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Friday, February 10, 2012
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Look out, Governor Schwarzenegger! Thousands of angry students are yelling at your front door.
Today at the Capitol, college students from all over California gathered to speak up about their frustrations in this year’s ‘March in March’.
At 10:00 am, a crowd of thousands from all over the state started marching from Raley Field towards the Capitol. The passion of the students could be felt in the air during the walk.
“What do we want? EDUCATION! When do we want it? NOW!” “You say cut that, we say fight back!”
These were just a couple of the many chants that could be heard throughout the crowd. Anybody with functioning ears within a ten-block radius could probably hear the screams.
As the swarm of people kept growing at the steps of the Capitol, it became very cramped and very loud. Thousands were eventually gathered, showing the true enthusiasm of the people in California’s higher education system. Many carried signs that said 'Stop Education Cuts', 'Schools not War', and 'Tax the Rich'. Some, though, were not as serious. I came across one that said 'Chuck Norris supports education' and one that had a person looking at a dog and saying 'cat' showing why we need education. The people had a serious agenda, but the mood remained light for most of the crowd.
The first speaker to the stage was SSCCC President Richael Young, who was very engaging to the crowd, especially the many from community colleges around the state.
Next up, was SSCCC Vice President Troy Carter, followed by quite a few other speakers from colleges around California. They were from different areas, but shared the same message: Keep colleges effective, open, and affordable.
One of the speakers who was full of charisma, who is also candidate for governor for the 2010 election, was Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, who criticized the state for trying to cut its most valuable asset: its students. There was an uproar of screams and applause during all of the speeches given at the Capitol.
Seeing the crowd from the steps of the Capitol stretching out to Tower Bridge gave a sense of awe. To see that there were that many people passionate about education gave me some hope. During this time where everything seems to be getting worse, hope was a very welcome feeling. You could see it on the faces of all of the people. People who traveled from all over the state just to be there for a few hours (some from as far away as San Diego) didn’t care about the long ride they had ahead of them. They knew what they were there for, and they were going to get it. The students of California colleges are the future of the state. Having affordable education for all is a basic American right and there should never be any governmental move that would stop people from getting it.
Hopefully, legislators will recognize this march and react accordingly. If they don’t, I have no doubt that even more students will come to the Capitol to show them who they’re hurting.
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What can be said as a "little bit more difficult" may be easy for one person to say but not for all. I have been waiting a very long time to get my higher education so "a little" is more than a word, a feeling, but an understatement, especially if I plan to transfer to a Cal State. Which by the way was hit hard and so those who can not get into Cal States and UC's are flowing into the Community Colleges. In fact because of that and the recession the Community Colleges are educating over 100,000 students unfunded. Which puts more pressure for many Community Colleges that are in the red. In fact much of our tuition does not make its way back to the Community Colleges. Techinically about $3 per every $20 unit that is paid makes its way back to the Community College. The remaining technically goes to K - 12. In addition for every $1 that a student puts into the Community College the State of California gets $3 back. Community Colleges also provide about 50% of the workforce in California.