Millions of dollars of parcel tax money intended for faculty salaries in the Peralta Community College District may have been misspent on salaries, vacation, sick leave and other fringe benefits for nonacademic staff, says a public watchdog group that has pushed for an independent audit of the spending… Members of the oversight committee have expressed concern that the district may be using Measure B money to pay for staff normally covered by the general fund in order to free up money there to pay for new consultants and administrators. During the period that Peralta district officials appear to be using voter-approved parcel tax money for nonacademic purposes, they have also increased the number of highly paid administrators paid from the general fund.

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by Ted Andersen, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: April 19th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The timeline for a massive upgrade to the University of California’s payroll and personnel system was extended again twice in the past two months, further delaying a project now expected to cost more than three times its original budget… Michael Krigsman, an IT industry analyst at CXOTalk.com, said it’s better for UC to delay the payroll system than be stuck unable to issue paychecks for months. But he questioned how the university had gotten so far off track and what it would do in the future to avoid repeating those mistakes. “A project that is three times its original size either rests on very shaky foundation or they changed the plan along the way, which indicates a poor understanding of the problem it was trying to solve,” he said.

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by Alexei Koseff, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: April 17th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Glantz, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco and president of the Council of UC Faculty Association, said such a move would have been unthinkable just two years ago. “The politics and the public awareness around this issue have dramatically shifted since last year,” Glantz said. Before that, he said, “You couldn’t even get politicians to talk about it.” But he called the New York plan “too complicated. It would just be a lot simpler to get rid of tuition,” he said. Some critics say even that is not enough. The problem, they say, is there are a few other costs when it comes to college.

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by Mark Muckenfuss, The Press-Enterprise.

Posted: April 14th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, says he hears that complaint from constituents “all the time – at Trader Joe’s, at soccer fields and walking down the street.” Instead of getting accepted to UC Berkeley or UCLA, many highly qualified students are referred to less popular campuses like UC Merced and UC Riverside. Meanwhile, nonresidents get their first choice at the most sought-after schools. He and other legislators asked UC last year to address the problem and are irritated that the university is proposing a 20 percent cap on nonresidents at most campuses, which is higher than the current system-wide percentage – 16.5 percent of UC’s 210,170 undergraduates.

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by Lisa Renner, Capitol Weekly.

Posted: April 12th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

A group of California State University students, including some from Sac State, rallied Monday morning in support of faculty seeking a 5 percent raise and threatening to walk off the job in April. In a report released Monday as part of a mandatory arbitration process, an independent fact-finder concluded that CSU should offer its teaching staff a 5 percent raise…

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by Lezlie Sterling, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: March 28th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Eggman has introduced a bill to pile an additional 1% surcharge on those million-dollar earners, lifting the top rate to 14.3%. The roughly $2 billion collected would cover all the California resident tuition costs not already being funded by various grants and financial assistance to lower- and middle-income students at the public universities… If free tuition is good public policy — and it certainly was for my generation — then the broad public should pay for it, not just a few rich people… California provided tuition-free college for generations. It helped California achieve greatness by broadening the middle class and offering opportunities for upward mobility not available in other states. It was an economic engine.

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by George Skelton, The Los Angeles TImes.

Posted: March 23rd, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

In response to growing concerns over college affordability, Democratic lawmakers in the Assembly are proposing a new college aid plan that would be the most generous in the nation… It’s irresponsible to imagine that we can add an entirely new — and, at a cost of $1.6 billion, very expensive — program. “For this year’s upcoming budget, Gov. (Jerry) Brown is aiming to close a budget gap of $1.6 billion and to provide a modest and minimal reserve of about $1.5 billion for economic emergencies,” said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state Department of Finance. The plan’s proponents have argued that state budget projections are too pessimistic. They are not.

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by The Editorial Board, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: March 18th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The California Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance approved the “Degrees Not Debt” budget plan Tuesday designed to make higher education in California more accessible and affordable… The package, however, would not establish tuition-free education. Families making more than $60,000 would be expected to contribute to costs, and students would be required to hold part-time jobs. H.D. Palmer, spokesperson for the California Department of Finance, said the department has yet to do a formal fiscal analysis. “This is certainly a noble goal, but one that comes with a lot of substantial questions and a price tag,” Palmer said.

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by Ani Vahradyan, The Daily Californian.

Posted: March 15th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Last year, in the midst of a battle over whether in-state students were being “crowded out” of the University of California, lawmakers gave UC a year to come back with a policy to limit the number of students admitted from out of state. The worries were questionable at best; the 10-campus system still makes a space somewhere for every California undergraduate whose grades and test scores meet the criteria for admission. Californians still make up nearly 85 percent of enrollment, and even at first-choice campuses such as UCLA and UC Berkeley, 75 percent are in-state students… in an era of resistance against “America First” thinking, it’s hypocritical to scapegoat outsiders in our halls of higher education. Regents should pass this cap, and lawmakers should declare victory and move on. We have bigger battles to fight.

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by The Editorial Board, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: March 14th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

McCarty is correct that California’s public colleges are integral to this state’s past and future success. But as much as The Sacramento Bee’s editorial board supports public colleges, California has multiple priorities, from health care, parks and public schools to roads and paying down debt. The buoyant stock market could result in a tax revenue windfall this year. But legislators would be wise to see one-time money for what it is and use it for one-time expenses. They could, for example, pay down pension debt for school employees.

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by The Editorial Board, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: March 14th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.