I can’t tell you how discouraging it is to see the leadership of the Contra Costa Community College district taken over by leftist politicians. With the death of long-time conservative trustee John Nejedly, and the retirement of Chancellor Helen Benjamin, the board seems intent on pulling the district into the abyss of partisan politics.
Our public education system is chartered to be non-partisan, for obvious reasons, but the California socialists, never a group to honor the law and the concepts of a free society, has now dragged the district into the “sanctuary” mess.
State Senator Kevin De Leon, the state Senate president pro tem (who commented recently that he has family members living here illegally) visited Diablo Valley College to tout Senate Bill 54, which would create a state-wide sanctuary for illegal aliens. His visit occurred just two months after the board voted unanimously to establish sanctuary status for “undocumented students” on all three main and satellite campuses.
Adding partisan insult to injury, the leftist board will almost surely approve an extension of the trade union-initiated ”Project Stabilization Agreement” (formerly called Project Labor Agreement, as though changing the name would fool taxpayer advocates) which essentially prevents non-union contractors from bidding on taxpayer-funded school bond construction projects. CoCoTax vigorously opposes PSA’s (or PLA’s) because a) they do not deliver on their promises of local hiring nor improved quality of workmanship, and b) they inevitably increase costs by 15-20% with no added value to taxpayers. As union membership declines throughout the nation, unions use their political clout to lock up access to public construction funding.
With massive cuts in federal funding to California looming in the near-term, one would think elected officials would think twice before taking such foolish steps. But, we know the left has never put such stock in rationality, nor shown concern for taxpayers' interests.
