SACRAMENTO, CA -- Students from all over California were converging on the State Capitol Thursday morning for a "day of action" to bring attention to the importance of education funding. List of planned rallies around Sacramento Valley
Organizers called this an historic event because students from kindergarten to college will be showing up to send a message of solidarity.
Kevin Wehr, a professor of sociology organizing the effort at Sacramento State University, said they are protesting the budget cuts to education over the past several years and sending a message to lawmakers that they're expecting the money that's been promised for the 2010 budget year.
Wehr, plus other faculty members and students, have been making signs and handing out t-shirts. They're expecting 500 to 600 people from their campus to show up.
One of them is 5th year student Robert Graham, who studies government. He's from a lower-middle class background and his parents just lost their jobs and their home. Without help from his family, he says he had to get two jobs and is $40,000 in debt.
"Because I hear no one can get jobs right now with their degrees, it's horrible," said Graham. "I'm about to get a degree, but I know people that have degrees who are making minimum wage."
Graham said he has some faith that lawmakers will hear their message. He was encouraged by recent promises to protect education funding, but he wants students to join the protest to keep the message on the top of lawmakers' minds.
Wehr said he realizes the state's budget mess, but says it's important to remember education is important when it come training the tax base, and that higher education can be used as a law enforcement tool by keeping people out of prison in the first place.