The December 12th HANC meeting , 7 pm at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street, San Francisco, will feature a panel of players engaged in the various legal and legislative efforts to prevent the de-accreditation and closing of San Francisco Community Colleges by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior College (ACCJC). All accreditation agencies are certified/licensed by the US Department of Education.

This issue raises so many important questions about who controls the future of public education in San Francisco and all of California. However, it is easy to get confused by the multiple efforts in play to stop the destruction of our accessible and affordable City College system. To help you figure it out and update you, we have invited the following folks to participate in our panel:

• SF City Attorney Dennis Herrera who is currently pursuing a lawsuit against the ACCJC alleging that the private agency unlawfully allowed its advocacy and political bias to prejudice its evaluation of college accreditation standards. In addition, his office has filed a separate petition against the Board of Governors and the State Chancellor of CA Community Colleges, accusing the statewide governing body and its leader of delegating “its statutory obligations to set standards and determine eligibility for public funding to a wholly unaccountable private entity” – the accrediting commission.
• The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 2121, who have filed a lawsuit alleging that the ACCJC violated state and federal conflict of interest laws; prevented students, faculty and journalists from attending the commission’s public meetings; destroyed documents; and circumvented its own regulations.
• Save City College of San Francisco Coalition which has a complimentary lawsuit to the other two asking for a Writ of Mandamus (Mandate).
• California State Assembly member Phil Ting, calling for an audit by the State of California of the ACCJC.

We have also extended an invitation to Congressperson Jackie Speier's office to address the US Department of Education's recent review of the ACCJC that will determine if it should maintain its status as California's accrediting body for community collages. Last August the U.S. Department of Education faulted ACCJC for failing to meet a number of federal requirements during its review of the San Francisco institution, including not clearly identifying deficiencies, and having the appearance of a conflict of interest by appointing the husband of ACCJC President Barbara Beno to a review team.

Please come educate yourself and find out what you can do to help save City College of San Francisco and our public education systems.