the board of trustees at santa monica community college had a meeting last
night and students went to protest because santa monica college is
proposing a two-tiered system and that's it for a system basically would make
popular classes
cost more so right now it's about forty five dollars a unit s_n_c_
however uh... the popular classes could cost as much as one hundred eighty
dollars per unit so some classes might cost as much as four hundred dollars six
hundred dollars incidents are panicking about it
so about two hundred students went to this uh... board of trustees meeting to
protest
and at the protest that ugly when campus police began pepper spray them so we
have video of the event let's watch
and
so obviously that i believe on and
but the board of trustees was expecting this protest today decided to hold the
meeting in a room that has a capacity for sixty people
as i've mentioned uh... several news sources reported that there are about
two hundred protesters
and you know people are questioning why the board of trustees didn't do the
protest in a larger room are inside the meeting a larger room to accommodate any
type of peaceful protest my understanding is that was a peaceful
protest in seoul campus police got involved in sort of pepper spray people
right and i've seen longer videos of the two where
you know what the it's not like there really was calm right it was raucous and
that they were really mad
and then see
gotta meted judgment call i guess we lead go in that direction on on bed
as one of the trustees even said listen to me is that mister you better be
damned carefully you absolutely needed
i'm paraphrasing but that's basically he said i'm not convinced that we did hear
unlimited and he pointed out you did tremendous damage to the the wreckage of
the school and you are
acts campus police
we've got you gotta be thinkin my god this thing is about to get out i hand in
people's safety not their lives for their safety is gonna be a serious
danger before you pull out the pepper spray on documents that was a case there
now look i know the trustees were thinking
look these fifty class are you cancel you know our funding gets caught by the
state by the federal government ultimately
the through the state
over and over again and no leeway wouldn't even is that we charge more
and then the students think but we made it clear to tears
you know that
the richer students are going to be able to attend then and get the best classes
or all the classes
and the rest of us as a community college is supposed to be initially
committee does this was we totally free
now this was the issue of starch
that's a long list of alternates in all of us who live here in a moment there is
actually this ongoing trend with the community colleges for students no
longer have access to classes and they can't afford for that
applied the classes
so they get misled into thinking that attending a for-profit call it will be
more cost-effective right so you're seeing it
lynch child of uh... commute cautious now going to for-profit colleges which
is disastrous right uh... but also look that event
but because of the pepper spray
led to thirty people being treated for injuries and two people were
hospitalized so it got really ugly and
i don't understand where the students are coming from don't get me wrong i
hate this two-tiered system i don't think it's the right way to go but at
the same time the board of trustees
it's not their fault
okay but there's a bigger picture of the students are paying attention to end
i know they're angry it's misdirected it's misguided that they wanna let it
out some way and they're directing in the wrong place
so let me tell you what's going on in california since two thousand eight
at california colleges lost a total eight hundred nine million dollars in
state aid
santa monica college cut eleven hundred classes well right now the classes cost
forty five six dollars but under the new plan as i've mentioned it could cost one
hundred eighty dollars per credit now with interesting is the superintendent
and president of s_n_c_
is getting paid
ton of money job now we have a big ears from back in two thousand five when he
first got hired so i'd guarantee that he's getting paid more than this now ok
but in two thousand five when his first hired and he received a two hundred six
thousand eight hundred dollar package ok in his salary is one in seventy five
thousand dollars
he gets six and fifty dollars a month for a car allowance
twenty four thousand dollars a year for housing five thousand dollars for moving
expenses so what kind of message does that send and i know this isn't the root
of the issue of the real problems the fact that we've completely cut property
taxes in the state
and it's destroying public education in public services
but this is all loan is also an issue that i think they need to address
right soon now
distributor for slow the number one brutal prom is that that's the uh...
money is getting cut
and and so you know everyone saw interviews al gore does or does not wear
a size or okay all right but this consequences
well the consequences
is that
if your middle-class forgot but if you're poor
your kids don't have the same opportunity
as her two kids to get an education and so what happened to the american dream
what im equality of opportunity
what i'm asking for equality of results were looking for a quality about the the
way you get that is education
and as the second layer of this is what has pointed out
but i'm not saying that that is an outrageous salary for the head of the
school anything like that
what has happened in america is
the whenever anybody needs to suffer cutbacks
it's always the people of the bottle the wrong
never the view of the problem so that they say hey you know what we need to
fire some examples from school
or we'd cut salaries of the topless pool nahi cut the cost because it does a make
or two people one meenal
the president as the president of the superintendent is a
to repent of course you would cut his salary
you know he's a revered
you know top professionals
and look i feel bad form to i don't think it's a cut any of this stuff
but if you could do it you have to do a more broadly i don't think they should
cut any of the stuff either don't get me wrong okay the present at the university
in times like this shouldn't get a salary dot large however instead of
cutting salaries getting rid of classes and increasing tuition wiley focus on
what the real problem is in california and the real problem it's something that
we've talked about on the show before
is proposition thirteen which is passing california in nineteen seventy eight
now that puts a one percent cap on property tax or pay and its disastrous
because property taxes which he used to find education and public services
infrastructure
infrastructure in california's falling apart you're having like a water main
first offer ya all over the state
and we don't have money to fix that we don't have money to deal with it so
um... when proposition thirteen was first passed you know how much tax
revenue we lost immediately
sixty percent
so steve percent
in tax revenue
and in order to past any kind of tax here in california unit two thirds
majority uh... within the state congress
so that's a trait could be a place to make sure that he protected
the richest people
and brooke look if you got the house in beverly hills here in los angeles
this somehow as a hundred fifty million dollars you know what kind of evidence
you that that taxes capital one percent
it's you saved an enormous amount
and who said her ever secures your santa monica college there is a kids
try to get their you know wheat wheat we're not against serbs were just saying
everybody's got to have a fair shot at
and here in california the republicans have done this thing
where it's nearly impossible raise taxes and hence haha
thrifts get richer and your kids suffer
and then if they complain about it
they get breakfast