Community group stages protest to 'rescue' California's education budget
By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers EMOTIONAL- Agoura Hills resident Alyssa Franke holds a pair of signs imploring Sen. Tom McClintock in Thousand Oaks to oppose the governor's education budget cuts.

A volunteer community group called Californians Organized to Rescue Education (CORE) and the 12th District Parent-Teacher Association took to the streets to express their grievances with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed education budget cuts.

On Fri., April 25, members of CORE and the regional PTA branch demonstrated outside state Sen. Tom McClintock's Thousand Oaks office. More than 50 people carrying signs showed up to demonstrate their objection to Schwarzenegger's proposed $4.8 billion in education cuts. In Las Virgenes Unified School District alone, the cuts translate into a loss of nearly $7 million next year.

McClintock's office was chosen for the demonstration since he is the state senator representing the area of the 12th District PTA.

Penny Salomon, co-chair of CORE with Zeona Friedlander, said they delivered more than 100 postcards in protest of the proposed cuts to McClintock's office.

According to Aleta Smith, the Conejo Council PTA president, the postcard stated: "The state budget proposal that looks at cuts alone is not a real solution because it doesn't address California's underlying problem of inadequate and unstable revenue sources. You can't talk about spending cuts without also talking about increasing revenues."

Smith said the message to McClintock was simple. If Proposition 98, a minimum education funding guarantee in the state's constitution, is "eviscerated," the consequences will be "devastating," she said.

In January Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency, which allowed him to suspend Proposition 98 to deal with the budget crisis. Smith said protesters also asked McClintock to respect the willofth e voters.

Salomon said, "It's the 'Year of Education,' and the goal of the state and future prosperity of the state depends on our students being well educated. We think there should be no cuts to education."

Since education funding is directly linked to the state economy, Salomon said the system is fundamentally flawed. When the economy goes into recession, funding for education and other vital services, including health-care, are threatened.

"The funding system for establishing the budget is unstable and unreliable," she said. "We as a state have to come to grips with the fact that we need to change the way schools and other important services are funded."

Rather than shore up the $16billion budget deficit on the "backs of kids," Salomon wants tax loopholes closed, especially on the Vehicle License Fee, which was suspended once Schwarzenegger took office. Some say that if the licensing fee had not been suspended there would be no budget crisis today.

Smith, Salomon and others also think revenue must be raised through a tax hike. "(Money) doesn't grow on trees, certainly not on the governor's trees," Salomon said.

"Education should not be a partisan issue," Salomon said. Politicians who pledge that they will never approve new taxes or programs to enhance revenues and offset the budget cuts are in violation of their oath of office, she said.

Las Virgenes Superintendent Donald Zimring said neither the governor nor the Legislature had accurately predicted the degree of public outcry on the proposal to cut spending on education.

"Weekly protests were beyond anything that was expected," he said. "It's very telling that the governor and Legislature are truly out of touch with what is really important to the citizens in this state."

On to the governor's office

A protest march to the governor's Los Angeles office is scheduled for Fri., May 16. Smith said members from four PTAs- Ventura, South Los Angeles, Santa Monica/Malibu and South Pasadena- along with members from CORE, will meet in Pershing Square at 10:30 a.m.

The group will march to Schwarzenegger's office by 11 a.m. to deliver their unified message against the proposed cuts to education.

Salomon said people in the Conejo Valley plan to take public transportation to Pershing Square on May 16.

Anyone is invited to join the protest by meeting at the Warner Center Transit Station on Oxnard Street and Owensmouth Avenue in Woodland Hills at 9 a.m.

For more information about the upcoming action, call Penny Salomon at (818) 4302499 or email Cvs619 @charter.net.