by Dennis Frisch

*The November Special Election contains three initiatives that should be of great interest to faculty in the California community colleges: Proposition 74 (the K-12 tenure initiative), Proposition 75 (requiring unions to seek annual approval for dues used for political purposes), and Proposition 76 (restructuring the Prop 98 funding to give greater flexibility to use the money for non-educational purposes). All three are strongly opposed by all statewide teachers' organizations, well as all the labor organizations in the County Federation of Labor.

*AB1646, designed to assist college students in the Gulf Coast states displaced or prevented from starting the fall semester in their home states, was passed by both Houses of the California Legislature and sits on the Governor's desk awaiting his signature. Indications are that he has not made up his mind on whether to sign or veto the bill.

* The California Community College Board of Governors (CCCBOG) passed a revised 2006-07 community college budget request at its September meeting. Included is a request for a 3% COLA, 4% growth funding, $80 million for equalization, $40 million for new-faculty hiring. At this same meeting, the Chancellors of the San Diego Community College and Foothill-DeAnza College made strong presentations advocating increasing equalization funding to $130 million.

In the end, the CCCBOG voted 7-5 to defeat the motion to increase equalization funding. Most early indications are that funding for 2006-2007 will not see any noticeable increases for community colleges. If Proposition 76 is not passed, there will be even stronger arguments for not increasing education funding since one area of funding that the Governor's office is counting on to help with the serious budget problems would be eliminated.

* SB55, the No-Confidence vote bill, has been designated as a two-year bill and will reappear at the beginning of the new legislative session. As you might imagine, this bill has run into strong opposition from college administrators' organizations and college presidents.

* Finally, the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges continues to pursue efforts to give the Chancellor's office greater flexibility in enforcing the 75/25 full-time/part-time ratio provisions. He has been arguing since last November for greater flexibility in this time of budget constraints. Also under more serious pressure is the full-time hiring obligation.

These issues continue to be discussed at Consultation Council, which meets monthly (usually the third Thursday of the month). Community college organizations meet the evening before the Consultation Council meeting in the Council of Faculty Organizations (CoFO) to develop common strategies on issues appearing on the Consultation Council agendas. Both FACCC, where the College has a long standing "special arrangement" and CCCI (where SMCFA leaders are very active) have representatives at CoFO, giving us several strong voices in the proceedings.