Vote No on P

The relevance of Santa Barbara City College to the taxpayers of Santa Barbara has declined markedly over the last 10 years. The total number of students at SBCC has declined severely. Ten years ago, the number of students enrolled in SBCC was 19,331. In 2024 the number was 12,675, a reduction of 6,656 or just over a third reduction.

Furthermore, in 2024, the number of students who study 100 percent online, rather than attend campus classroom classes, is now 4,199. This reduces the number of full-time on-campus students to 8,476.

Of the remaining 8,476 students, another 4,900 students study partly in class and partly online. Only 3,656 students study full-time in classrooms on campus.

Therefore, campus utilization is severely reduced. There might be a better use for the 75-acre campus

The current annual budget for SBCC is $224,347,416. which should be more than enough to run such a diminished enterprise.

There must be substantial, internal, reasons for the past years of in-fighting between the Board of Trustees, the faculty, and past CEOs who don’t stay on duty for long.

Measure P is for $ 198 million, on top of the amount for the previous SBCC bond, Then, there is the interest, which is a larger number than the principal.

Remember, two members of the Board of Trustees voted “No” against the Measure P. proposal out of the seven Trustees. That was 28.6 percent of the Trustees. Why? What do they know that we don’t?

There are too many questions about SBCC and its use of money in the past, to add more to the pile already spent.

Vote ‘no’ on Measure P.