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Education Supporters Rally and March
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Education Supporters Rally and March
Ballot Initiatives Among Efforts to Address Budget Troubles
By Linda Fridy
As school districts grapple with continued cuts – $17 billion statewide in two years — local education supporters are joining a statewide effort to encourage support for ballot initiatives they hope will help change education funding.
A rally is planned for 4 p.m. Mar. 4 at the Town Clock in Santa Cruz and the next day, Renaissance High School teacher Jenn Laskin will join a 48-day march from Bakersfield to Sacramento.
These are not merely symbolic efforts, Laskin said. Funding for local schools is determined at the state level, which is why reform efforts target the state budget process and the ability of local districts to raise taxes.
The rally and march hope to garner support for these efforts.
Three similar initiatives are currently gathering signatures to change California's requirement for the Legislature to pass a budget from the current two-thirds majority to a simple majority. Laskin and Kim Dudley, one of the leaders of the Santa Cruz County Education Coalition, both favor the "California Democracy Act," or Lakoff initiative, but they encourage people to investigate all three.
The Local Control of Local Classrooms Funding Act would increase school districts' chances of raising local taxes by dropping the required voting majority to 55 percent from the current two-thirds.
Certain facility bond measures can already qualify for the 55 percent level. This effort would extend it to local options such as parcel taxes, which can fund a broader range of education programs. That initiative is also collecting signatures to qualify for the November 2010 ballot.
These efforts can only succeed with a grass-roots drive, said Laskin.
"We really need people to collect signatures. If the people can pick it up and take the petition to meetings and their churches and places they go, we can maybe get them both on the ballot," she said.
Taking It to the Valley
While the local education coalition galvanizes support in Santa Cruz County, Laskin and a former student of hers, Emmanuelle Ballesteros, want to change minds in the middle of the state.
"California doesn't have a spending problem, it has a budget problem. We believe the solution is in Sacramento," said Laskin, who, funded by the California Teachers Federation, is taking a leave from her teaching position to join the walk through traditionally Republican strongholds in the Central Valley.
She's also grateful for local support from Fleet Feet in Aptos for a crash course in nutrition and hydration planning for the many days on the road, plus the right gear.
The walkers hope to garner support for the initiatives and register new voters.
She said the economic crisis hits students such as those she teaches at Renaissance in more ways than only education program cuts. Families are also losing safety net support.
"I can't believe how many kids I have with both parents out of work. Those are the kind of things I think affect a student's ability to learn," she said.
Dudley invites anyone interested in supporting public education from elementary through university level to join the Santa Cruz County Education Coalition. For more information, please email kimdudley@earthlink.
net.
Descriptions of the ballot initiatives are available on ballotpedia.org and improvedschoolfunding.com.
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