I’ve heard that Cal Poly students are apathetic, that we don’t care about the budget crisis as much as other campuses like Berkeley, which had a riot over the issue last weekend. I don’t believe that we’re apathetic or that we’re less passionate about the issue. But when I thought about the prospect of protesting in this statewide protest over the budget crisis, I couldn’t help but ask myself whether protesting would change anything. The budget is set in stone, the cuts are being accounted for and the politicians who voted are still in office. What can protesting change?
When I think of the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement, I see that protesting does change society. And the way that King’s protests changed America is similar to the way that I see today’s protest, at 10:30 a.m. on Dexter Lawn and this afternoon at 3:30 p.m. on Marsh St., changing California.
King changed hearts and minds in America through his protests and activism and if our politicians are going to vote on budgets differently in the future, people’s hearts and minds must change regarding education first. That starts with us — the students, raising awareness about the fact that education is a right, not a privilege.
Education is a right, because educated citizens are absolutely essential to a functioning representative democracy. Without public education as a right, America could not applaud itself as the land of opportunity. Public education exists in order to educate the maximum number of students while maintaining the concept that a quality education should be affordable. I believe that the CSU and the Cal Poly administration are doing everything they can to accomplish these objectives, despite the severe cuts to education.
If you don’t believe that you have been directly affected by the fee increases and furloughs, I will supply some statistics to inspire you to come out today at 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. A promising candidate for State Senate, Michael Rubio, states on his campaign Web site that “California spends more incarcerating 167,000 adults than it does to educate 226,000 students in its 10-campus University of California system.” According to the Mustang Daily, Eric Benjamin, statewide coordinator of the budget protests today, said that every year the state spends $47,000 per inmate and $7,500 per student in California.
I hope to see those who have suggested that the liberal view on funding social programs rewards the irresponsible and punishes the fiscally responsible out on Dexter protesting today. I can’t think of a better example of this in society than the state’s priority of the prison system over higher education.
If you need another reason to protest, do it for your professors, who, I think, suffer the most as a result of this budget crisis. They are bearing the burden in furloughs and pay cuts. I think we students understand that the cost of education is worth the benefits we will reap in the future, but our professors are sacrificing their jobs and salaries.
The real issue with the higher education system is the way that the state collects and portions its revenue. The state can’t fully fund education without raising taxes. I find it interesting that Gov. Schwarzenegger has repeatedly said that he has to make the tough decisions on the budget, when he has refused to break with the Republicans to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy in California.
That’s the truly tough decision. He hasn’t lost anything by cutting social programs and funding for public education for children and adults. Voter opinion on raising taxes in California seems to be changing, however. The Public Policy Institute of California published in a report in January stating that two-thirds of Californians would pay higher taxes to avoid cuts to K-12 education, and 70 percent support cutting funding to prisons and corrections. It’s a start.
Please come out to protest today. If you can’t make it at 10:30 a.m. on Dexter, come downtown at 3:30 p.m. on Marsh St. and join the statewide protest. The future of public education depends upon our involvement.
I find it annoying that the first response to the situation is to simply beg Sacramento for some more money. The problem is the state government simply has no more money. No amount of protesting and no number of well thought-out arguments we make is going to change that.
To her credit, Ms England seems to realize that, so she proposes tax increases and cutting the prison budget. The former is simply unworkable. California already has one of the highest tax burdens in the country, which is already driving business away from the state. The latter is no silver bullet. Although reforming the way we treat drug addicts will save money in the long run, it will not have that big of an immediate effect. More aggressively dealing with the guards’ unions might save a bit more money, but not nearly enough to cover the CSU’s shortfall, let alone the other deficiencies in the state budget.
I take some issue with Ms England’s claim that the administration is doing everything they can. Consider this article from CSU Long beach: http://www.daily49er.com/opinion/csu-can-balance-budget-without-cuts-1.1776358 . Their numbers may not hold throughout the CSU system, but it is an enlightening example.
I wish those who go out and protest the best of luck. Might I suggest adding a few words of support for SB 330 (http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/sen/sb_0301-0350/sb_330_cfa_20100113_163117_sen_floor.html) which add entities like Cal Poly Corperation to the organizations covered by the California Open records act.
