I am funded under the matriculation budget, I would push for more money to be allocated in this area.

Tue 11/12/2002 10:17 AM, adesilag@bc.cc.ca.us (Alice Desilagua)
I believe one priority to set is to include counselors and librarians on the "good" side of the 50% law.
Restore matriculation funds.
Restore staff development funding.

Sat 11/9/2002 10:20 AM, jordancb@earthlink.net (Carol Jordan)
1. Pay equity for part-time instructors
2. Reinstate conference and professional development funds.
I only have 2, but these are important.

Thu 11/7/2002 4:11 PM, helton@smccd.net (Jennifer Helton)
1. Ensure educational equity for people of color
2. Do everything possible to ensure part-timer equity
3. Keep funding us. We grow as the economy slows.

Thu 11/7/2002 2:06 PM, aelliott@peralta.cc.ca.us (Ann Elliott)
1) reinstate funding for CalWORKS
2) address adequate support for basic skills students in the community college (at cc's in such large numbers as a result of inadequacies in k-12)
3) increase overall funding per community college student

Thu 11/7/2002 10:14 AM, Wrento@butte.cc.ca.us (Tony Wren)
This is easy:
1) Develop a realistic funding base. Right now for every $1 the community colleges receive from the state, the CSU system receives $3 and the UC system $5 (roughly). When someone says that it costs more to educate a student at the CSU/UC level, we need to point out that K-12 receives more money pre FTES than CCs as well. In addition, research funding and private contributions to UC campuses mean that (for UC-Davis, as reported in the Sacramento Bee) the state funding is only 25% of the budget for UC campuses.

2) Stable funding. We need to know our income from year to year, so we can plan intelligently.

3) Get real regarding distance education. Yes, it can serve a valuable role in our curriculum but right now it is being sold as a way to cut costs, not improve instruction. In truth distance education at many community colleges does neither as it is currently implemented. We need to take a hard look at improving the model, without regard to whose ox is gored. Then we need to ensure that standards are applied uniformly. Only then can the real value of distance education be realized.

4) [OK, this is extra] Get tough with respect to instructors teaching courses for which they are not trained. AB 1725 placed tight restrictions on disciplines, but these restrictions have not been uniformly implemented. It is time to do course audits on randomly-selected campuses to ensure compliance. There needs to be consequences for those colleges that ignore the requirements for instructor training. This will significantly ease our students' articulation to the CSU and UC systems. It will also ensure that students in career programs meet the expectations of the workplace.

Wed 11/6/2002 8:01 PM, ROBINSON_RICHARD@smc.edu (Richard Robinson)
Spend my taxes wisely!!!! Return to the 3R's! Teach basics!

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