The editorial pages of California's newspapers are a diverse lot. Center-left and center-right views arguably predominate, but there are hard-left and hard-right outposts and even a home for libertarians at the idiosyncratic Orange County Register. It takes a uniquely bad election proposition to make a rainbow coalition out of these discordant editorial pages. Proposition 92 is just such a measure.
The measure would change Proposition 98 education funding formulas to divert $300 million a year from other school programs to state community colleges. It also would lower community college fees from $20 per unit to $15.
But contrary to proponents, community college funding has soared in recent years, up 39 percent since 2004. And given that tuition is waived for poor students, the claim that the lower per-unit rate is needed to keep them in school is dishonest on its face.
What's really going on? The usual: Another special interest group – unions and community college employees – is trying to lock in perpetually higher annual taxpayer funding, and at a time of massive state fiscal stress.
No wonder every editorial page – from the Register to The Sacramento Bee to The Bakersfield Californian to the Marin Independent Journal and many more – says Proposition 92 should be shunned. The ballot measure is unusually objectionable. Given the disheartening state of California politics, that's saying something.
