Monday, May 9, 2011
California teachers mobilize to pass taxes
So you may have noticed that all the teachers around campus today were wearing stickers that showed California with red markings around it and the title "State of Emergency". This is the teacher's reaction to the dwindling amount of money in the public school system, and the fact that Jerry Brown will be passing the revised budget plan on the 16th. Teachers are hoping that California will go ahead and just pass the legislation and new taxes, instead of waiting around for a popular vote, where the school system will lose even more money..(people hate paying taxes, even if it affects their child's education, apparently). Teachers are staging a sit-in at the Capitol building in Sacramento. I really respect the Teacher's Association for organizing a large movement of this scale. As the article mention, the numbers in the last few years are staggering. 30,000 teachers laid off, over 7 billion less being spent on education, etc..Such horrible statistics. teachers are emphasizing more taxation of the rich in California, as well as a tax on oil drilling. According to the article, funding has gone down in the last few years about 540 dollars per student, resulting in larger class sizes, and an even shorter school year..Although I enjoy our short school years, the cuts continue and should be a serious source of debate and tension now, as well as in the future..What do you guys think should happen? Are you fans of the popular vote? What about taxation of the rich? Feel free to voice your opinion.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
I think these huge cuts are awful. I guess it sounds like a better idea to pass the taxes now and not wait for the popular vote and lose even more money. Ideally neither of these would have to happen and public schools would get funding. I heard a statistic that the government spends almost 80 dollars a day on prisoners, while they spend less than a cent on each student. This just shocked me. Why are they spending so much on prisoners? I think the teacher sit ins are something that is necessary in order to change ridiculous statistics like that.
Funding public education is a huge prblem. It is exensive for government to fund and it is easy for it to cut. As Erica said before, I don't think they should wait for a popular vote. Also, I think that the ease at which we add new programs yet the hurdle of adding new taxes when voting is the problem. In many ways, the voting procedure of new programs and taxes fails to ensure proper funding for many programs. Therefore, funds are beeing cut out from public education.
I think this is really sad compared to many places around the world. Some countries give free education up to the university level and the level of education in other countries are substantially better. The public need to be more aware of cutting taxes and realize that increasing taxes is more benefitial for kids now and in the future.
I agree with Erica, we shouldn't just wait around for a popular vote. When is a majority of people going to vote to increase their taxes? When people see the word "tax" they automatically think "no." I mean, who logically wants to pay more taxes? Taking money out of their own pockets and giving it to the government? Even if it does effect the education of their children, the parents aren't the one that are experiencing the changes. And I doubt that students go home and complain to their parents that their classes are getting too big. Honestly, I really think that most parents don't know how much the budget cuts are effecting their child's education.
So besides just increasing the taxes, I think we need to educate the parents.
Furthermore, as Ayaka mentioned, the United States has a drastically low standard for education when compared to other countries. This really isn't the time to cut back on education. The education of America's children, is the education of America's future.
I believe that our solution to this dilemma is to increase spending for education while cutting spending in crime prevention. Studies have shown that a better education actually decreases the likelihood of crime if a student is given the support that they need. Obviously this support diminishes if teachers aren't being payed overtime or if they are getting less income. So, before we go out to better the rest of the crime-ridden areas of California, we should start at home to prevent crime from continuing.
http://www.sacbee.com/2009/06/22/1968321/30-years-of-budget-problem-mileposts.html
Reading this article really puts things in perspective. From this I think it's pretty clear that California is in the mess it's in today because of Prop 13 from the 70's, which was like pulling a drain in a bathtub full of money. Since then, funding that was once provided for education and a slew of other things by the property taxes has disappeared, and the legislature has been trying to bear the burden left by prop 13, which has created these debts and necessitated the cuts. To me the obvious solution would be to reinstate the property tax, but that's unlikely, even though everybody knows that the only way to fix the issue is to raise taxes.
Also, Brown's proposed budget allocates 37 billion dollars to K-12 education and only 9 billion dollars towards prisons, which is a good thing. Out of all the items on the budget, K-12 education receives the most funding, which is really promising. It seems to me that Brown has his priorities straight; I just hope this budget passes, and I hope sometime soon people will realize what prop 13 has done to California
I agree that these cuts are awful. Education is one of the most important pieces of our society, yet it always seems to be hit the hardest. Therefore, I am willing to pay a little more in taxes as long as I know that this will go toward school funding. Taxing the rich and oil drilling sounds like a pretty good solution. However, it seems extremely non-democratic to pass the legislation without a popular vote. If taken out of context, I would have definitely answered that it is better to see what the popular vote is. However, because I know that this is for something as important as education, I believe that the legislation should be passed without the popular vote. Sometimes the government needs to take initiative and make decisions that the people can't. No one likes being taxed, and therefore few people will vote for new taxes. The schools have been hit so hard already; it is time to step up and give a little back.
yeah, definitely out of context, the non-democratic vote seems shady..thanks for the comments guys, I firmly believe in the point Michael made as well. It's long been known that education prevents crime, it seems so simple to therefore place more of the budget emphasizing education...
There are few people who don't believe education is one of the most integral parts of a society. Ironically, we are very unwilling to spend for it. Funding for education brings tremendous long-term benefits, but directs money away from short-term problems. We must be more vigilant in our spending, and hold firm to the belief that money towards education is an investment that will yield tremendous benefits in the future.
The same situation somewhat occurs with environmentalism. We are often unwilling to invest more in R&D and infrastructure because their benefits only blossom decades later.
This short-term outlook needs to change and change quickly if meaningful progress is to be made.
Just real quick. What Mikey is saying is true, however most studies such as those are based on Observational studies, which can only prove correlation, not cause and effect. And I can think of a whole lot of reasons that are the underlying causes of both, but it wouldn't fit here so just trust me on this one.
Alright well. I'm as worried about kids our age and younger learning. When push comes to shove with the right kind of support group (aka parents, family, and friends) theyre gonna learn. They gonna make sure that kids are gonna be in school long enough to learn the necessary skills to get a job that pays sustainably enough.
Butttt I'm more worried about the teachers. Cause thinking about the future is good and all but teachers are human beings too. They got to put food on the table too. Ppl would probably die they wait for a budget to pass on an empty stomach.
The whole popular vote for raises in taxes thing removes state legislature's ability to fill it's trustee roll bc either way, it goes back to the ppl. Sometimes what's best for the state and it's ppl isnt always gonna be the popular thing to do.
-raymond lim
"I'm not as worried about...."
Post a Comment