East Bay lawmakers weighed in throughout the day on Thursday's education protests:
* State Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, said she attended the rally Thursday morning at the state Capitol and "heard the students' voices.
"This should be the beginning of their advocacy throughout the budget process. More legislators and the governor need to heed their call," Corbett said. "I am well aware of the struggles California's students and families are going through because of the cost of going to college. In some cases, students have seen tuition triple, and this deeply concerns me. I am worried because families have had to make really difficult decisions about whether or not they can invest in their child's higher education, and this is wrong.
Especially in a down economy, California should be encouraging students to attend college, not turning them away, she said.
"As a state, higher education is one of our most important investments. We should not be destroying our future," Corbett said. "In Sacramento right now we are talking a lot about protecting and creating jobs. California's investment in education is directly tied to the economy and the availability of good jobs. Cuts to education rob our students of the tools they need to enter this state's highly skilled workforce and as a state we must renew our promise to California's students."
* State
Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, said it was encouraging to see that
faculty, students and parents care so deeply about the future of education in California.
"It is disgraceful that California's per pupil funding of K-12 education is ranked near the bottom among all states — 47th out of 50, according to 'Education Week' magazine. That is not acceptable and it is certainly no way to prepare our young people for the future or to build the California economy," Hancock said.
Meanwhile, state college and university students face overcrowding, reduced class availability, furloughed faculty and unprecedented fee hikes, she said, noting per-student state funding for the UC system has fallen 54 percent since 1990 and remains precarious in the face of another $20 billion state budget deficit. She urged protestors to support her proposed constitutional amendment to let the state budget be adopted by simple majority votes of the Assembly and state Senate rather than the two-thirds votes now required.
*
Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, who attended the State Capitol rally before joining parents and teachers in El Cerrito and Berkeley, said further state budget cuts to education would shorten the school year, eliminate summer-school programs and devastate art, music, physical education and special education — all when California already is ranked 47th in the nation for per-pupil spending.
"California cannot afford further cuts to schools that are still struggling to cope with the aftermath of last year's budget," she said. "Class sizes have increased, teachers and staff are facing lay-offs, purchases of essential classroom materials are being delayed, and adequate school maintenance has become impossible."
She renewed her call for California to collect sales tax owed by online retailers as New York does, and to pass an oil-severance fee just as all other oil-producing states have done. "Together these would generate billions in new revenue. Cutting education is not a budget solution," she said, adding local communities should be able to pass parcel taxes and the
