On July 3 the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges ruled to revoke the accreditation of City College of San Francisco , the largest community college in northern California, effective July 31, 2014.
The ruling has nothing to do with the quality of education at CCSF. Rather, the accrediting commission, a quasi-private agency, has cited CCSF on issues such as governance, fiscal controls and assessing its own procedures. The justifications given for the revocation of accreditation is a formality; the real goal of the ACCJC is to privatize community colleges across California, starting with CCSF because its staff, faculty and students fight to retain their benefits.
This is part of a wider attack on public education across the state and the nation. There is no question that students, faculty and others concerned about public education will fight this decision as it is being appealed.
This particular struggle began in July of 2012 when the accrediting commission put CCSF on “show cause,” the most severe sanction, despite the fact that CCSF has excellent educational programs and is considered one of the top community colleges in the nation. In 2007, City College of San Francisco was featured by the New York Times as one of eleven model community colleges nationwide.
ACCJC claims that they warned CCSF in 2006 of their concerns. To this day, there is no documented evidence that a warning was given to CCSF in 2006 or anytime before the “show cause” sanction. The California Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers local 2121 have filed a complaint with the Department of Education against the ACCJC. The complaint cites the accreditation body’s violation of Federal and State laws, violation of their own policies, conflicts of interest, violation of due process and lack of transparency. Currently, DOE is investigating the complaint.
The accrediting commission,lead by conservatives with ties to right-wing foundations, supports the capitalist agenda to privatize education, seen also in K-12 education. The threat of closure has been used to force massive cuts in student programs, impose non-negotiated salary cuts to faculty and lay-off dozens of classified staff. This strategy to downsize and privatize public education has done great harm to working class CCSF students..
The fight to save CCSF amplifies
It would appear that the latest attack was made because the students, faculty, staff and community have refused to allow their education to be privatized. People have not only taken to the streets, but in November 2012, despite an unrelenting series of negative articles in the SF Chronicle, 73 percent of the voters approved Prop A, a special tax to save CCSF. The Save CCSF Coalition,representing faculty, students, staff, and community members (of which the Party for Socialism and Liberation is a member), is fighting back.
On July 9, thousands of people gathered at the downtown campus at 4th and Mission and marched to the Department of Education near City Hall to protest the decision to revoke the accreditation of City College of San Francisco and demand that the DOE step in to stop privatization.
The board’s corporate backers claim that public education is inefficient and needs to be reformed using market mechanisms. But the people disagree! Many people unaffiliated with the coalition came out after hearing of the decision in the news; seeing this as an attack on their basic democratic rights.
If the decision stands, CCSF, a college with multiple campuses that provides education to a student population of 85,000, primarily from working class families and communities of color, will effectively shut down in summer 2014. The protest, a continuation of a movement growing for the last several months, is a clear indication that students will fight this decision as the appeal process takes its course. As is often the case, the rulings in courts are determined by struggles on the streets.
