By Phil Hendricks Santa Monica
I am an 18-year Santa Monica College employee representing the Bond Fatigue Committee, www.BondFatigueCommittee.com. I presented the opposition to Santa Monica College’s Measure AA. This is the third misleading Santa Monica College bond measure in six years (2002, 2004, 2008), which would total nearly $600 million! By the college’s own formula the bonds would have a repayment cost of $1 billion — $10,000 for every child and adult in Santa Monica- Malibu!
Measure AA is not about “education,” it is about development of a “regional center” serving 25,000 Beverly Hills and Los Angeles area residents and students. It brings more over-building: congestion, traffic, pollution and loss of livability.
Only 5,000 SMC students are from Santa Monica. Measure AA subsidizes 25,000 students recruited by SMC, at a cost of $1 million per year, from Beverly Hills, the L.A. area, and 80 countries worldwide. They will pay nothing for the bond, we will. Measure AA “regional center” development bond is being paraded as an education bond to the historically very generous and very trusting Santa Monica voters. Stopping Measure AA will not deprive any student of an education. Stopping Measure AA will stop further expansion of student recruitment from neighborhoods where there are 10 other excellent community colleges those students can attend. Measure AA means higher rents and higher taxes. Measure AA hurts seniors because there is no senior exemption.
And perhaps most unforgivable; Measure AA steals funds from our local school children. Santa Monica- Malibu Unified Schools “report card” shows that many of our students are very deficient in math and reading skills. African American and Hispanic students and families are particularly hardest hit, and need our community support and assistance. This bond gravely diminishes and undermines that possibility.
For the first time in my life, and the lives of others, we are opposing an “education” bond because Measure AA is not about education. The Friends of Sunset Park neighborhood group is also for the first time opposing an “education” bond, Measure AA. We urge everyone who loves, supports, and honors education to vote “No” on this third misleading “regional center” development bond, Measure AA. It hurts seniors, renters, home owners, the environment, and our local school children. Vote no on Measure AA.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 18, 2008. Read the original PDF.