CALIFORNIA AT A CROSSROADS; MY GENERATION’S FUTURE HANGS IN BALANCE
BY MIRIAM HERNANDEZ - JUNIOR AT ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL IN FRESNO | FROM THOUGHTS ON PUBLIC EDUCATION \ HTTP://BIT.LY/LTVRJS
5/10/11 • Today I’m traveling to Sacramento, along with hundreds of student and parent leaders from across California, to deliver an urgent but simple message to the State Legislature and the Governor: It’s time to upgrade California’s education system.
We’re coming to our state’s capitol as part of the Campaign for Quality Education, a statewide coalition of grassroots, civil rights, policy, and research organizations committed to educational equity for all communities in California’s public schools. We travel from the gritty grassroots to the halls of power, as mothers, fathers, students, brothers, sisters, and community leaders.
We’re here because California is at a crossroads. Our state’s economic future depends on the brainpower of the rising generation — my generation.
Over the past two years, $17 billion has been cut from education in California. According to the California Budget Project, in 2009-2010 California’s K-12 per-pupil spending ranked 45th in the country. And we are last in students-per-teacher ratio.
I’m angry about it. I think we should move in a direction that strengthens the California Dream, not one that jeopardizes our economic future. An educated society is a