By Khalida Sarwari
Hundreds of school employees from all over California along with their supporters rolled through downtown San Jose this afternoon waving placards decrying Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to cut $18 billion in education funding.
State Superintendent of Public Education Jack O’Connell joined employees, parents and students as they marched from the McEnery Convention Center to the Alfred E. Alquist State Building chanting, “Education is a right! We are here and ready to fight!”
“We need real reform, we need systemic change,” O’Connell told the crowd. “We cannot let this governor or any governor balance the budget on the back of public education.”
During the rally, parents and students delivered “penny postcards” to the offices of Assemblymen Jim Beall Jr. and Joe Coto, and State Sens. Abel Maldonado and Elaine Alquist. The postcards call on the governor and legislators to “step up for education. If we want great schools, we can’t keep shortchanging them.”
Demonstrators argued that the cuts will result in larger class sizes, longer bus trips, fewer teachers and administrators, and loss of music and art classes. They claimed that lack of funding to education will further hinder a state that continues to rank nearly last in the nation in per-pupil spending.
“It’s not just about cuts to schools and how they ravage every child’s future,” Art Pulaski of the California Labor Federation said. “Its’ about every job. Every slash by Schwarzenegger makes this recession worse and harder for families everywhere.”
Rob Feckner, president of the California School Employees Association, called on lawmakers to reinvest in education by standing up to the governor, not standing with the governor.
“It’s really simple. If you want to invest in the future, invest in public education,” O’Connell said. “Talk is cheap, it’s time for action. It’s time to invest in the future, it’s time to invest in public education.”
An instructional assistant at Rio Hondo Junior College in Whittier argued that the solution to the prosperity of public education is to boot Schwarzenegger out of the governor’s seat.
“We want the governor out so we can do what we need to do for the school system,” Elizabeth Tarin said.
James Spencer, a bus driver for special education children in grades K-12 for West Sonoma County, expressed disappointment in the governor’s priorities.
“It’s going to be kids walking instead of being transported safely,” Spencer said. “He wants to keep cutting, taking programs away. It’s ridiculous that he is attacking working class people instead of going after corporate.”
A spokesman for Schwarzenegger today said the reductions are painful but are offset by federal stimulus funds.
“The debt and the scope of this recession and the dramatic drop it has caused in state revenue has forced not only the governor but the legislature to make difficult reductions in every category,” Schwarzenegger spokesman H.D. Palmer said.
Palmer stated, “One of the other things we have done is that we have given school districts greater flexibility to prioritize and transfer funds within a categorical program to be able to weather the crisis.”
The California School Employees Association, representing about 230,000 custodians, secretaries, cafeteria workers, technicians, bus drivers and other school employees, is in town all week for an annual conference and organized the demonstration.