Concern Over College Reorganization Plan

The Trustees of the Santa Clarita Valley College District are concerned about a proposed reorganization of the system of governance for local community colleges which would replace elected boards with appointed advisers.

This proposal, the so-called Alternative A of the Commission for the Review of the Master Plan for Higher Education, would wipe out the 70 elected community college boards of trustees and replace them with 12 regional districts without regard to community identity or autonomy. These state-imposed regional boards would be dominated by appointees from Sacramento, thus eroding accountability to the communities which support their colleges. Likewise, the familiar locally elected board of trustees, symbolized by Norman Rockwell’s famous painting about participation in democracy, would be replaced by a powerless “advisory board” appointed by the county supervisors.

At present, with a locally elected board, community members feel free and unintimidated in coming forward to address the trustees about the issues that concern them. Board meetings are held at convenient hours on the college campus. As many citizens of the Santa Clarita Valley have come to realize sadly, their ability to influence decisions on issues affecting them diminishes proportionately to the driving time needed to reach the decision makers. Already, many of us feel left out and unheard by appointed boards and public agencies in the Civic Center unaware of this community’s needs. For precisely these reasons, a city formation movement is already under way in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Specifically, we think this proposal misses the mark because community colleges represent the successful principle of “decentralization combined with responsibility” that is repeated again and again in the case studies cited in “Search for Excellence.” President Reagan advocated the same idea in his State of the Union message, going on to say that “family values should be at the root of public policy.” What better forum for the expression of a community’s values and concerns than a responsive, locally elected and accountable board of trustees?

We find much potential for abuse if elected college trustees were replaced with advisers appointed by the county supervisors. Such appointments have historically been rewards for faithful election support. This community needs concerned and energetic trustees, not uninformed, appointed advisers with no sense of commitment or responsibility to this community.

This issue is more than one of protecting the turf of local boards. The fundamental issue is an attempt to dismantle a functioning, effective element of participatory democracy and replace it with yet another layer of uncaring bureaucracy in Sacramento.

We believe that our legislators, journalists, and the community as a whole need to understand what is at stake here.

RAMON F. LA GRANDEUR

Valencia

La Grandeur is superintendent/president of the College of the Canyons.