Supporting Prop 30

Save community colleges by voting ‘yes’ on Prop. 30

The debate over Proposition 30 is one that needs to be heard by not just Pierce students, but all students and supporters of the community college system.

If you’re unfamiliar with the November 6 ballot proposition, Prop. 30 would increase the sales tax by 0.25 percent, and it would increase the personal income tax by 3-5 percent on those making over $250,000 a year. The funds raised by the measure range from $6 billion to $9 billion annually.

The rejection of this measure would mean the state would have to cut $6 billion from the 2012-2013 budget, triggering cuts that would dramatically affect education. Of that $6 billion, $5.4 billion would be cut from K-12 and community colleges.

We’ve already felt the sting of budget cuts, whether it’s in the form of higher fees or reduced services. Having even less funds would place more burden on us, hurting the state more than it would heal.

Community colleges are the stepping stone to higher education and the path to a career. These institutions have been a means for the working class to afford an education beyond high school. The rejection of Prop. 30 would only make their difficult journey even more so.

Children of the Los Angeles Unified School District would suffer from the deep cuts to K-12. With increasingly less resources at their disposal, instruction will become harder for these students as they continue on to high school.

The damaged structure of

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community colleges will be unable to support the weight of these under-minded students. From a fiscal standpoint the higher taxes are sound, and the proposition stipulates that they are only temporary. The increase in sales tax which affects everyone would only last four years, compared to seven years for the increase in income tax. The personal income tax portion would also only affect the top 3% of California taxpayers, according to data from the California Franchise Tax Board.

Those opposed to Prop 30 argue that the funds raised by the measure could be diverted away from the schools by the state legislature. However, the measure does states that the legislature cannot touch the funds, and it leaves it up to the school’s discretion on how to spend it.

The numbers make sense. Not enacting Prop. 30 would mean a huge blow to K-12 public schools and the community college system. On November 6, students must make it clear that the price of balanced budgets should not come at the cost of our education by voting in support of Prop. 30.

By Austin Faber

Everyone on campus has their own sob story about that one time they just couldn’t find a parking spot and ended up late for that allimportant exam. You know the one.

The one where you scramble out of bed twenty minutes before class starts and debate with yourself on whether you should skip breakfast or skip showering. It’s okay, we’ve all been there with you.

So the question is, how do we fix it? Surely there’s some way to make it so everyone can park exactly where they want to every day, right? Dream on.

Coming up with a cure for the dreaded parking disease isn’t happening anytime soon, but there are some simple remedies you could use to combat the symptoms.

If your class starts at 9 a.m., you could always leave your house 20 minutes earlier than usual in the hopes that the parking lot will be less crowded at 8:35 than it is at 8:55. That’s what I do.

If soaking up every last possible second of sleep you can manage is more your style, you could compromise a tad on having to park right next to your classroom and settle with a parking lot a bit further away. We have a free shuttle bus on campus available to you every day. It makes rounds every 15 minutes, if you can afford the wait.

There isn’t just a problem with parking when you arrive on campus, there’s a problem when

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everyone tries to leave campus at the same time.

Ever been driving on campus at 12:45 p.m. on a Monday? It’s madness.

Everyone and their mother gets out of class right at 12:45 p.m. it seems and they’ve all got the exact same idea: “Get me out of this place!” including any opinions expressed, are the responsibility of the student newspaper staff. Under appropriate state and federal court decisions, these materials are free from prior restraint by the virtue of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Accordingly, materials published herein, including any opinions expressed, should not be interpreted as the position of the L.A. Community College District, the college or any officer or employee thereof.

A simple solution to this problem could be to stagger class start times in the various departments on campus.

For example, morning math classes could start at 9:15 a.m. and morning English classes could start at 9:30 a.m., allowing some leeway so that not everyone is jammed in the parking lot.

This solution might cause some overlapping in classes that could prevent a student from taking classes in different departments back to back. But with a systematic staggering of classes we can solve the parking problem, as well as the conflict of classes only having 10 minute gaps, at the same time.