Whereas Proposition 98 has stabilized public school and community college funding in California and has permitted school boards, administrators, and teachers to plan, implement, and maintain programs more coherently, and
Whereas Proposition 98 has enabled schools to improve the quality of education by allowing them to purchase additional and updated textbooks, obtain modern equipment and additional supplies, and hire more teachers, and
Whereas Proposition 98 has not "enriched" the schools at the expense of any other public service, but has merely ensured that education receives a fair and steady - or undiminished - percentage of the state budget, and
Whereas California already spends about $400 less per student than the national average, and between $3,500 and $4,000 less per student than states like New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, and
Whereas California would need to spend at least $3 billion more each year just to reach the national average of expenditures per pupil, and
Whereas a suspension of Proposition 98 would take $2 billion away from our schools and necessitate deep cuts in the instructional program, would undermine the educational reform effort, and would lower the quality of education for students in tens of thousands of classrooms, and
Whereas a suspension of Proposition 98 would reduce the state's contribution to education by about $9,000 per classroom in constant dollars, and
Whereas a suspension of Proposition 98 would render our schools less able to meet the demands created by the enrollment of over 200,000 additional students each year, many of those students speaking little or no English, and
Whereas a suspension of Proposition 98 would drive scores of local school district into bankruptcy, and
Whereas in enacting Propositions 98 and 111 the voters of California have twice said they do not want the state budget balanced on the backs of public school and community college students,
Resolved that the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges reaffirm its support of the principles of Proposition 98, and
Resolved that the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges call upon the governor and legislature to explore all revenue options in their effort to balance the state budget in accordance with Proposition 98.