Marching in the streets against education cuts

By sundialadmin
March 4th, 2010
Section: Multimedia - News - Photos

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  • student

    I’m sure the protest was a way to show the public that students are concerned about the budget cuts. I’m sure many of them are trying to find more organized ways of solving this issue. This is just one of the many ways of voicing opinions. Some of the students don’t know how to voice their opinion and this may be their first step.

    As to one of the comments, I do agree with cutting funds to welfare. I have a longer explanation as to why but overall, I think that the welfare system is being abused far too much and I’ve seen it first hand. I know there are families who are truly in need of assistance but there are those who rely on government money to get by in life and won’t even try to find other ways to support themselves. Whatever happened to hard work?

    Conclusion?
    –No matter who is elected, what laws are passed, etc. no one will be satisfied.$h!t happens–

  • CSUN Professor

    My Management 380 students did not walk out of class to join the protest today. Instead, we sat down together as a group of concerned citizens and powerful think-tank, and using all of our Creativity and Problem-Solving skills we have mastered in our COBAE curriculum, set out to create solutions to the real problem in our state today – the financial crisis.

    These incredible students set out to tackle the real issues and in doing so generated an incredible list of ideas. Some of the ideas were merely implausible, some were hysterical, and all were innovative and important.

    I have proudly passed along this great list of ideas to my congressperson. At CSUN our business majors have learned that chaotic times require courageous leadership, and we have learned the skills to meet challenge head-on.

    Please join these courageous leaders in my Management 380 class, and choose to be part of the solution.

  • Charles Hatfield

    In fact those organizing yesterday’s protests DO have specific solutions in mind.

    For one thing, there’s Assembly Bill 656, the oil severance tax bill to fund higher ed. For another, there are calls for more progressive taxation and the elimination of upper-income bracket and corporate income tax loopholes.

    Yesterday’s protests are part of a larger conversation about budget and taxation.

    As for education being a right, California historically has had a Master Plan that has said, well, just that.

    • CSUN student

      Raising taxes during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression – wonderful idea! Go for it – by the time you are done California won’t even be able to fund kindergarten.

  • Bill

    You raise taxes. More properly, you raise revenue. When revenue = budget, you then set the budget so that you keep it consistent NOT going up on good years hoping the good times keep on rolling.

    You do not offer more tax breaks. You do not keep the state “good for business”. Good for business means they get to screw you and take the money away from the state if they want.

    We’re the 7th largest economy in world. And you’re saying we somehow can’t balance the budget and have to cut? That’s a load of crap.

  • CSUN student

    So they want no budget cuts, no tuition/fee increases, and they want professors’ salaries not to be cut. Do any of them have answers as to how to achieve this since funding from the state is reduced? And please don’t try the “the state should not cut education funding” argument either, that is as pointless and nonsensical as arguing against the budget cuts. The state is beyond broke. Yeah, it sucks, but that is the fact.

    So something has got to give – how about we cut welfare/food stamp benefits for illegals – heck, for everyone while we are at it? We could make the requirements for getting MediCal more stringent to decrease those rolls. We could make anyone who is not a legal resident of California pay out-of-state tuition. Let’s see, we could raise taxes even more. None of these is going to go over well.

    The point is – have any of the organizers and/or participants of these protests offered viable solutions to the problem? I have not heard any – please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

    Oh yeah – for those carrying signs saying “Education is a right” – if you are a college student you should know enough about the Constitution to know it is not, you may think it should be but that does not make it so.

    • kevin

      If your post were on Facebook I’d “Like” it.

    • Vickie

      Yes, there is a decrease in economic resources all over. However, it makes us want to inspect even more carefully how the money is s pent. We have less money from the state who has stolen huge amounts of money from Calworks and assistance for CA citizen women with children to give to the CSU. We are supposed to be happy with that. What Sacramento doesn’t make very public is the fact that they are HEAVILY subsidizing offshore drilling and the oil companies…to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. If corporations paid taxes at the rate we had in the sixties (not even something new), we would have over a billion to work with in the state budget. The state makes clear priorities that do not involve education or helping those who need help: disabled, children, and poor. Hmmmmm. Maybe there is more money in there to give to education and those who really need it.

