ELECTION UPDATE NOVEMBER 8 City College of San Francisco Spared Ax

Barry, My Liege :

UPDATE NOVEMBER 8, 2012 : GOOD NEWS

In Tuesday's election California voters passed Prop 30, which raises taxes on wealthy folks and gives money to education, and San Francisco voters passed Prop A, a special tax for CCSF.

It is very good news for City College in the short term. But, there are still reactionary forces looking to defund public education in the State and the Country.

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The CCSF Board is meeting daily with the public, WASC, students, faculty and administrators to devise a plan to keep the College's accreditation. All have committed to keeping the college open.

Community support is high and sentiment propels the necessary efforts. I am hoping it will happen ; details here : http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/S-F-City-College-trustees-try-to-calm-fears-3697865.php

As background, CCSF is in danger of losing its accreditation. If it loses that status, then its credits will not transfer to four year colleges and, most likely, it will shut down.

The college enrolls about 90,000 students. That means that 10% of the population of San Francisco is currently taking classes.

It is a civic jewel and part of the heart of San Francisco.

If you emigrate to San Francisco from Moscow and don't speak English, you can take English classes at CCSF.

If you want to change careers and don't know what to do, you can explore options at CCSF for a modest fee.

If you have athletic talent but are not so good at academics, you may get a second chance on a CCSF national championship team.

If you are LGBT, you can join a support group at CCSF.

CCSF problems are manageable, but the current governing structure and personnel do not have the ability to solve the problems in the time required, IMHO. [While I am employed at CCSF, I do not speak for the college and this is my personal opinion only.]

With my business and planning background, the problems and solutions are readily apparent to me, as are the difficulties in implementation.

There is an urgent need to solve the immediate problems and create structures and systems which will manage the issues into the future.

This is a call to the Northern California community for help. The Board and Administration will benefit from a blue-ribbon, politically connected and effective team to guide them over this problem. Without that help, there is a real probability that CCSF will close.

Here is the background including a link to the report :
http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/City-College-of-San-Francisco-on-brink-of-closure-3682955.php

Your faithful servant,

Billionaires Giving Back

Barry, My Liege :

There may be some really rich folk who would like to give back to the Economic National Security of the United States of America, but who don't know what to do.

I will grant you that it is unlikely, but who knows?

Here is the proposal :

Let us create a list of critical projects at the national, state and local levels where there is an immediate need and the need is critical. These will be projects that have more immediate importance than mining gold on Mars or creating a privately owned space program - fun though each of those may be.

With decreasing tax revenues, it should be easy to write a list of deserving projects.

Let elected officials at each level decide which projects will be on the list and in which priority; then ask them to provide a description of the project, the amount of money needed and, most importantly, where to send the check.

Then we can publicize the list and track publicly which projects are funded and which do not receive any interest.

My Liege, this space will be delighted to administer such a list in the event there are no government resources available.

By all means, it should be said by all the billionaires that 'Well, at least I know where to send my money.'

Your faithful servant,