SANTA CRUZ -- Thursday, if labor organizers and advocates have their way, all levels of education will come to a grinding halt throughout the state as tens of thousands of students, teachers and their supporters march on Sacramento and in their communities in protest of California's education crisis.
The state's $20 billion budget deficit has trickled down to K-12 and higher education, leaving school districts, community colleges and universities scrambling to cut programs and staff to fill gaping budget holes. The proposed state budget leaves education short about $2.5 billion, despite Gov. Schwarzenegger's pledge to fully fund K-12 education.
UC Santa Cruz officials have had to cut about $50 million from their budget in the past two years and have asked academic and support services chairs for tentative plans to cut either 5.5 percent or 11 percent more for next year. Cabrillo College, with a spring enrollment of 5,514, is teaching the equivalent of 1,500 full-time students without state compensation, which runs between $4,500 and $5,000 per year per the equivalent of a full-time student.
Santa Cruz City Schools is looking to cut $5.2 million next year while the Pajaro Valley Unified School District is facing the loss of $8.7 million next year on top of $14 million in cuts for this year. Those include cuts to custodial staff and an assistant superintendent, class size increases from 20 to 30 students in kindergarten and third grade, and the loss of
all sports funding.
Scotts Valley is figuring out how to spread $1.5 million in cuts over the next three years. Other districts are dipping into rainy day funds to make up their differences, and nearly all are relying increasingly on parent fundraising.
Thursday's protests are part of a month-long demonstration for education, one piece of a solidarity movement by educators who are trying to show that troubles at one level of education impact all others.
"It's really an autonomous effort between students, workers and ... teachers," said Matthew Palm, UCSC Student Union Assembly commissioner of academic affairs.
About 120 UCSC students will be in Sacramento today to lobby, but the main focus is
