L.A. Community College Layoffs

After reading David Savage’s “article of admiration” (Feb. 5) for Dr. Leslie Koltai, L.A. Community College chancellor, I became incensed. Too many salient facts were omitted.

In fact it was, and is, Koltai’s misplaced priorities and mismanagement of the limited state and local funds that helped lead the district to the educational and financial disaster it now experiences.

Instead of eliminating equitably between campus and district expenditures, he reduced the educational programs and staff of the campuses to skeletal status. Hundreds of teaching personnel and support services were eliminated from the campuses that had the larger enrollments.

Today programs in nursing, physical education, sociology, psychology and history are in jeopardy as more layoffs have been instituted. These faculty above all are women, minorities, and the younger teachers who would be the future backbone of the district when the remainder of the “seasoned veterans” retire. What a loss! Many of them have been with the district for as long as 20 years and hold positions of leadership on the campuses. Some are coaches who provide the extracurricular activities we need for a balanced program and school morale.

Because of support personnel layoffs, buildings and grounds of the campuses are in shameful disrepair and filthy, to say the least. Educational services that enrich and enhance learning have been all but eliminated. Campus audio-visual equipment and materials are outmoded and unserviceable. For lack of a service contract, computers for the Computer Science Department and word processors for the Office Administration Department sit idly in disrepair as students clamor to use the insufficient number remaining intact. The library staff has been reduced to the point where books cannot be shelved and there is little money for replacement of lost books.

In the rain, my classroom’s roof leaks, flooding the floor, and there is no money for repair. It is shameful that Koltai’s staff develops a budget whereby the students are the only ones sacrificed. No wonder they transfer to other junior colleges. In addition, he has steadfastly maintained two colleges whose enrollment is so low that they drain money from the larger colleges for their support.

According to Savage, Koltai may be “perceptive and scholarly, brilliant and shrewd,” but in the process he led us to an educational crisis that none of our neighboring colleges share.

BRONCHA M. STERN

Van Nuys

Stern is a professor of child development at Los Angeles Valley College.