Education as Our Top Priority: Wiser Use of Taxpayer Money

By Tim Nader

Education tax dollars should be used for education.

I believe we must make sure our students' educational needs come first. Many students have had to delay their education and careers due to cuts in core classes. I would not vote for pay raises and class cuts in the same budget.

I would also trim waste from the budget, such as the infamous "snack bar consultant" which exemplifies the practice of hiring consultants to do work that can be done more economically in-house. The Board's parliamentarian from Los Angeles is another unwise use of taxpayers' money. Making sure administrative decisions regarding constitutional rights, civil rights and employment are on the right side of the law, will save the college money by avoiding wasteful litigation. I would make sure contracts for consultants call for appropriate use of tax dollars for education and are not misused for political purposes. For example, "marketing" services should be used to inform students and businesses of services the college provides, not to belittle community members who don't see eye-to-eye with Board members.

I believe the college needs a transparent budgeting process in which input from teachers, students and community taxpayers is sought and considered. If someone attempts to put before the Board alternatives to class cuts + as former Student Body President Chris DeBauche attempted to do last year + I would give such alternative proposals serious consideration. I would not support adjourning early to go home rather than considering all possible alternatives to cutting core classes from the budget. I would have required administration to explain why it rejected an offer by teachers to take a pay cut rather than lay off over 200 adjunct faculty + teachers who have real-world experience to supplement classroom education, and I would make sure the Board had a full and fair discussion of such alternative proposals.

Of course, everyone would like pay raises, but we're in a recession. As Mayor of Chula Vista during the last recession in the early 1990s, I held the line on pay raises, especially at the top (including myself), while avoiding cuts in essential services.

In sum, our education tax dollars should be used for education. That would be my policy as a Southwestern College Board member.