Friday, March 16, 2012

In Elk Grove, and around state, students protest budget cuts - Education - The Sacramento Bee

In Elk Grove, and around state, students protest budget cuts - Education - The Sacramento Bee:


In Elk Grove, and around state, students protest budget cuts

dlambert@sacbee.com

PUBLISHED FRIDAY, MAR. 16, 2012


Students at Elk Grove Elementary School joined kids from San Francisco to Los Angeles to blow bubbles Thursday in protest of state budget cuts to education.
The "This Budget Blows" protest, organized by the parent organization Educate Our State, coincided with the March 15 deadline for school districts to issue preliminary layoff notices to educators.
Nine empty chairs at Elk Grove Elementary represented the nine teachers at that school that were given pink slips.
California lags behind all but a few states when it comes to spending per student, said Rondalyn Lim, Elk Grove Elementary PTA president and the event's organizer. "That is not acceptable. We teach one in eight students in the nation. This is an opportunity to show them (community members) how it impacts our schools."

Less remedial instruction is the goal

In the Hollywood version of college life, students might arrive on a leafy campus to read Dostoyevsky and use differential equations.

AidanWard, 13, a Kennedy High School ninth-grader, listens to a speaker at Sacramento City College on Tuesday during a field trip that was organized to expose Kennedy’s students to what theymust do to prepare themselves for college.