Protesters reconvene to rally against education cuts
By Cristina Chang
Oct. 7, 2010 2:14 a.m.
Protesters from the Los Angeles March 4th Committee will gather outside the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters today to protest budget cuts in the education and social services sector.
The rally, which will begin at 2:30 p.m., will call for the preservation of education and social services funding, said Yuisa Gimeno, a member of the March 4th Committee. Gimeno said she will oppose any effort by the state legislature to cut government jobs or to cut health care for documented immigrants.
The Los Angeles March 4th Committee to Defend Public Education and Social Services is comprised of teachers, students, concerned community members, feminist groups and socialist organizations, Gimeno said. The committee was created after the National Day of Action that took place on March 4, when roughly 10,000 students and teachers walked out of Los Angeles schools and universities and went to downtown Los Angeles to protest budget cuts to public education.
The committee reconvened and set a new day of action for Oct. 7, Gimeno said.
The education and services cuts are not the result of a budget crisis but are a matter of the state’s priorities, she said. For instance, California is the top state in prison spending, committing $47,000 per prisoner annually. But when it comes to student spending, California ranks 46, with less than $8,000 per pupil, Gimeno said.
The March 4 rally made it clear to politicians and the people of California that education is an important issue that needs to be publicly funded, said Christian Haesemeyer, UCLA associate professor of math, who attended the first rally in March.
Haesemeyer, however, said that while the actual effect of the rally may be minimal because of the way the state is run, protesters must continue their efforts nevertheless.
“You can’t expect to change the world with one day of action. I do hope a lot of people turn out so we get some new energy and get going again for the academic year,” Haesemeyer said.
He added that the rally will encourage November’s electoral candidates to take the issue of education seriously.
The lower the funding and the more privatized education becomes, the less priority the government places on creating informed, active and skilled citizens, he said.
Social services are being cut left and right, and the cost of living and unemployment is going up while wages are stagnating, said Arturo Velasquez, a March 4th Committee member and a fourth-year history student at California State University, Los Angeles.
“The reason why they’re (cutting the budget) is because there isn’t anyone challenging the attacks on a mass scale,” he said. “Hopefully, March 4 can be a force to motivate people to start fighting back.”
According to Ali Ahmadpour, a March 4th Committee organizer and professor of art history at El Camino College, the committee is advocating the involvement of students to push for more spending in federal and state education and public services instead of bailing out banks and corporations.
“We are advocating for free education, from A to Z, not just higher education,” he said. “As a teacher, I genuinely believe education should be free, not a privilege to those who can afford it or the children of multimillionaires.”
