As the political campaign season heats up ahead of the November election, the California Faculty Association is working to foil the efforts of four Republican candidates running for the state Legislature.

The union that represents California State University professors recently released their new $435,000 “Flunk the Assembly Republicans” ad campaign, targeting four Republican candidates running for open seats in the state Assembly.

The ads contend that the candidates, Gary Jeandron, Danny Gilmore, John McCann and Jack Sieglock, support ruthless cuts to the state’s educational institutions in order to help solve the budget crisis. It is stated in the California Faculty Association Launches “Flunk the Assembly Republicans” Advertising Campaign press release that this is causing irreparable damage to higher education and the state’s economic stability.

Lila Jacobs, education professor and president of the union’s Sacramento State chapter, said that the ongoing failure of state legislators to come to a budget compromise has taken its toll on our schools already with rising tuition fees, bigger class sizes and less class availability affecting students and faculty alike.

The union believes that the situation will get worse if the targeted candidates are elected to the Legislature.

“These are issues that won’t go away. Tuition has gone up 100 percent in the past five years and, as the CSU tries to operate under an insufficient budget, they raise tuition, cut classes and sections of classes,” Jacobs said.

The candidates under attack by the union feel that these ads are unfair and untrue.

“No one from CFA talked to me,” Jeandron said. “I am a Palm Springs Unified School Board member and am actually an adjunct faculty member at College of the Desert, I have taught there for many years. I’m in a way part of that organization and, although I’m not full time, for them to say I don’t support education is clearly just a partisan tactic.”

Jeandron, running in the 80th Assembly district in the Southern California desert area, and fellow Republican candidate Sieglock, running in the 10th Assembly district in San Joaquin County for the Assembly, both said that these ads are an attempt to get Democrats the all-important supermajority in the Legislature.

California is one of only three states in the U.S. that requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass a budget bill. With a supermajority in the Legislature, Democrats would be able to pass a budget bill that prevents any more cuts to higher education.

“It’s well known that it’s an orchestrated effort to try to get the supermajority in California by the Democratic party, so I think this is parcel to that overall scheme,” Sieglock said.

The union denies that the purpose of the ads is to ensure a Democratic supermajority.

“Actually it’s designed to ensure that there is a supermajority for higher education,” Jacobs said. “We want to let the greater community know who supports higher education and who doesn’t.”

Jeandron said in order to solve the budget impasse that first there must be some structural changes and that the state must put money aside for rainy days.

“Once we get those structural changes they start looking at the next step, which is probably going to have to be borrowing money from the lottery and rolling over some money for next year while our economy recovers,” he said.

The union, however, doesn’t believe this strategy will be effective.

Jeandron and the union, however, do share some beliefs about the importance of higher education. Jeandron insists that he does not plan on cutting education.

“If you take away from education and we don’t give kids a way out of poverty, we’ll end up having to put them in jail, or they’ll be dependent on the government,” he said.” We need to give them the skills so that they can be productive people. That’s why I say education is an investment, it’s not a cost.”

This is similar to statements made by the union in a press release about the effects of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget cuts to the CSU system.

“The CSU makes it possible for large numbers of our diverse population to enter the middle class. People with college degrees rely less on social services and are less likely to be incarcerated. Their higher earnings translate into more tax revenue and larger contributions to the state’s retirement system. The loss of education funding, in the end, would not only be dollars, but the loss of hope and optimism. Broad educational opportunity is basic to having and protecting a democratic society.”

Tammy Nazanda can be reached at [email protected]