Prop. 51 will give existing schools, kindergarten through community colleges, access to $9 billion to help renovate and upgrade their school through the Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2016.
Trying to Gain Support
ASCC President Saul Lopez, and Commissioner of External Affairs Connor Gafford introduced Prop. 51 and Prop. 55 to the rest of the cabinet members on Monday.
Gafford expressed that he and Lopez had discussed raising awareness for propositions that directly affected the school.
“We feel that these two will be beneficial and should be brought to light. By backing Prop. 55 we wanted to show our support for the teachers. Prop. 51 would help with our facility maintenance and renovations that are currently underway on campus,” he said.
Introducing Prop. 51 and 55
Lopez, who presented the Prop. to his cabinet, acknowledged that though Prop. 51 would benefit Cerritos, he was concerned with the fact that Governor Jerry Brown didn’t openly support it.
“I think it’s a really good Prop. and it will help out students here at Cerritos. […] my job entitles me to look out [for] what can be beneficial for them. You can’t really put a price tag on education.
“[…] When [Gafford] came to me [to talk about] Prop. 51, [he did mention that] Governor Brown is opposed to it, [I decided that] we should support it anyway because we [could] get bond money from this and we can continue building the school,” he said.
Brown Says No on 51
Lopez continued, “And I think it’s a really good idea despite Governor Brown [not] being behind [Prop. 51] because it’ll benefit the students in the future. […] they’ll have new buildings, they’ll have [a] new shiny campus that I won’t see […] but in the future they’ll realize [that] 51 benefited [the school in the long run].”
Supporting a Bill That Helps Students
Gafford explained that the reason why Governor Brown didn’t support 51 was because he feels like the money would be better spent in low-income communities, and that his focus is on the distribution of funds.
“Brown is on his way out of office, so he doesn’t care too much about what the voters think. It would look bad to voters if you’re in opposition of revitalizing schools. Which, is probably why his Lieutenant Governor has expressed his support as well as both major parties and almost all of the California school districts,” he said.
After Lopez was finished explaining Prop. 51, he went on to briefly describe Prop. 55. He said that Prop. 55, the California Children’s Education and Health Care Protection Act of 2016, would just extend Prop. 30, the temporary income tax rates for 12 more years.
Prop. 55 would continue to fund the Education Protection Act and increase spending on the health care for low income families.
Continuing Proposition 30
He acknowledged that in 2012, when Prop. 30 was on the ballot, Cerritos College board members all agreed to support it. He wanted to support the board’s original decision, and support the continuance of Prop. 30 with Prop. 55.
Gaining Unanimous Support
Once Lopez was finished with his presentation, the cabinet had a few questions, and after their questions were answered, cabinet unanimously agreed to support both propositions.
Now that the propositions have cabinet’s support, cabinet must earn the support of senate to ensure that if the propositions are passed, the school will benefit from them.
