Public support for Gov. Jerry Brown’s initiative to raise taxes remains below 50 percent, but the measure no longer appears to be on a downward trajectory, leaving Brown within striking distance one week before Election Day, according to a new Field Poll. Likely voters favor the initiative 48 percent to 38 percent, with 14 percent undecided, according to the poll. Voters surveyed late last week and early this week were marginally more likely to favor the initiative than those surveyed in previous days. Of voters who have already cast ballots, 54 percent voted for the initiative, the poll found… “There’s a bigger constituency for supporting the public schools than either of these initiatives is getting,” DiCamillo said. “Had there only been one initiative to raise taxes for the schools, it would have gotten more (support) than either of these are getting.” … public opinion about the measure is also affected by how voters view Brown, whose public approval rating held about steady at 46 percent.

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by David Siders, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: November 1st, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

California’s public universities are getting ready to raise tuition and cut staff, while students are bracing for the potential impact on their schooling, should voters reject a tax increase on November’s ballot… A poll released Wednesday showed fewer than half of California’s likely voters support Prop. 30. Among those polled, 48% said they would support the measure, 44% said they would oppose it, and 8% said they are undecided, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank in San Francisco. That was a lower level of support than in September, when the institute first ran Prop. 30 by voters. Dan Newman, a spokesman for the Yes on 30 campaign, said the group’s internal polls show it is ahead, but in a very tight race.

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by Jim Carlton, The Wall Street Journal.

Posted: October 25th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The future of higher education in California may hinge on whether or not voters approve Proposition 30 on the November ballot, a measure that would increase taxes and prevent triggered cuts focused almost solely on public schools and universities… Because California’s budget was predicated by the passage of Prop 30 — or significant trigger cuts if it fails — Meister calls the arrangement a form of “budgetary terrorism” on higher education funding. Nevertheless, Meister said faculty have no choice but to support the measure, because there is no plan B to shore up university funding and the alternatives are much worse.

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by Tyler Kingkade, The Huffington Post.

Posted: October 23rd, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

City College trustees still need to approve or reject Bob Agrella, the recently retired head of the Sonoma County Junior College District, and will interview him Thursday. Although the state chancellor selected Agrella, the local trustees have a say in the decision, because they agreed to accept a special trustee voluntarily. Had one been imposed, they would have had no say. More important, the elected trustees at City College would have been stripped of all decision-making power. Although the board will retain its authority, the special trustee will have veto power over any action he deems inconsistent with the college’s recovery plan.

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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: October 23rd, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association alleged in a lawsuit that a CSU, Monterey Bay, professor sent students an email advocating in favor of the initiative that is Gov. Jerry Brown’s attempt to raise taxes to alleviate the state budget deficit. The email from professor Ernest Stromberg urges students to help pass Proposition 30 and notes that students will face higher fees and fewer classes if the measure fails, while they stand to receive a $498 refund if it passes. The state plans to cut CSU funding by $250 million if voters reject Proposition 30. That could result in “threats of layoffs, furloughs, and other draconian cuts” to CSU employees, the email says… “It was sent by him as an individual, and not on behalf of the institution. We have previously reminded faculty and staff that it is not permissible to use state resources including classroom time for any political advocacy. This email clearly crossed that line and the campus is taking appropriate personnel action,” said a statement from Christine Helwick, CSU’s general counsel.

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by Laurel Rosenhall, The Fresno Bee.

Posted: October 19th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

If Gov. Jerry Brown’s Proposition 30 passes — and receives more votes than wealthy attorney Molly Munger’s Prop. 38 — K-12 schools and community colleges will be spared $5.4 billion in budget cuts. Plus, the two university systems won’t be dinged $250 million each. If, however, voters reject Prop. 30 on Nov. 6, those education cuts automatically will be triggered by the current state budget that was enacted in June by the governor and Legislature. In the unlikely event that Munger’s measure passes and prevails over Brown’s, the cuts still will be triggered. Her income tax increases — $10 billion annually — wouldn’t kick in soon enough to save the schools this academic year.

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by George Skelton, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: October 14th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

…we in California are familiar with attempts to set limits on academic freedom. Over the last decade, self-anointed guardians of academic freedom have attempted to upend it by insisting on balance in university courses or on limitations on the right of free speech by faculty members and students. The most recent attempt is House Resolution 35, which was passed in the Assembly in August. This “nonbinding” resolution urged California’s state universities to combat anti-Semitism on campus. That sounds good, but as framed, it could have the effect of censoring views critical of Israeli policy. Efforts to infringe on academic freedom have deep roots in the state. At the dawn of the McCarthy era, California mandated that public employees, including UC professors, sign a loyalty oath requiring them to forswear any allegiance to the Communist Party. Famously, in 1949 the German-born medieval historian Ernst Kantorowicz refused to sign such an oath, though he was hardly a communist. Kantorowicz’s grounding as a medievalist and his experience as a person of Jewish origin in Nazi Germany led him to conclude that “history shows that it never pays to yield to the impact of momentary hysteria, or to jeopardize, for the sake of temporary or temporal advantages, the permanent or eternal values.”

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by David N. Myers, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: October 14th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The committee tasked with selecting UC Berkeley’s next chancellor sent its list of recommended candidates to UC President Mark Yudof Oct. 3. The submission of recommended candidates is the next step in a process that began after UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau announced in March that he would step down at the end of the calendar year… Tentative plans dictate that a candidate will be presented to the UC Board of Regents at its November meeting to be confirmed.

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by Mitchell Handler, The Daily Californian.

Posted: October 10th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

UC Online now appears to be struggling, even as other highly selective colleges rush to offer their courses online at no charge (and, unlike the University of California, with no credit). University of California officials failed to rustle up those private donations and were forced to take out a $6.9-million loan from the system’s Office of the President last year to prop up the effort, with strong opposition from faculty members who did not want university money used for the project. And key figures driving the project have stepped back or moved on, including Daniel Greenstein, formerly vice provost for academic planning, programs, and coordination in the university system, who left this summer to take a job at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The online effort will face its toughest test this winter. That’s when it will first open its virtual doors to students not already enrolled at a University of California campus. It needs to attract at least 3,000 non-UC students this year and add 1,000 more each year until it reaches 7,000 non-UC students to pay back its loan on time

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by Alisha Azevedo, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Posted: October 1st, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Officials at City College of San Francisco will unveil a tough blueprint for survival Thursday that will include an increased focus on moving students through the two-year school, a more centralized approach to finances and closing campuses… The school has prepared a balanced budget but it depends on the passage in November of Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed temporary tax increase. If that fails, City College will be facing an additional $11 million in cuts for the current year alone. The 90,000-student institution is hopeful that a local ballot measure will also pass, guaranteeing $14 million a year that can’t be touched by state budget cuts. But even if both measures prevail, the school will face a deficit two years down the road without further hard choices, the report notes… painful budget cuts that seem to disproportionately affect faculty, staff and students. Narrowing the college’s mission to tailor to shrinking revenues, for example, “seems entirely backwards,” Messer said. “It’s backwards for the whole state and all of public education right now.”

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by Lee Romney, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: September 27th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.