Steve Greenhut, editorial writer for the OC Register, was on KPCC’s “AirTalk” the other day, arguing with Gustavo Arellano about controversies at our district. A friend who heard the broadcast told me that Greenhut merely repeated Tom Fuentes' absurd and stunningly dishonest talking points, recently made in an interview on Red County/OC Blog.Have you read the interviews? Fuentes offers red meat and lies. The district, he says, is threatened by “union labor bosses” and their “liberal” agenda. Virtually nothing is said about our “plague of despair,” and our serious accreditation difficulties, brought to us by Fuentes and his friends.
This morning, Greenhut repeats the performance in his column.
Naturally, Greenhut reveals that he doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground. For instance, he imagines that faculty seek to avoid office hours and that they pursue “fad programs.” Huh?
To prove that faculty salaries are high, Greenhut cherry picks the unusually high salaries of “the district's real estate instructor” (?) and “[i]ts Spanish instructor” (?). He repeats Fuentes’ old canard about faculty's “36-hour weeks.”
He calls me a “union activist.” I'm hardly that. He wrongly supposes that Carl Christensen is the union’s candidate for the Mission Viejo trustee seat. No, the union supports John Wiliams, who Greenhut identifies as one of Fuentes' fellow anti-union crusaders.
Well, read Greenhut's piece. Judge for yourself.
Steve Greenhut column: An endangered friend of the taxpayer:
Anyone who is not in a coma has noticed that the U.S. economy is in the tank….
Consider what's going on at the South Orange County Community College District, which operates Saddleback College in Mission Viejo and Irvine Valley College in Irvine.
The current board has a fiscally conservative majority, and has been a rare friend of the taxpayer. The board refuses to do what most public education boards do these days – give the unions what they want and then float bonds to pay for the infrastructure the districts need. One of the big secrets of such bonds is that they really are pension and salary bonds. When boards give in to union demands, they use bonds to pay for the infrastructure that they should have been able to pay for without new debt, had they held the line on pay and benefits.
The South Orange County Community College District board has constantly opposed bond issues; managed the district without debt; balanced the budget every year and stood up to the district's surly faculty union. "We are the only community college district in Orange County in the past eight years that hasn't gone out for a bond," board member Dave Lang explained during a recent interview. "You can't find a more fiscally sound college district in the state."
Furthermore, the current board has put the focus on the students, not on the district's employees. The union is furious because the board insists that all professors actually put in the office hours required by their contracts. The district is more interested in keeping the teachers in the classrooms rather than having them, say, take sabbaticals to Europe. The district has focused on expanding its core programs, such as nursing, rather than on fad programs. They've built new buildings and upgraded older ones by managing their funds rather than putting taxpayers on the hook with debt. And – here's the rub – the current board has resisted the faculty union's demand for a 10 percent raise, something that would cost more than $17 million a year if all the district's unions get a piece of that contract. This is good for taxpayers, good for students and good for the vast majority of dedicated faculty members.
Currently, there are four conservatives on the board: former O.C. GOP chief Tom Fuentes, Lang, Donald Wagner and John Williams. There are three union backers on the board: Nancy Padberg, Marcia Milchiker and William Jay. Fuentes, Lang and Williams are up for re-election and are being challenged by the apparent union slate of Bob Bliss, Carolyn Inmon and Carl Christensen. Jay also is up for re-election and is challenged by a conservative-backed candidate, Arlene Greer. If the union picks up one seat, taxpayers better open up their wallets.
…
The district has 230 faculty who earn more than $90,000 a year in base salary. Almost all those employees earn significant "additional earnings" for everything they do beyond their short week – committee chairmanships and so forth. Then they get generous benefits. For instance, the district's real estate instructor earns a total compensation package of $269,343 a year. Its Spanish instructor has a total package of $183,000 a year. A lower-paid faculty member on the list earns a total compensation package of $114,000 a year. This is for a 9 1/2 month year of 36-hour weeks with only 15 weekly classroom hours.
Writing in Red County blog, faculty member and union activist Roy Bauer explained his side of it: "Naturally, the quality of a college cannot exceed the quality of its faculty. … There was a time when faculty salaries in the [South Orange County Community College District]were relatively high. … Further, in case you haven't noticed, living in South Orange County is expensive. But the era of high … faculty salaries is long past. These days, faculty salaries do not compare well with those of other districts in the area, and this means that the [district]is headed for decline."
Bauer and others claim, unfairly, that their not getting what they want will threaten the district's accreditation.
Bauer reveals the union approach in its full glory. First, it's all about them. It's expensive to live here! Well, that's true for everyone, even the taxpayers who foot the bill. Second, the claims are not exactly true. The California Teachers Association's own 20-year earning survey finds that the SOCCCD faculty are the fourth-highest paid out of 72 districts in the state. Third, union backers are skilled at focusing attention on those who do even better than they do. The faculty union wants to be paid at the level of the Mira Costa district, which pays the highest salaries in the state and is no model for fiscal responsibility. And the union uses scare tactics (accreditation) when it can't win the arguments on their merits….
If you go to Greenhut's column, you'll find my response. I've sent a slightly expanded version of that response to "letters to the editor."
UPDATE: several people have commented on Greenhut's piece. With one exception, they blast the fellow.
