(Sacramento, CA) – California State Assemblymember Phil Ting (D–San Francisco) issued the following statement in response to today’s announcement from the Accrediting Commission on Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) that City College of San Francisco will have more time to resolve its accreditation challenges completely.
“We live to fight another day and anxiously await the court’s decision about the commission’s review of City College,” said Ting. “The college cannot be replaced. It must now begin a longer and harder path towards accreditation via the restoration process. Today’s news is another reminder that we must reform the accreditation process so that California’s students can learn from their teachers in peace.”
Last year, the California State Assembly passed by unanimous vote a resolution authored by Assemblymembers Phil Ting and Tom Ammiano urging ACCJC to acknowledge the significant campus improvements City College of San Francisco has made to retain its accreditation and to give the school more time to solve its challenges completely. The passage of House Resolution (HR) 41 from the Assembly coincided with the State Senate’s unanimous approval of a companion measure authored by Senator Mark Leno, Senate Resolution (SR) 47. This put the State Legislature on record behind the school and the best interests of its 80,000 students.
Ting will be pursuing a range of accreditation reforms this year, such as prohibiting ACCJC from sending its litigation bills to our community colleges and requiring the commission to routinely disclose all litigation costs and the funds used to pay for them.
The ACCJC faces a lawsuit brought by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, challenging the commission’s controversial decision to revoke City College of San Francisco’s (CCSF) accreditation. Last year, the commission billed each of California’s 112 community colleges for related litigation costs - about $1,000 per college on top of the dues they pay to the commission. Many months later, with the case having been to trial, ACCJC’s legal expenses have ballooned and it is expected to push these additional costs onto colleges.
“The commission’s blank check mentality has to stop,” concluded Ting. “It is pushing education funding out the classroom and into the courtroom. We must protect precious education dollars from being squandered.”
Contact: Anthony Matthews, tel. (916) 319-2019, anthony.matthews@asm.ca.gov