If it Works for the messiah, Why Doesn’t it Work for Community Colleges?

(Please note the word messiah not capitalized on purpose!)

I have a dear friend who works at the community college district I used to do contract work for (I performed some public information officer duties, and produced a newsletter designed to keep both college campuses informed about activities on their campuses and to read about achievements of co-workers and sometimes students). My friend is in fear for her job, because the unemployment ax is flying and there appears to be no rhyme or reason as to who goes.

I’ve talked about this job before, and how I did not get the job, and the person actually hired is unable or unwilling to perform all of the duties of the job, including minor graphic design work and showing up at evening events. Oh, and how she’s Latina and I’m not.

Anyway, this community college district is now laying off people deemed non-essential. There was talk amongst some of the survivors that they’d be willing to take a pay cut in order to keep their jobs and let their friends and co-workers retain theirs.

To my knowledge, the head of the district has not offered to take a pay cut off the top of her $250K salary, nor return/not accept her $4K a month housing allowance. Earlier this week this leader found money for a hotel room for a film producer to come speak at an event, and she and some board of trustee members took this person to dinner, no doubt expensed to the district.

Last time I was on campus, about a week after the coronation, there were still “hope and change” posters all over the place. Certainly things were going to be perfect now! And the newly-coronated leader would no doubt take care of the as left-leaning-as-possible community college system and its administrators.

We all know the messiah created a “stimulus package” that hasn’t stimulated anyone with a job (or underemployed, or who has lost a job because of the economic situation). What seems to have been stimulated is a bunch of banks who are in part being rewarded for plenty of bad decisions regarding real estate loans (and who were also TOLD to make those loans by a Democratically-controlled Congress and Senate!) and a pair of U.S. automakers who have been held hostage by unions for years and have built poor quality cars. (I would never own a GM car; I learned to drive in a Chevy Monte Carlo and I ran that thing to the ground!)

So spending what you don’t have is supposed to cure all ills? That's what that "stimulus package" tells me anyway ...

If you are a community college district, with liberal leanings as left as you can go, shouldn’t you do the same thing as your esteemed leader—spend what you don’t have, because that will fix things?

Kind of funny that those people applaud what the messiah did, yet they fail to follow his lead and just keep spending … (sarcasm meter on!)

Of course that district should have done the last hired/first fired thing, and the first fired should be their incompetent PIO. That will save the district $100K a year, and keep two lesser-paid support people in their jobs. What do you think a community college district needs more, a PIO who can’t do half of the job, or two culinary workers who keep the students and staff fed?

I hope my friend survives the carnage.