“Education is a right, because educated citizens are absolutely essential to a functioning representative democracy.”
Stephanie, you are confused. The “right” of education is not what is at stake here. The problem lies with school systems that are unsustainable, due to the fact that they operate on the same grounds as our government. There are too many people at the school that don’t do any work.
My High School had 4 Vice Principles. For what? They each got paid roughly $80,000/year. Completely unnecessary. Until these shmucks can quit leeching on our society, our school system is doomed.
“The state can’t fully fund education without raising taxes.”
You think so? How do all these high-end, private universities seem to operate? Through PRIVATE money, not state money! That’s right Stephanie, they are not dependent on the government.
The solution isn’t to raise taxes on the wealthy. The solution is to cut costs from WITHIN. There are too many corrupt people in our government, school, and legal systems that manipulate the system for their own benefit. Imagine, we raise taxes, and what does the state do? Increase spending! It’s a never ending cycle.
Good point.
Many of the student protests on oother campuses focused on ‘cutting from the top.’
If you look at Cal Poly in the 1980’s you will have found that Warren Baker’s predecessor left a lean mean fighting machine that is now clogged with redundancy and irrelevance.
How many provosts do we need? (Once we had none)
How many vice presidents do we need?
The person(s) who save public education in California will do so by bringing back administrative services to 1980 levels. We may not be able to go back to the days where the faculty would vote one of their own as ‘President,’ but would that really be so bad?
Roger Freberg
WRONG. “The state can’t fully fund education without raising taxes.” This is blatently false. CA cannot raise taxes; it has the second highest per capita tax burden in the US already (exluding tiny states, only NJ taxes more). California’s problem is that it has been on a spending spree for social programs the state cannot afford for 20 years. Trying to preserve those bad decisions (I’m not saying the programs are not nice, but if you can’t afford them you can’t afford them) is what is causing the underfunding of the education system. California politicos are saying “I’d rather sacrafice the really important things we need to do as a state, that we have done for 100+ years, to preserve the really cool social program I came up with a few years ago”.
Self-interest protests to protect the education system are meaningless unless protestors are willing to support cuts to the social programs that are taking away money from education. If Stephaine had stepped up to that challenge, then this would have been a valued article.
Jason: “How do all these high-end private universities seem to operate?” Compare their cost of tuition with yours, and you’ll have your answer… If you are a student at Cal Poly, the government is paying part of your tuition, de facto, making your point patently absurd – like Glenn Beck bragging that he does his “research” at public libraries because, and I quote, “Books are free!” No, they aren’t, Glenn: the government is funding your research, because it’s generally believed to be a good idea to provide the community with free access to print media.
Lance: you can’t omit “tiny states” when you are comparing tax burden on a “per capita” basis. The statistical concept of “per capita” means “for each person” – rendering state size irrelevant.
Other than that, fellas, you make some good points… as does Stephanie.
“The real issue with the higher education system is the way that the state collects and portions its revenue. The state can’t fully fund education without raising taxes.”
I’m with you at first, but California could fully fund education if they allocated the money in the right places. We’re already cutting social programs like crazy. I don’t know where Lance got the idea that “California’s problem is that it has been on a spending spree for social programs the state cannot afford for 20 years,” when in reality we’ve been cutting social programs (remember when Clinton promised to “end welfare as we know it?”) Today, it is damn near impossible to get assistance. I work for the Department of Social Services and am constantly appalled at the reasons people are turned away for things like food stamps, such as being a student! Nonetheless, if we were to increase the availability and standard of public education we wouldn’t need to spend so much helping out the impoverished or on funding the corrections system. It costs an estimated 80,000 a year for a prison inmate, compared to about 20,000 a year for a college student. Higher education attainment has a significant correlation with lower crime rate and higher living standards. Even if for some strange reason you don’t see education as a right, it makes practical economic sense to educate people so they don’t end up being a financial burden on the state.
I know this has turned into a sort of rant but as to where we’d get this money.. stop spending on prisons and privatized labor, stop wasting money and man power on the futile War on Drugs, cut the huge earnings of the already comfortable (ahem, Pres Baker’s $405,153 a year), etc.
