Funding initiative on California ballot

The California Federation of Teachers and its community college members throughout the state played a central role in a successful effort to qualify a statewide community college funding initiative to be on the ballot in February 2008.

The initiative, which will appear on the ballot in conjunction with the state's presidential primary election, has three main elements. It would reduce student fees to $15 per credit unit and link future increases to the cost of living; it would guarantee a separate and stable funding stream for community colleges not tied to K-12 enrollments; and it would create a governance structure for community colleges similar to what exists for the state university systems. "The initiative will finally establish community colleges as a full-fledged partner in public education," says CFT secretary-treasurer Dennis Smith, who is also a community college professor.

Working with a coalition of other backers of community colleges, including classified staff, students, administrators, trustees and other groups, the CFT helped collect almost 1 million signatures for the initiative. The signature-gathering process itself led to some positive changes, says Carl Friedlander, president of the CFT's Community College Council. The initiative had called for fees to be capped at $20 per unit. In an attempt to head off the initiative, the Legislature dropped fees to $20. The backers then revised the measure to reduce fees even more, to the final figure of $15 per unit.

One result of the lower fees, Friedlander notes, has been a significant increase in community college enrollment across the state. The problem is, with no increase in funding, college services could decline and course offerings could be cut. "If the initiative doesn't pass, it will mean choking off access to students for community colleges," Friedlander says. More than 2 million students, many of them from low-income and disadvantaged families, attend California's community colleges.

The early election date poses a challenge for the initiative's backers. California, like many states, moved up its primary from June to February. Friedlander is hopeful about the prospects, but says its success will depend on adequate fundraising and efforts to educate voters about its benefits. "The voters really like community colleges and they believe in keeping fees as low as possible," he says, "but we know we've got to get the word out in order to get the majority of votes in February."

States tackle hard budget challenges

Roiled by auto industry decline, increasing unemployment and residents leaving the state in search of jobs, Michigan Gov. Janet Granholm vowed to boost job training and investment in higher education. But first she and elected officials this fall had to figure out how the state would pay its bills, including deferred payments to four-year and two-year institutions.

It took a one-day government shutdown before the governor and the state Legislature came to a deal that included new income and business taxes and cuts to eliminate a $1.75 billion deficit. The state level-funded higher education this year, and is trying to explore ways to use colleges and universities to shift workers to a more knowledge-based economy.

AFT Michigan, working with the International Union of Operating Engineers, won a major victory with the passage of their innovative cost-cutting proposal. The law—the Public Employees Health Benefit Act—has employers with more than 100 employees make their health-use data transparent, but it does not change the status of health benefits as a subject of bargaining. "This makes it easier to pool together to get a better price," says AFT Michigan president and AFT vice president David Hecker. "The status quo was unacceptable."

Fla. staves off cuts

AFT Higher Education members in Florida won a victory that, at least for now, staves off some drastic budget cuts that had been proposed by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist. The United Faculty of Florida/AFT/NEA rallied its members to contact legislators and urge them to oppose the proposed cuts, which would have slashed 6.2 percent from universities and 4.5 percent from community colleges. The revised budget the Legislature passed trimmed those figures down to 2.5 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively.

"Faculty prevailed in the short run," says UFF president Tom Auxter, but the fight will continue, especially over the future of the state’s tax structure.

Florida higher education faculty argued that budget cuts would damage a state higher education system that is already underfunded. The student-faculty ratio, for example, is the 49th worst in the country. The faculty turnover rate in the universities, the union points out, is 14 percent. And at the community college level, starting faculty salaries are below those of K-12 teachers.

Wisc. Bargaining Talks

In Wisconsin, the decades-long campaign to secure collective bargaining legislation for University of Wisconsin faculty and staff, as is now available to two-year college employees, was linked for a while to Democrat Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal this fall. Activists from both the United Faculty of Academic Staff/AFT (UFAS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and its extension service, and the Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals/AFT (TAUWP) at the other UW campuses, collected thousands of signatures in support and brought them to the Legislature. Although the language was eventually removed from the budget, this round is not over, according to leaders who say their efforts are paying off in increasing support. A few years ago, the unions shifted the discussion from the right to bargain collectively, says Frank Emspek, UFAS co-president, to the right to decide whether to bargain. This strategy has simplified the basic point for trustees and elected officials. Adds Mark Evenson, TAUWP president, "All the surrounding states have had collective bargaining rights for our peers in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota for decades now. We’re the one strange case."