Poor oversight by the state Chancellor's Office allows community college districts to violate the state's 50% law by incorrectly reporting their spending level on instructor salaries, according to a report issued by the state auditor on October 12.   The auditor studied ten CC districts for 50% law compliance and found that six of them, including SMC, were out of compliance.

The auditor's report supports what the FA has asserted for the last two years-- that the college is indeed out of compliance.  SMC reported to the Chancellor that for fiscal year 1999, its spending on instruction was 52.70% of its current expense of education (CEE) and therefore in compliance with the 50% law.  However, the state auditor recalculated and adjusted the compliance rate to 47.20%, which is about $1.9 million short of compliance.  The auditor reported that CC districts, including SMC, report phony compliance rates by incorrectly coding some expenditures as instructional and by incorrectly excluding other expenses from its CEE.  All of these findings by the auditor are almost precisely what the FA has been asserting.

The state auditor is an independent, disinterested agency of the state government who reports its findings to the legislature.  For a complete copy of the report, go the FA's website, www.smcfa.org.  Articles on the auditor's report also appeared last week in the Los Angeles Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education.