Community College Teachers Deserve a Pat on the Back

The persistent demand by some San Diego Community College district faculty members for a financially accountable school district paid off this week when the teachers reached a tentative settlement of their lawsuit over the district’s unusual nonprofit foundation. The teachers deserve a collective pat on the back for their zealous protection of public money.

Under the settlement, the foundation will turn over control of its $8-million endowment to the district’s trustees and pay more than $1 million more into the fund over the next two years. More importantly, the foundation’s directors will resign as overseers of the endowment and relinquish their authority to the district’s elected trustees, who have had no control over the foundation board for the past three years.

That should end a situation that had created considerable distrust between the teachers and the district’s board over the highly questionable financial arrangement and its impact on faculty salaries, which historically have been among the lowest in the state. Ultimately, the dispute ended in court.

Former Chancellor Garland Peed revived the dormant foundation in the early 1980’s to serve as a fund-raising arm of the community college district, which includes 100,000 students at Mesa, Miramar and City colleges. Each year, the foundation gives half of the endowment interest to the district.

But according to the faculty, the foundation illegally took revenue belonging to the district and actually competed with the district when it bid on educational contracts. Even worse, the foundation’s books were not open to faculty and its directors were not elected or accountable to students, faculty or the public.

Then there were the unusual honorariums that the foundation paid to legislators for speaking engagements. In 1986, the foundation gave out $33,860--$10,000 to State Sen. Wadie P. Deddeh (D-Chula Vista) alone.

In 1988, Peed, who was heading both the district and the foundation, announced that he would give up his duties with the school system to lead the foundation. He later left to head a community college in Cupertino.

The public--and the community college district--will be served best by an end to the unseemly arrangement with the foundation. Public agency money belongs under the control of elected trustees, who will be wise to spend it on student and teacher needs instead of political lobbying.