No Sex Appeal, Speaker Says of Community College System

In his first speech to community college trustees since last year’s financial crisis, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown on Monday said the state’s two-year colleges have become education’s stepchildren because they are “not interesting and sexy” enough to generate votes for lawmakers.

“Community colleges have not been as attractive as a vote-getting vehicle for the governor and the state legislators and that is just a reality of life,” Brown told 1,000 locally elected trustees from all over California.

Later, the San Francisco Democrat predicted there will be a major effort this year to boost funds for community colleges above the amount recommended by Gov. George Deukmejian and more in line with the state’s four-year institutions.

He also held out hope that a $50-per-semester tuition--instituted last year after a bitter confrontation with the governor--might be rescinded after 1987, when it is scheduled to be reviewed.

‘Do My Damnedest’

“I’ll do my damnedest not to allow it to be reinstated,” Brown said after his speech.

Brown, who once vowed to oppose tuition at any cost only to disappoint college officials by backing down at the last moment, received a warm reception from the trustees, who have been decrying the fee and a subsequent drop in enrollment during a three-day meeting at the Capitol.

However, the Speaker did acknowledge during his speech that his vote change, along with that of other key Democrats, was, in fact, a major defeat and not a carefully crafted compromise as Democratic leaders had first suggested.

After the vote last January, Assembly Democrats said they went along with the tuition charge only because of an important concession by Deukmejian to incorporate 10 existing special fees into the new $50-per-semester charge.

On Monday, Brown described that concession as “some pretty language” meant “to offer some people an opportunity to save face.” In reality, he added, “I do acknowledge that we lost that fight.”

The imposition of the fee, the first in the system’s history, capped a four-month standoff between the Democratic-controlled Legislature and the Republican governor. In its aftermath, enrollment fell sharply and community colleges have generally suffered financially in contrast with the state’s four-year institutions.

Deukmejian’s proposed 1985-86 budget calls for a 12.2% increase for the University of California, a 10% increase for the California State University system and a 10.6% boost for kindergarten through 12th grade schools. Community colleges, however, were recommended for a smaller 8.7% increase, and that includes a large infusion of still uncertain revenue from the upcoming state lottery.

Brown told the trustees that his hope is to raise the increase in community college funding to at least that of elementary schools. To do so, he said, will require that Deukmejian and a bipartisan group of lawmakers become convinced of the political clout of community college programs.

Not as Interesting

“Community colleges have just not been as interesting politically for us who hold office,” he said. “You’ve got to think in terms of changing that perception because there will not be parity in the respective systems of higher education until such time that the same amount of political clout is developed (by community colleges) . . . for our reelection purposes.”

One of the toughest hurdles, Brown said, is the perception created by a 1983 state study that said community colleges are not used by low-income youths but by the more affluent to pursue personal interests.