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Friday, March 5, 2010
Long Beach 'Day of Action' Education Mobilization!
Thousands of teachers, students and community members rallied at Cal State Long Beach, Long Beach City College and at Wilson High School on Thursday in opposition to state funding cuts to education.
Similar rallies, organized by a coalition of labor unions, were held at educational institutions statewide to urge supporters to lobby California legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to oppose any further funding reductions.
Faculty members, staff and students met at Long Beach City College's Liberal Arts Campus around noon urging people to contact lawmakers to express opposition to cuts.
"Public education is under attack, and we need to do something about it," said LBCC faculty member DeWayne Sheaffer, president of the LBCC Community College Association, the faculty union.
LBCC student LaTonya Neal told the crowd that funding reductions hurt LBCC students by making it more difficult to get classes. Students services also are being cut.
"When that happens, it means that every student will be impacted," said Neal, a 45-year-old culinary arts student who hopes to transfer to Cal State Long Beach and eventually start her own restaurant.
This is Professor Elizabeth Hoffman, Vice President at CSULB Faculty Association. She came to LBCC to show solidarity:
This is Madison, an LBCC undergraduate, who is speaking with Professor Hoffman:
Hurtie Chukwudire, AFT Classified President LBCC. She's also pictured at the Press-Telegram article cited above.
Hurtie was getting fired up. She wanted to "take it to the streets" like folks did during the 1960s. She's waving a flyer for the "Marching for California's Future," which is a Bakersfield to Sacramento march for justice that was supposed to kick off today:
I had to get to a 1:00pm class. One more quick shot after grabbing my lecture materials back at my office:
After class, some students walked back with me for office hours. They got a kick out of the protest signs. The gentleman on the right in the first picture here (with the black polo shirt) is Ernesto. He's an Iraq war veteran who can't stand hardline radical groups like La Raza:
I held office hours until 4:00pm. After a quick run to the bank, I headed over to Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach for the big afternoon rally. Here's some of the signs at one of the information tables:
Long Beach's finest at the scene just in case the anarcho-communists got out of hand:
LBCC union boss DeWayne Sheaffer spoke again at the teachers' rally:
More union folks, from Cal State Dominguez Hills:
An estimated 2000 people came out, and it looks like it:
These are wonderful people, demonstrating against the cuts:
You can't see him, but that's Tom Morello, formerly of Rage Against the Machine, being swarmed by young activists during the rally's musical conclusion (look carefully for the end of the guitar fret board -- and that's him). Morello got folks fired up with "This Land is Your Land":
I posted Rage Against the Machine's "Wake Up" the other day, which features Morello at the clip:
One more big crowd shot before taking off:
Organizers back outside:
Walking back out to the car, I wanted to get a couple of shots of Woodrow Wilson High. Recall that famed English teacher Erin Gruwell taught at Wilson. Her book, Freedom Writers Diary, was the basis for the 2007 movie starring Hillary Swank. We get loads of Wilson students at LBCC. They have a lot of "inner city" stories to tell, but things have gotten better at Wilson since the early 1990s:
The irony of so many union members protesting an economic crisis that has been severely exacerbated by (public sector) union pension obligations is not lost on me. It's as if the only concern that union members have is that they get their share; whether the state is going bankrupt or not is of no concern. Granted, California's problems are multi-faceted, and there is plenty of blame to go around. But the leftist/progressive tax code, the union-first policies, the entrenched leftist legislature -- all fit nicely with the "education as a right" crowd.
It will take a lot of political courage to fix the mess in California -- and until there is meaningful redistricting, it is unlikely to happen. Meg Whitman was on the radio today and talks a good game, but until the legislature gets more politically competitive, the entrenched union interests are never going to allow the state to right its fiscal house.
DD, Great Post, Cal has created it's own problems and now want to create money where there is none. Why don't they drill, baby, drill?????why don't they allow water to be distributed to the farmers who need it. why did they tax the He.. out of business and they move out??? the people did it so.....I just hope "sam the man" doesn't think California is too big to fail.....let them do what they should be doing and that is creat....create....create...Education, especially, Higher Education is not a right. both the Fed and the States have created this monster of Educational right. Compulsary education until age 16 and raised to 18 if you are special Education or until you graduate whichever is first... and the beat goes on......stay well DD and more power to you...by the way did you watch Glenn Beck tonight????
