Our View- March 4th protest calls for support of education
Published: Wednesday, March 3, 2010
 "Photo: Robbie Eich")
Robbie Eich
If you’re at all a fan of politics, you quickly learn that a war of words is won or lost in picking what issues to debate.
We see this in the case of recent activity by the Republican Party, which has framed the upcoming November elections around our government’s supposed growing power and increased spending. Contrast that with what Democrats would rather discuss — like the success of the stimulus package or their efforts to increase access to health insurance — and it becomes apparent how important it is to pick your battles.
This principle of engagement is why we support today’s marches in support of California’s education systems, which are being attacked with budget cuts.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told state legislatures in January that the state spends 11 percent of its budget on prisons and only 7.5 percent on higher education. The governor admitted that 30 years earlier the opposite was true — California gave 10 percent of its budget to higher education and only 3 percent to prisons.
What happened? A number of occurrences were beyond the state’s control and some events Californians actually had a say over. We’re talking about propositions that California voters have passed that have hurt education.
Take, for example, California’s three strikes law and the case of Isaac Ramirez. After being convicted of past wrongdoings, Ramirez was sentenced to 25 years in prison, after committing his third strike in 1996. His crime was stealing a $200 VCR from Sears.
Luckily for Ramirez — not to mention the state’s coffers — he was released in 2002 after intervention by a federal court.
Luckily for Ramirez — not to mention the state’s coffers — he was released in 2002 after intervention by a federal court.
We’re not advocating that the state should release violent criminals or lessen its punishments for crimes such as murder, rape or robbery. What we are asking for is that the state reconsider how to deal with individuals like Ramirez.
In an article by NPR, Ramirez said the “word of God” changed him during his stay in prison. The power of literature is not unique to Ramirez. The cases of other prisoners, some convicted of violent crimes, attest to the universal benefit of reading.
Ramirez could be used as an example of what can happen when the state lacks funding for public education. Better schools usher less crime.
If Ramirez received an education from a well-funded, well-established California school, he may have not committed these crimes to begin with.
But why do California schools lack funding? We obviously can’t blame this solely on overfunded prisons. This question takes us to another proposition worth questioning.
In 1978 California voters amended the state constitution via Proposition 13. The proposition, passed in early June of that year, limiting property to tax to 1 percent of the full cash value of the real estate and capped any increase of such tax to 2 percent. Some of the funding was used for education.