Argument For Measure R

Have you ever taken classes at Cabrillo College – or know family or friends who have? Cabrillo has sixty years of success serving our community, whether your goal is job preparation, continuing education, English as a second language or transferring to a UC or another four-year college. Today, Cabrillo College’s future is at risk.

Drive along Soquel Avenue and you see the newest and nicest buildings on the Cabrillo campus – the result of past bond measures.

But take a campus tour and you’ll find that chronic state underfunding is negatively impacting the quality of education students receive.

Many buildings are inadequate to meet the needs of our students in a changing world. When a sewer line broke recently, it created a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of damage.

The State provides no funding to update aging buildings – and some of them remain untouched for 50 years. That’s why we need Measure R.

Measure R includes:

  • A new science building to meet student needs for critical high-demand gateway lab-based classes
  • Upgraded classrooms to give students training for 21st-century careers
  • Providing students the tools to transfer to four-year universities
  • Giving returning veterans the educational resources to prepare for the workforce
  • Training local firefighters and police at a new Watsonville public safety training center
  • Allowing people with disabilities greater access to college classrooms
  • Modernizing aging classrooms, upgrading technology and replacing outdated wiring and sewer lines

Cabrillo College has also refinanced prior bonds, saving the average homeowner $164 and taxpayers $29.5 million in total.

Measure R has the unified support of Cabrillo College’s trustees, faculty senate and labor unions.

State Senator Bill Monning, Assemblymember Mark Stone and Supervisors Bruce McPherson, Ryan Coonerty and John Leopold all support Measure R.

Call (831) 479-6302 to tour the Cabrillo College campus yourself to assess the need. See the expenditure plan at www.CabrilloYESonR.org.

Michael Watkins
Retired Superintendent of County Schools

Jim Hart
Sheriff-Coroner

Nancy B. Macy
Co-Founder, Valley Women’s Club

Diana Alfaro
County of Santa Cruz Latino Affairs Commission

Francisco Estrada
Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust, Program Officer