REAL Student Success--Keep the Community in College, Keep College in the Community

Community colleges work wonders on limited resources. Some politicians in Sacramento want to use the economic downturn to permanently change the mission of community colleges and "ration" offerings. Please use your leadership to build the system rather than weakening it. Please promote real student success for all Californians, rather than re-designing the system to become a race favoring students who can succeed the fastest. Please oppose all efforts to deny students access, remove local control, or limit offerings. Such proposals will gut the system, force thousands of students to give up dreams of higher education, and result in huge social problems stemming from inequality of opportunity.

Instead, please make your legacy to

--give CCs a stable, adequate funding base without the resort to rationing higher education. Fully fund current programs before adding good-idea initiatives such as mandatory education plans; fund all new programs permanently.

--allow the CCs to continue serving all Californians with the ability to benefit who come to meet diverse academic, professional, or personal goals

--treat all students equally, regardless of their goals, and without privileging some students based on full-time status, number of units taken, transfer vs. basic skills or vocational track, or financial need

--keep policy-making power in the hands of local boards of trustees, who are accountable and responsive to community needs

--involve all Californians in a full and timely discussion about the future of higher education in our state, rather than rushing through changes that will leave our system in tatters and our state without hope.