Community Colleges Need Proposition AA

Re “No on Proposition AA,” editorial, May 13: I invite anyone who has yet to make up his or her mind about Proposition AA to visit any of the nine community colleges within the Los Angeles Community College District. You will see that improvements on our campuses are desperately needed. If approved by voters on Tuesday, Proposition AA will improve unsafe classroom conditions and fund much-needed repairs to campuses that are the gateway to higher education and better jobs for nearly 130,000 Angelenos each year.

Your editorial raised questions about the district’s timing of this critically needed bond measure. Until recently, many of our community colleges had not seen any major renovations in 25, 30 and even as many as 50 years. It is better financially to address needs now, before the problems get worse and while interest rates are low.

Proposition AA is intended to build out the projects in the master plans to meet the colleges’ imminent student-growth needs. Unless addressed now, currently overcrowded classrooms at our colleges will reach crisis levels within the next few years, as students in Tidal Wave II (new citizens and residents and the children of the baby boom generation) reach college age. The community colleges are workhorses for education. I urge voters to approve Proposition AA so our community colleges can meet the growing needs of Los Angeles.

Warren T. Furutani

President, Board of Trustees

L.A. Community Colleges