As a small procession made up mostly of university students made its way down Pacific Avenue yesterday, some onlookers seemed unimpressed.
“Seems pretty meager for a protest,” one man said, watching as a banner passed that read “We are the Budget Cuts.” What he, and perhaps many Santa Cruz residents, didn’t know is that the meager procession had broken off from a group of at least 400 students, faculty and workers who had been picketing since daybreak at the main entrance to UCSC. In a rare coalescence of solidarity between the town and the gowns, the university protest was, in the form of this small group, merging with a community demonstration to save public education.
Around 4pm, K-12 teachers, parents and children began to flock towards the Clock Tower with signs calling for an end to the budget cuts that have left California in 47th place in the nation in per-pupil spending. The crowd swelled to at least 200 people who held up signs for passing cars and took turns speaking to the crowd. Amid car horns and cheers, teachers of the California Teachers Association talked of the problems in their schools.
Story continues after slideshow. Photos by Maria Grusauskas
Denise Keplinger, a French teacher at Soquel High for the past 25 years,says her classes have been cut by 40 percent over the past few years. Because of layoffs, she’s been assigned to teach ESL to a majority of students whose first language is Spanish, even though her area of expertise is French. With the textbook clerk laid off, textbooks are disappearing and there is no money to buy new ones. To top it all off, even basic supplies are dwindling. “This is our last week of paper. We are almost out of paper!” she said.
Teachers aren’t supposed to buy classroom supplies, but a shocking number say they have no choice. The Parent’s Club of Mountain Elementary School has been chipping in to fund music and art programs that would otherwise be cut. “I feel bad for the schools of Pajaro Valley,” says one mother. “They don’t have those funds to fall back on.”
A secretary at the same school says she has taken on the custodial duties of the school since the janitor was laid off, and she acts as a nurse to the best of her ability without a nursing degree.
Kim West, a key organizer of the education coalition of the 10 public school districts represented at the protest, says California’s education crisis has become about social rights. “The financial crisis is dire,” she says, “but this goes beyond a shortage of school supplies.”
