L.A. Community College Funding

Your Jan. 10 editorial correctly states that the Los Angeles Community Colleges are underfunded, but misrepresents everything else. The reason shared governance hasn’t worked is that faculty representatives have little input about major decisions, such as hiring Bill Segura at a yearly salary of over $140,000, including such perks as a chauffeur-driven vehicle. It was not the faculty’s decision to buy a district headquarters, at Wilshire and Wilton, that to this day stands vacant. Meanwhile, the district rents an expensive downtown office building for its bureaucrats.

Professors’ and classified staff salaries are still in the lowest quartile in the state. Increasingly classes are staffed by underpaid, overworked, hourly rate instructors who lack health insurance and even the most minimal job security. Much-needed programs such as ESL cannot be established unless trained faculty are hired to staff them, but many recent retirees have not been replaced. Classes and programs such as nursing have been slashed while the budget for the downtown office grows.

Rather than protecting jobs, the faculty opposes class cuts and increased class sizes to bolster student retention and provide a quality education for those who wish to transfer and/or enter the work force, despite chronic underfunding and deteriorating physical facilities. Rather than brickbats, the faculty and staff of the largest community college district in the nation deserve accolades for persevering under most difficult circumstances.

LESLIE HOPE

Professor of English

Los Angeles Valley College