Colton Hall, California’s first publicly funded school and the
site of its first constitutional convention, will be the backdrop
to one of dozens of rallies to be held Thursday throughout the
state to prevent more cuts to education.
For local coverage of the protests, see the Free Lance on Tuesday and look back to the Web.
Colton Hall, California’s first publicly funded school and the site of its first constitutional convention, will be the backdrop to one of dozens of rallies to be held Thursday throughout the state to prevent more cuts to education.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, along with former Assemblyman John Laird, Monterey County Superintendent of Schools Nancy Kotowski and other local officials, will lead a rally with teachers, parents and students to demand a stop to further reductions to California’s educational system. The rally will be held from 4 to 6 p.m.
“The kids are being affected by this,” said Jill Low, president of the Monterey Bay Teachers Association and the organizer of the event. “Everybody in education is working as hard as (they) can, but they’re doing jobs that two people did last year. You had more supplies, more time.”
O’Connell was scheduled to be in town for a fundraiser for Kotowski, so Low invited him to the rally and he accepted, Low said.
California has cut $17 billion in the education budget in the last two years, and more cuts are expected as legislators attempt to balance a budget with a projected $20 billion deficit.
Monterey County K-12 schools are slated to lose almost $94 million in the 2010-11 budget cycle, according to the Monterey County Office of Education. It would be the third round of cuts since 2008, and by then, the county would have lost nearly 38 percent of its funding.
All of the school districts in Salinas are expected to hold rallies from 6:45 to 7:45a.m. – in front of the Cesar Ch vez Library, on North Main Street and Alvin Drive, in front of Salinas High, and in front of Alvarez High. Hartnell College, Monterey Peninsula College and CSU-Monterey Bay are scheduling events throughout the day.
Salinas City Union Superintendent Donna Alonzo Vaughan said schools need to raise awareness of what budget cuts are doing to education, and that’s why she’s helping promote the Salinas rallies.
“We really need everyone to understand these cuts are too much,” she said.
What began as a “California Day of Action” has spread throughout the country, with events planned in several states, including Florida, Minnesota, Rhode Island, New York and Alabama.
More than 100 events are being planned in California, including walk-outs and teach-ins at several universities.
It’s the first time in recent history that all segments of education will unite in their struggle to save funding, according to the California Faculty Association. Last fall, hundreds of university students protested fee hikes at their campuses, including a three-day occupation of University of California-Santa Cruz.
California ranks 23rd for per-pupil spending in the nation, according to a report by the Census Bureau based on 2007 data. Education has lost $17 billion since then.
For information, see www.standupforschools.org/.
