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Thousands of people, young and old from differing cultures and walks of life, rallied together in an effort to amplify the same universal message to legislators last week: "No more cuts to education."

Last Thursday's effort, called "Start the Day for Students," was an urgent statewide day of action to fight for the diminishing resources for students, and California's future. It was organized at the University of California at Berkeley but expanded nationally with similar rallies held in other states that have seen the economic downturn stress its budgets and trigger education cuts.

According to the Stand Up For Schools Web site, the 106 initial events registered early last week grew to 218 by Thursday. Although most of the events were peaceful, protests in Oakland, Santa Cruz and Davis were raucous, garnering more attention from media outlets and police forces.

During rush hour traffic more than 150 people were taken to jail for blocking interstates 980 and 880, Oakland police said. At Davis, protestors clashed with police, who fired beanbags, tear gas and pepper spray, as protestors locked arms in an attempt to block Interstate 80. And students, faculty and workers used their bodies to block all campus entrances of the University of California at Santa Cruz, causing the school to be shut down for the day.

Local efforts were more peaceful.

Milpitas Unified School District was doing a leafleting campaign at all 13 school sites with teachers, administrators, parents

and board members handing out informational fliers to parents as they dropped their kids off that morning, said Michael Vieyra, secretary of Milpitas Teachers Association and California Teachers Association representative for Milpitas teachers.

He said the flier contained basic but vital information about how the $17 billion in cuts to education in the last two years have impacted public schools and colleges. Such impacts include the elimination of entire art, music and physical education programs and more than 16,000 educators being laid off. At state universities, student fees have grown almost 50 percent since 2007 while thousands fewer classes are being offered, according to the California