Educators stage protest

STEPHANIE BERTHOLDO/Acorn Newspapers MESSAGE- Las Virgenes School District Superintendent Don Zimring implores the state to protect public school funding. Hundreds of protestors rallied at the governor's office in Los Angeles May 16 and brought with them more than 7,500 letters demanding adequate funding for California public schools and healthcare.

Seven hundred of the letters were tacked to a poster board that stretched a full city block.

The rally was sponsored by local PTA's and C.O.R.E. (Californians Organized to Rescue Education), a grass roots group of parents from the Las Virgenes Unified School District.

"We've been told that Sacramento has heard our cries, our outrage, and that the folks up there want us to stop," said Ziona Friedlander, C.O.R.E. co-founder with Penny Salomon. "Well, sir, we'd be glad to oblige all of you once you've all demonstrated that you know how to do the job that you were elected to do."

State Assemblymember Julia Brownley and other local officials attended the rally.

"With Proposition 98 a promise to our school children, (and) as chair of the assembly budget subcommittee number two on education, I regard the governor's proposal to balance the budget using $4.3 billion in Proposition 98 funding as a serious breach of trust," Brownley said.

"This budget makes a good start, but it's not good enough," said Scott Folsom, immediate past president of the Tenth District PTA (Los Angeles).

"It still flunks the first test of good government: It still hurts our kids. . . . We need to increase revenue and spending to pay for the services that children up and down the state need and deserve," Folsom said.

- Stephanie Bertholdo