I thought that the lady in the CCCP t-shirt was great. Her "feminine charms" most appropriately demonstrated the problems of communism in the USSR: big, bloated, but ultimately not self supporting! :)
No offense, but there are a lot of obese people in those pictures. Perhaps if they ate a normal amount of food, so they weighed a normal amount of weight, they could donate all the money saved on food and health problems to their college!
Ya'll in California made your bed, by providing the most lucrative benefits for your people in the country. now you want the rest of us to bail you out again...and again...and again. The "stimulus" package put off your day of reconing, but it's still going to arrive.
College education isn't a right, it's a priviledge that you must pay for, both literally and figuratively. We in America have debased education to the point that a high school diploma is meaningless and not worth the paper it's printed on.
Now it's time to cut your budget, and it's going to be painful, but cut you must.
What bothers me is the union alliance with the anarcho-communists
Their parasitism has turned malignant. ********** OT: Protesting professor Adrian Novotny responds to a student critic in DD's link: For many of my students, I am their first encounter with the stark reality of the world at large.
A tenured community-college anthropology teacher who thinks he embodies "the stark reality of the world at large" would be comical if he were an isolated case.
He is not an isolated case and that is not funny at all.
A modest proposal: allocate a certain amount in the CA budget for all union-related expenditures. Let the teachers' union fight it out with the other public sector unions on who gets what.
Perhaps this is an opportunity! I can't help thinking that the education establishment has failed to utilize the modern technology to reduce costs and save time for students. Some of these teachers repeat the sames lectures 2-3 times a year through out their career. Couldn't the school put the best lectures from the best teachers on DVDs and distribute? And, there are huge opportunities with the internet that anyone can imagine. And, if I wanted to be say a pharmicist, why couldn't I take only courses relevant to the subject and not all these other subjects that perhaps I really should have learned in High School? Or, if the education establishment offers certification by testing and lets the student come up with his means of learning and let the market fill the gaps?
Why, exactly, does a community college have a "College of Liberal Arts?" What a classic example of mission creep. Students in community colleges ought to be learning useful job skills, not anthropology. Why in the world are taxpayers supposed to pick up the tab for anyone in the state who feels like it to study anthropology at the feet of some random dude who coudn't get hired at a 4-year college?
That's actually pretty funny as the rally was held at the Wilson gymnasium which was named in honor of the former football coach and AD Skip Rowland. Rowland advised my dad, the basketball coach there in the 50's, to not have anything to do with teacher's unions as they didn't represent the students and were infiltrated by the CPUSA.
Funny, never saw any signs that said "I'll take a 30% pay & benefits cut, in solidarity with the recession-ravaged California taxpayers, to keep schools open for our kids." I'm an CSULB grad, out of Millikan HS, worked for years as a contractor and employee at school districts in So Cal, and sent kids through both UC and LBCC. There have never been any budget "cuts", only reductions in requested increases. Time to roll it back and cap it for good. And 45-year-old culinary arts "student", you want to open a restaurant? Professional skills education is an investment in your future financial well-being, not a right. Finance it yourself. And if you can't afford to pay for LBCC tuition, there is no way you can afford to open a restaurant.
Small point, but I don't think those are Long Beach's finest in the picture. Rather, they look like LA County Sheriffs - LBPD wears blue, the Sheriffs wear green.
The irony of so many union members protesting an economic crisis that has been severely exacerbated by (public sector) union pension obligations is not lost on me. It's as if the only concern that union members have is that they get their share; whether the state is going bankrupt or not is of no concern. Granted, California's problems are multi-faceted, and there is plenty of blame to go around. But the leftist/progressive tax code, the union-first policies, the entrenched leftist legislature -- all fit nicely with the "education as a right" crowd.
ReplyDeleteIt will take a lot of political courage to fix the mess in California -- and until there is meaningful redistricting, it is unlikely to happen. Meg Whitman was on the radio today and talks a good game, but until the legislature gets more politically competitive, the entrenched union interests are never going to allow the state to right its fiscal house.
What bothers me is the union alliance with the anarcho-communists. Plus, some of these people aren't too smart!
