AN URGENT MESSAGE TO DREAMERS, HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE STUDENTS…and everyone who loves them: The tea party is seeking to control the Governing Board of the Maricopa Community Colleges (Phoenix College, Mesa CC, Glendale CC Chandler Gilbert CC, Estrella Mountain, Gateway, Rio Salado, Paradise Valley, South Mountain). If they do they are publicly committed to quadrupling tuition for dream students…it will rise from an already expensive $84 per credit hour to $325 per credit hour. AN EXPLANATION: As of January there will be seven members on the Governing Board of Maricopa Community Colleges that oversee the ten campuses. Four of those seats are in contention this November. The tea party is running four candidates…if they win they will control the board and the future of all ten colleges will be in jeopardy. WHY DOES THAT MATTER TO DREAMERS AND OTHER STUDENTS? There are over 260,000 students in the colleges. 70% of our students are first generation…that is the first in their families to seek a college education. 67% of incoming students need one or more courses in developmental education. Dev Ed is remedial education. Maricopa Colleges spend 100 million dollars annually to prepare students to be competitive in college. If we did not do so those young people would almost certainly not have the opportunity to obtain a college degree and improve their lives. It works: more than half of the incoming students at ASU have 12 or more credit hours from a Maricopa Community College. Education is the great equalizer in America. Currently approximately 30% of the students in the colleges are Latino. In 2013 the majority of students in K-12 education in Arizona were Latino for the first time. There are proportionately more Latinos in the earlier grades than in the final years of High School. That means that the percentage of Latinos in the community colleges will rise every year. Lamentably the need for developmental ed will rise as well because Latinos are a disproportionate user of dev ed. Dev Ed is an elective…it is authorized by the board to provide an opportunity for every student to succeed. Shut down Dev Ed and you close the bridge that the majority of students depend on to move forward into the middle class and beyond. My great fear is that the tea party candidates for the Governing Board will do precisely that if they are elected. WHAT CAN YOU DO? There are three candidates who are pro-student and pro-education. You can contact each of them on FaceBook. MARIO DIAZ is running for a county-wide at-large seat. We need him on the Governing Board. He is running a strong campaign but he does need volunteers and most importantly your vote. REYES MEDRANO is running in district 3 which is central and east Phoenix, and the west side of Scottsdale from Thomas Road north. Reyes was a faculty member at Paradise Valley Community College until he retired recently. He was also president of the Faculty Association for the entire district before he retired. He is perfectly suited to be a Governing Board Member. RANDOLPH ELIAS LUMM is currently a Governing Board member seeking re-election in district 4, northwest Phoenix and beyond all the way to the county border. He has been a progressive member championing students first always
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 18:18:04 +0000