De Anza Takes Action on Budget Crisis

In response to Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed budget cuts on community colleges, De Anza College had student workshops and a town-hall meeting last week to discuss how the cuts will affect De Anza and what the college should do next.

According to a report of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, the district will face an $11 million-$25 million cut in state funding. De Anza College will take half of the loss.

Kevin McElroy, the district's vice chancellor of business services, presented three possibilities of budget cuts, which he called "the not very good, the bad and the ugly," to faculty members and students attending Thursday's town-hall meeting.

McElroy said an $11 million cut to the district would be the best-case scenario with the June tax package passed. His next estimate is a $17 million cut if the tax package fails, but Proposition 98, which requires a minimum percentage of the state budget to be spent on K-14 education, is funded at the minimum level.

The worst case scenario, according to McElroy, is a $25 million cut if the tax package fails and Proposition 98 is suspended.

McElroy also pointed out a $5 million loss of state funding due to lower enrollment besides the impact of budget cuts.

The only saving grace is a $10.2 million stability fund the district has been able to put aside and a total of $6.4 million carryovers as of September 2010, according to McElroy.

After McElroy's presentation, De Anza College president Brian Murphy said the stability fund and carryovers will keep the college from facing the layoffs and class reductions most other community colleges are dealing with, at least for the 2011-12 school year.

"Wc can begin [the budget discussion] with the most marginal sense of relief," said Murphy.

However, Murphy said De Anza College still must seek solutions to the budget crisis, given its limited amount of financial reserves that won't last forever.

Murphy said it's almost impossible to make the state reduce its budget cuts on community colleges, unless an alternative is provided. He added that education advocates could not ask the state to cut health care or public services instead.

Then he suggested the state should tax what California’s wealthiest one percent will get to keep under the extended tax cut program passed recently. President Barack Obama compromised with congressional Republicans by agreeing to extend tax cuts for the wealthy in exchange for an extension of unemployment benefits in December

"They got a windfall," said Murphy. "Now they just sit on a total of $9 billion. Some of that can go to community colleges."

Nicky Gonzalez Yuen, who chairs De Anza's Political Science Department and Diversity Leadership Training Project, shares Murphy's view. Yuen drafted a letter of petition based on this vision and asked students to sign copies of the letter.

Both Murphy and Yuen spoke at Wednesday's student workshops on the budget crisis. Yuen collected more than 60 signed letters there by the end of the day.

More than 300 students attended the workshops Wednesday, according to Kim Choi, one of the main organizers.

One of the attendees, Wayne Hong, said he was totally unaware of the budget crisis until hearing about it at the workshops.

"The information is very helpful," said Hong, who pays a non-resident fee for coming from Seattle but will establish California residence next year. "It's not really related to me right now but it will be soon. It's good to learn how it'll affect me."

The workshops were designed not only to inform students of the budget crisis but also to gather their support for the March 14 rally of community college students in Sacramento. Community college students have established a tradition of lobbying the state legislature every March. This March the students going to Sacramento will protest the budget cuts on community colleges.