Lastly, I attended the march on campus today and was utterly embarrassed to be part of Cal Poly. Not only were the 70 or so students primarily minorities (who are just that, MINORITIES here on campus), but we actually had students screaming from the dorm room for us to shut up and people shaking their heads as we passed. Does the student body not realize that this affects us all? Are people really so selfish (or ignorant I guess) that as long as their parents can afford to send them to adequate schools so they can end up and afford to attend a college like Cal Poly, then it just doesn’t matter?
Yes it costs a lot of money to put people in prison. And there are always more poor people that any of us would like. But when states go nuts on spending, as CA has, there is a price to pay. The price is being paid by students at Cal Poly and other institutions in California. In contrast, look at Texas. It is a large border state like CA. Yet, in TX, taxes are almost HALF what California residents pay. Texas has a great public college system and has not had to cut it back as in CA. Next time you see someone seeking assistance, ask, “if CA was not sucking the life’s blood out of its economy in taxes, maybe this person would have a good paying job”. It does make sense to invest in education. To do that, CA needs to stop spending in other areas. Cut its taxes rates. Tough choices. So far, no leaders in CA have been able to make the call.
What exactly is CA going nuts on spending in?
“Next time you see someone seeking assistance, ask, “if CA was not sucking the life’s blood out of its economy in taxes, maybe this person would have a good paying job”.”– I don’t understand what you are saying.
spot on, britney. thanks for the read.
Yes it costs a lot of money to put people in prison. And there are always more poor people that any of us would like. But when states go nuts on spending, as CA has, there is a price to pay. The price is being paid by students at Cal Poly and other institutions in California. In contrast, look at Texas. It is a large border state like CA. Yet, in TX, taxes are almost HALF what California residents pay. Texas has a great public college system and has not had to cut it back as in CA. Next time you see someone seeking assistance, ask, "if CA was not sucking the life’s blood out of its economy in taxes, maybe this person would have a good paying job". It does make sense to invest in education. To do that, CA needs to stop spending in other areas. Cut its taxes rates. Tough choices. So far, no leaders in CA have been able to make the call.
Stephanie,
No where does it say that education is a right, that is, unless you live in a communist or socialist country. But then again,it could be closer than we think.
Lance, what a relief that there actually is a college student with some common sense. Keep up the good work spreading the truth.
Why does it have to be written somewhere? But I will condescend to make an argument that — even though it is true — you will not agree with. Freedom can’t be enjoyed unless you have some sort of economic security. That’s written somewhere, but not in a place you would recognize: FDR’s Four Freedom’s Speech. Thus, if freedom is a right and economic security is necessary to enjoy that right, then education is a right, not a privilege. You can’t have economic security without education. You can’t have freedom without economic security.
Education is a service, not a right. It has costs and the government forces a lot of those costs on taxpayers through subsidizing the schools. This benefits the admitted students in the short run because they pay a price less than what the market would decide on its own. It also benefits faculty because they get paid more than they would in the market. This system is unsustainable because it is parasitic and the host (the taxpayer) is on life support. When the host dies, the parasite dies. Let’s look at the student’s long term prospects. Because the state taxes everyone to subsidize the schools, they take capital away from businesses and entrepreneurs. You know, the ones who are supposed to provide jobs for students after they graduate. This tax burden is too great for the businesses at the margin, so they go under, reducing the job opportunities. It doesn’t really matter for us Cal Poly students because we’re a smart bunch and we’ll out-compete others for those few jobs out there. So who doesn’t get the job? The less gifted and the less skilled youth because their productivity isn’t worth the restrictive minimum wage put in place by the government. So to recap, in the name of having education as a right, we’ve benefited teachers and smart students at the expense of businesses, taxpayers, less smart people, and the less skilled youth. How is that bleeding heart working out for you?
On the subject of teachers at state schools, they are public employees. It used to be that a job in the public sector meant that you were a public servant. How is it public service if you only have to work 30 years and get all sorts of benefits that the private sector doesn’t? Wouldn’t it be true public service if you worked for a lot less, like idunno, minimum wage? Or what about for free? You could put in a 5 year stint before returning to the private sector to make an honest living.
