blog

In an enormous display of dedication, about 5,000 students, faculty, and administrators traveled to rally peacefully on March 22 in Sacramento against rising student fees, staff layoffs and canceled classes in the state’s public universities and community colleges. In a break from the rancor of the past few months, this demonstration united faculty and administrators with students in an ardent show of determination to stop rapidly eroding budgets for higher education.
 
The Student Senate for California Community Colleges organized the March 22 demonstration “March on March,” to draw state legislators’ attention to the effects of budget cuts on education.
 
“The message was to invest in education; students will pull California out of this recession,” said Sacramento City College Student Senate president Reid Milburn, in an interview with the L.A. Times, “But our second message is that with almost 3.5 million students in all three segments of higher education, it’s up to us to continue to advocate for education and not just come up here for one day, for one big march.”
 
The L.A. Times reported that California’s 112 community colleges took $520 million in budget cuts during the 2009-10 school-year.
 
Meanwhile, the state of California itself is facing a budget deficit of $20 billion. But students and faculty argue that the solution lies in producing an educated workforce for the state.
 
"These cuts affect us, they affect us in a very serious way, and we are the future of California,” said Cerro Coso Community College student Austin Hallinan in an interview with 3KCRA.com.
 
Tony Koester, a San Francisco student also interviewed by KCRA said that he already noticed a decrease in the quality of his education as a result of budget cuts.
 
"The classes are too full, we're not getting the individual attention that we used to get. I've been in city college for five years, I've never seen it so overflowing before," said Koester.

Amoriah Hartley, a sociology student at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, told KTVU she was worried that budget cuts would cause her school to stop offering services like tutoring and writing assistance, and that she felt increased taxes could solve the problem.

"If we are all a bunch of tightwads, we're not going to get anywhere as a country," she said.
 
After the rally, California Secretary of Education Bonnie Reiss said, "We must do everything possible to ensure that every student wishing to pursue higher education has the access and the resources necessary to earn a degree and build a brighter future. I urge the Legislature to listen to these students and adopt a budget that shares the governor's commitment to fully fund education in the state."

More from the L.A. Times
More from KCRA
More from KTVU