It's time to go 'brough

STAFF EDITORIAL.

Board President Phillip Yarbrough has placed his political interests ahead of quality education.

District Trustee Phillip Yarbrough’s recent opinion published in the Orange County Register opposing Prop 30, and his well-known support of conservative causes, damages the reputation of the Rancho Santiago Community College District.

Yarbrough, a long time advocate of a political version of the Hippocratic oath to “first do no harm” does so by supporting cuts to public education, which he was elected to represent.

Many of his constituents in Trustee area six, which includes Villa Park and Anaheim Hills with a median household income of over $100,000, would not like to see their taxes increased. But the majority disagreed on Nov. 6 by passing Prop 30.

What Yarbrough and his constituents do not understand is that California’s higher education cannot afford to take another fiscal hit.

When speaking out in the editorial, Yarbrough characterized Prop 30 as a ploy to extend state employee benefits; he must not realize his own elected board’s annual cost to taxpayers in benefits is the highest among any college district in Orange County at $172,661, according to a recent OC Register article.

As owner of Nations Financial Mortgage Corporation and Pacific Estates & Investments, perhaps he has forgotten that government does not operate like a business; education does not make a profit.

In the 16 years Yarbrough has been a trustee he has made it clear that his views conflict with academia, but trustees must put students over economic interests and Yarbrough has not. For this reason it is time for him to go.