If education is a service, do you think K-12 should not be free? Why does the state mandate that a child attend school until 16 (i think it’s 16)?
Public university faculty (aside from the upper echelon) don’t even make that much. It’s like 50,000 a year starting if I’m not mistaken. For the amount of work, the level of education needed and the service they provide, I feel they should be paid more than a prison guards 80,000 starting rate.
“Because the state taxes everyone to subsidize the schools, they take capital away from businesses and entrepreneurs.”– Or they could be taking taxes from funding the unnecessary/over-funded things as I mentioned previously (mainly War on Drugs and prisons, but foreign timber subsidies is another biggie).
“This tax burden is too great for the businesses at the margin, so they go under, reducing the job opportunities.” Really? That’s why small business go under? It isn’t the increasing corporatization of the country or tax breaks for big businesses or the Wal-Marts of the world?
“The less gifted and the less skilled youth because their productivity isn’t worth the restrictive minimum wage put in place by the government.”– The less gifted and less skilled youth’s productivity is lower because they don’t have the same kind of education as Cal Poly students. So, by providing them an education, we would be giving them a shot at being a legitimate competitor for said jobs.
“So to recap, in the name of having education as a right, we’ve benefited teachers and smart students at the expense of businesses, taxpayers, less smart people, and the less skilled youth. How is that bleeding heart working out for you?” No, no, no.
“It used to be that a job in the public sector meant that you were a public servant. How is it public service if you only have to work 30 years and get all sorts of benefits that the private sector doesn’t? Wouldn’t it be true public service if you worked for a lot less, like idunno, minimum wage? Or what about for free? You could put in a 5 year stint before returning to the private sector to make an honest living.” — What about Baker? Why doesn’t he fit into this ‘public servant’ category? Public universities already have a hard time keeping young, motivated teachers because they can’t afford to work somewhere that pays so low.
Britney,
You are spoken like a true liberal, making wild assumptions and mixing apples with oranges while outlining your paper-thin arguments.
#1 Education is not a right, it is a service. Education is a service because people (teachers) are necessary (this is becoming less and less imperative, but for the sake of discussion we’ll say they are)to educate students. To believe you have a right to be educated is to believe you have the right to the services of teachers. If you truly had a right to them, you could show up at any teacher’s doorstep and demand to be educated…..this as you know is not true.
#2 Teachers are paid very well. I encourage you to visit the Sacramento Bee’s website, enter in the names of your faculty and you will see just how much they make. One of my professors, Claire Batista, “earns” over 100k per year. She teaches two classes a quarter and simply regurgitates the same material day after day, quarter after quarter, year after year. Once she retires she will be awarded a handsome retirement for the rest of her life. There is a huge difference between professors and lecturers, but when you break it down hourly, they both make good money.
#3 The Bush tax breaks did not go “just for the rich” corporations and people. Learn some facts and know that every single taxpayer paid less in taxes under Bush than Clinton. Did the “rich” keep more of their money proportionally to the rest of us? Yes. But they also pay far more than most do so that makes sense. The bottom 50% of taxpayers pay <3% of all taxes while the top 10% pays 75% of all taxes.
I hope you have become somewhat educated while reading this post. Although you do not have a right to my thoughts, I provided them to you at my own free will. You are welcome.
Well said Dan. Cal Poly is putting out some students with common sense. what a relief!
Alex, Dan, Lance:
You guys are right on.
Stephanie doesn’t understand the difference between a right and a service and furthermore doesn’t understand the difference between fantasy and realty….but considering she is a liberal arts student this is no surprise.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions and unfortunately people like Stephanie are paving 24/7.
“but considering she is a liberal arts student this is no surprise.”
A host of profanities are running through my mind. How rude can you get.
What happens to a society when education is left to the wayside? Though you are correct in your assertion that education is not regarded as a right in this country, that fact merely begs the question of why not. After all, in any system — our social system included — the composite is only as strong as its constituent parts.
Michael Badnarik makes a good point about rights and privileges.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3ReIIkH0zk&feature=PlayList&p=8A1521C99D6ED8CE&index=3