      Let’s take a look at the CSU. The CSU system is run by a chancellor who has systematically mismanaged money since he got here in 1998 or so. He has chosen to increase the number of administrators by over 20% (each, I must add, making 100K or more) while decreasing the number of faculty by nearly 10%. He refurnishes his ample office in Long Beach with nice furniture (no IKEA there) every year. Hmmmm I wonder how far several hundred administrators’ salaries would go toward keeping classes open, keeping the doors of CSU open, fixing health hazard buildings on campus, treating students, staff, and faculty like human beings…..

      My daughter goes to the CSUN preschool. The preschool used to have hot lunches made by nutrition students and representing many different kinds of foods. Ooops! It costs too much money. I now pack a lunch for her every day. The system is even stealing from 3, 4, and 5 year olds. COME ON!

      BTW, I do work for a CSU campus and hope that I can keep it. The furlough takes 500.00 a month from me and with an unemployed husband, well, even a Ph.D. is struggling to make ends meet.

      So don’t give me the old tired diatribe about “illegal aliens” (insulting word, by the way…people are not “illegal”) taking all our money. They don’t benefit from any governmental programs and live in fear that Immigration’s ICE unit doesn’t come rough them up and destroy their lives before they can become documented. The problem is administrators and government leaders who have power, wish to keep it, and know to do so involves protecting the upper class. Period.

      • CSUN student

        You seemed to be well-versed in how Sacramento spends their money – then I got to the end of your post where you state that illegal aliens don’t benefit from governmental programs, that is a laughable comment. You do realize that many illegals (and yes they are illegal if they did not immigrate here through legal channels) benefit from a free education, numerous free medical clinics, emergency room visits that are paid by our taxes, many have found ways to get around the system and collect food stamps and other welfare benefits. If you are naive enough to believe this is not true, it is not worth wasting energy to discuss it with you further – I will only say that I do not make assumptions, I know these things as fact from first-hand knowledge.

        If you are not happy with CSUN’s chancellor, I suggest you organize a group to get rid of him. If he truly is that big a part of the problem, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

    • jocelyn

      I think that before you blame California’s budget crisis on “illegal immigrants” you should really get all your facts straight. No human being is illegal; unfortunately people like you are quick to target this group of people because they are the most vulnerable. Expand your vocabulary: UNDOCUMENTED …that was a free tip by the way! Undocumented people do not receive government assistance of any sort in the state of California. So please get some factual information regarding the demographics of those that do utilize welfare, medical, and food stamps. Oh yea and then think of the systemic disadvantages that those people experience because I am sure that they do not want to depend on the system. I am sure you have been privileged your whole life and that is why you have this mentality.
      The organizers, student and professor protesters have offered tangible alternative solutions for funding for example AB 656 check it for yourself…
      http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_0651-0700/ab_656_bill_20090225_introduced.html
      This might just be one of the alternatives that makes sense. As for Education is not a right because its not in the Constitution …then maybe we shouldn’t have made all those darn amendments huh? It’s a given that everything written by the “founding father” was not perfect and therefore changes have been made. But education is an unalienable right because it is directly linked to the pursuit of happiness.
      Last time I checked undocumented people are not in office making the policies and can’t even vote for those in office so how do they impact this state budget? As far as for the responsible party of this whole mess is in my opinion is a governor whose only experience is being the terminator…so those of you that voted for him …it’s your fault too! Maybe you should come up with better solutions because I shot yours down already ;)

      • CSUN student

        Sorry Jocelyn, you didn’t shoot anything down. First of all, I did not blame the education crisis on illegals – you may chose to call them undocumented if you so desire, but illegal alien is also an accurate descriptor because they are aliens in this country illegally (but of course you already knew that, you just do not want to admit it). I brought up cutting back services provided to illegal aliens only as a method of trimming the California budget so that you won’t have to pay higher college tuition, etc.
        Your statement that “undocumented” people do not receive state assistance is not only patently incorrect, it is laughable that anyone honestly believes that (see above reply to Vickie).
        Thank you for posting the link to AB 656, it only served to prove my point – if you read the bill you would realize that other than calling for an advisory board to oversee how education funds are spent, the recommendations in the bill are all about raising taxes. Oh, but we are only going to raise taxes on the big bad oil/gas companies – so it’s all good. Well I have news for you sister, those oil and gas companies provide jobs and contribute significantly to the economic base in California (as well as on a national level). Have you studied how many businesses have been driven out of California as a direct result of the insane tax structure, and how that has impacted our economy?I didn’t think so.