Hundreds Rally Against Education Budget Cuts
By Fred Ortega
— Video: Education Cuts Rally
— Photo Gallery: Education Cuts Rally
WHITTIER – Students, parents, educators and elected officials gathered at Pioneer High School Saturday to rail against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed school budget cuts.
The roughly 250 people who attended the rally on the school’s football field were far less than the thousands expected by the Whittier City Parents for Education, a parent-run student advocacy group that organized the event.
“I wish we had more people here today,” said Kathy Marin, principal of Phelan Elementary School, who’s had to hand out pink slips to eight teachers because of the proposed cuts. “Anyone in our society should support our educational system, because anything that effects it negatively affects us all.”
Schwarzenegger is proposing more than $4 billion in cuts to the education budget, which has schools across the state planning everything from layoffs to school closures.
A former East L.A. teacher, Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Norwalk, said every school district in the area he represents has similar plans in place.
“The governor is proposing to cut $4.4 billion for education,” Mendoza said, as Aztec dancers performed behind him for a crowd holding signs reading “Flunk the Budget” and “Books, not Bombs.”"We need to be investing more in education, not less.”
Whittier Union High School District should be able to absorb its $4.5 million in cuts from the governor’s plan without having to lay off teachers, said district board member Ralph S. Pacheco.
“We are in a little better shape than other districts that are experiencing declining enrollment,” said Pacheco. “But if there is a continuation of the budget crisis beyond this fiscal year, every school district in California is going to be in dire straits.”
Whittier City School District is already in the hole, having issued pink slips for more than 30 teachers and upwards of 50 classified personnel, said Javier Gonzalez, a district board member.
“When you lose teachers, that means the teacher-to-student ratio will increase,” said Gonzalez, who also chairs the math department at Pioneer High School. “We are even talking about closing one of our schools, which is a drastic measure.”
Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, said he was confident the Legislature will be able to resist the governor’s proposed cuts.
“I think we will have a solution, and if there are any cuts they are going to be looked at very closely,” Calderon said. “There won’t be a draconian style approach to this.”
Daniel Benavidez, 10, a fourth-grader at West Whittier Elementary, attends a district where some third-grade class sizes are already projected to go from 20 students per teacher to upwards of 30 per classroom because of the proposed cuts.
He had a message for the governor.
“Please,” Benavidez said, “stop closing our schools and making our teachers leave.”
fred.ortega@sgvn.com
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