Educators march to Sacramento
BY VICTOR GARCIA AND ERIC WOOMER • VDGARCIA@VISALIA.GANNETT.COM AND EWOOMER@VISALIA.GANNETT.COM • MARCH 17, 2010
A group marching from Bakersfield to Sacramento to protest education cuts made its way through Tulare and Visalia on Tuesday.
Seven people are walking 352 miles as part of a "Marching for California's Future" effort, which is backed by the California Federation of Teachers 
The group's message: California will be in trouble unless it restores threatened educational funding and other public services. The marchers started on Foster Drive in Tulare, near Sunrise Estates, and moved north on Mooney Boulevard to College of the Sequoias. COS will feel the effects of California's cuts, said Jim Miller, a San Diego City College professor and member of the group.
"We need schools like College of the Sequoias because we have more than 2.9 million students attendingcommunity
Some students agreed that the state must find ways to make education more affordable.
"I don't get financial aid, and school isn't cheap," said COS student Justine Valencia. "I am paying for everything out of pocket and have had to cut back on things, a lot of personal expenses. Hopefully, these marches can bring attention to the problem in the schools."
A signature-gathering event at the college will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today. Melissa Arrington, the group's field organizer, said the signatures will be added to the Majority Budget Act, which would allow the state budget to be approved by a simple majority rather than a two-thirds majority.
Supporters of that act hope to see it added to the November ballot.
"We are going to fight for what we believe in and show that education is important," Arrington said.