Nationwide protests to defend public education

Today, as the UCLA community rallies at Bruin Plaza, hundreds of public universities, community colleges and K-12 schools nationwide are participating in the National Day of Action to Defend Education.

“We are beginning something many of us have never seen and are proud to be part of,” said Julia Wallace, a UCLA alumna who will be marching with high school students from the south side to Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles. “It is a movement to defend education and social services as well as jobs.”

The day stems from the Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education that took place at UC Berkeley on Oct. 24, in which more than 800 representatives from more than 100 California schools, unions and organizations across all sectors of public education came together and voted upon a Strike and Day of Action on March 4.

California soon emerged as the center of today’s national movement. On Dec. 14, the California Coordinating Committee cited massive layoffs, fee hikes, cuts and the re-segregation of public education as “attacks” against students, workers, teachers and parents. Two days later, an ad hoc group of students and activists across multiple states noted that privatization, tuition and fee hikes, among other things, were further threatening a population already struggling under a difficult economy.

Separately, the two groups called for nationwide action on March 4 to defend public education.

Today, the strike spans 30 states and Washington, D.C., and even schools in Portugal are protesting in solidarity with the cause.

“I think the importance of this (day) is to promote unity and recognition on a campus-wide level, illustrating that there are issues that require collective student attention,” said first-year undeclared humanities student Spencer Pratt. “Students need to know what their money is paying for, and they rightly deserve an education that justifies their out-of-pocket contributions.”

While UCLA students plan to participate in picketing, rallies and a walkout, another 38 California schools will also take part in the action. Regional rallies are planned for Los Angeles, Sacramento, the East Bay, San Diego, San Francisco and the San Fernando Valley.

Outside of California, similar rallies and protests are taking place from Maine to Washington.

In North Carolina, the fight extends beyond the fee increases and massive teacher layoffs, as its focus lies in stopping the re-segregation of public schools in Wake, Wayne and Wilmington, according to the Fight Imperialism Stand Together Raleigh Web site. The claims of re-segregation emerged after the North Carolina school board’s vote to revoke the 2000 policy that used income information to promote economic diversity.

In Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Student Action Coalition argues that the state is treating students like “customers,” rather than “economic investments,” according to the United for Justice with Peace Web site. The coalition hopes to see at least 50 percent of all funding for public education come from the state, which currently ranks 46 in the nation in terms of funding public higher education.

“The higher the fees, the more education skews towards producing useful rather than educated students,” said Christian Haesemeyer, UCLA associate professor of math. “Are we just a factory that produces people to produce profit later, or is it about educating people? The more that education becomes a market place, the more it skews in the direction of producing cogs in the machine.”

Haesemeyer represents one of a growing number of UC faculty that have responded to what they call the “measures that undermine the core teaching, research and service mission of the university,” according to a letter written by UC senate faculty. Many faculty began March 1 by lobbying legislators and the governor in Sacramento.

“I think the eventual goal should be to reverse cuts. We are obviously in an economic crisis because of the failings of financial capitalism,” Haesemeyer said. “Now, it is not the people who failed or the institution that failed, yet they are being made to pay for the crisis. It is families, immigrants and others who cannot afford to pay for the burden.”

Having participated in protests against the introduction of tuition at Germany’s University of Bonn, Haesemeyer also noted that such a day should allow different sectors of society to build up trust among each other and stand in solidarity.

“Organizing is so widespread, that is what makes it so powerful,” said UC Student Association President Victor Sanchez. “This kind of action is exactly what is needed. Folks are really angry, and they will do their best to make it known.”

In making citizens’ anger known, the committee and the ad hoc group have gained hundreds of state and national endorsements since their December calls for action, including the California State University Employees Union, National Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, Frantz Mendes, President of the United Steelworkers Union, and the International Socialist Organization.

“Ultimately, it is another chapter in what has been an historic year to reclaim a public good that has been lost to privatization,” Sanchez said.