ReplyDeleteDD, Great Post, Cal has created it's own problems and now want to create money where there is none. Why don't they drill, baby, drill?????why don't they allow water to be distributed to the farmers who need it. why did they tax the He.. out of business and they move out??? the people did it so.....I just hope "sam the man" doesn't think California is too big to fail.....let them do what they should be doing and that is creat....create....create...Education, especially, Higher Education is not a right. both the Fed and the States have created this monster of Educational right. Compulsary education until age 16 and raised to 18 if you are special Education or until you graduate whichever is first... and the beat goes on......stay well DD and more power to you...by the way did you watch Glenn Beck tonight????
ReplyDeleteI thought that the lady in the CCCP t-shirt was great. Her "feminine charms" most appropriately demonstrated the problems of communism in the USSR: big, bloated, but ultimately not self supporting! :)
ReplyDeleteNo offense, but there are a lot of obese people in those pictures. Perhaps if they ate a normal amount of food, so they weighed a normal amount of weight, they could donate all the money saved on food and health problems to their college!
ReplyDeleteCollege is not a right. It is a privilege.
Ya'll in California made your bed, by providing the most lucrative benefits for your people in the country. now you want the rest of us to bail you out again...and again...and again. The "stimulus" package put off your day of reconing, but it's still going to arrive.
ReplyDeleteCollege education isn't a right, it's a priviledge that you must pay for, both literally and figuratively. We in America have debased education to the point that a high school diploma is meaningless and not worth the paper it's printed on.
Now it's time to cut your budget, and it's going to be painful, but cut you must.
What bothers me is the union alliance with the anarcho-communists
ReplyDeleteTheir parasitism has turned malignant.
**********
OT: Protesting professor Adrian Novotny responds to a student critic in DD's link: For many of my students, I am their first encounter with the stark reality of the world at large.
A tenured community-college anthropology teacher who thinks he embodies "the stark reality of the world at large" would be comical if he were an isolated case.
He is not an isolated case and that is not funny at all.
A modest proposal: allocate a certain amount in the CA budget for all union-related expenditures. Let the teachers' union fight it out with the other public sector unions on who gets what.
ReplyDeleteAll this reportage keeps using the word "protest." Wrong word. "Tantrum."
ReplyDeleteAnd here comes some more "In-$tate $tudents" for Orientation - http://www.BorderInvasionPics.com
ReplyDeletePerhaps this is an opportunity! I can't help thinking that the education establishment has failed to utilize the modern technology to reduce costs and save time for students. Some of these teachers repeat the sames lectures 2-3 times a year through out their career. Couldn't the school put the best lectures from the best teachers on DVDs and distribute? And, there are huge opportunities with the internet that anyone can imagine. And, if I wanted to be say a pharmicist, why couldn't I take only courses relevant to the subject and not all these other subjects that perhaps I really should have learned in High School?
ReplyDeleteOr, if the education establishment offers certification by testing and lets the student come up with his means of learning and let the market fill the gaps?
Why, exactly, does a community college have a "College of Liberal Arts?" What a classic example of mission creep. Students in community colleges ought to be learning useful job skills, not anthropology. Why in the world are taxpayers supposed to pick up the tab for anyone in the state who feels like it to study anthropology at the feet of some random dude who coudn't get hired at a 4-year college?
ReplyDeleteThat's actually pretty funny as the rally was held at the Wilson gymnasium which was named in honor of the former football coach and AD Skip Rowland. Rowland advised my dad, the basketball coach there in the 50's, to not have anything to do with teacher's unions as they didn't represent the students and were infiltrated by the CPUSA.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but believe that the leftist union organization and sloganizing doesn't spill over into the teacher's curriculum and the classroom.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone compare the the state spending per capita after the cuts verses the 60s and 70s? When student achievement scores were higher?
Also, how are those private schools doing these days?
Funny, never saw any signs that said "I'll take a 30% pay & benefits cut, in solidarity with the recession-ravaged California taxpayers, to keep schools open for our kids."
ReplyDeleteI'm an CSULB grad, out of Millikan HS, worked for years as a contractor and employee at school districts in So Cal, and sent kids through both UC and LBCC. There have never been any budget "cuts", only reductions in requested increases. Time to roll it back and cap it for good.
And 45-year-old culinary arts "student", you want to open a restaurant? Professional skills education is an investment in your future financial well-being, not a right. Finance it yourself. And if you can't afford to pay for LBCC tuition, there is no way you can afford to open a restaurant.
Small point, but I don't think those are Long Beach's finest in the picture. Rather, they look like LA County Sheriffs - LBPD wears blue, the Sheriffs wear green.
ReplyDelete