Statewide Day of Action about Education Funding Crisis

March 4 has been declared “Day of Action” to protest the ongoing de-funding of public education and the rest of the public sector. Local actions will acquaint the public with the seriousness of the situation. Two years ago the California state education budget was $102 billion dollars. This year it is $84 billion. Two years ago California was already 47th in the nation in per pupil funding, and we are undoubtedly further down the list now.
These cuts mean layoffs of certificated and classified school employees in K12 and community colleges, furloughed faculty and staff in UC and CSU, and loss of access to a quality education for millions of Californians.
For more information, see this History Department News item: “News & Analysis about the UC Budget crisis.”

March 4th Schedule (updated 2/27/10)

March 4th Schedule of Events:

7:30-9:30am- Bagel breakfast in the Arbor with rally info and social. Hosted by CUE (Coalition of University Employees).
12pm- Rally and press conference in the Arbor with students, workers, faculty, staff, and local politicians speaking.
1:00-3:04pm- Carpools/busses from NH bus loop to downtown.
1:30pm- Critical bike mass begins at Pardall Tunnel (bike downtown)
3:45pm- Gather to march on State Street with SB Teachers Association, UCSB folks, community members, and parents.
Demand Sacramento to invest in public education!!

The March on state street begins in De La Guerra Plaza, and goes to the courthouse.
People can down to State Street from on campus through either
1. carpool
2. the bus service (24x and 11)
3. Biking to state street
4. we’re trying to get funding to reserve buses to take extra students downtown.

UCSB Humanities and Fine Arts, and Social Sciences Department Chairs have signed the following letter of support:

We, as Department Chairs in the Social Sciences and Humanities and Fine
Arts at the University of California, Santa Barbara, endorse the statewide
Day of Education on March 4, 2010. We support the efforts, organized by
representatives of the entire educational community–administrators,
teachers, staff, students, alumni, and concerned parents and students of
the UC, CSU, CC and K-12 systems–to demonstrate the need for a renewed
commitment to public education. As UC faculty, we struggle with increased
workloads and reduced pay. We see austere student fee hikes, overcrowded
classes, graduate students squeezed, overworked and demoralized staff,
worker layoffs, shrinking departmental and curriculum budgets, and eroding
funding to student services. How long can the UC maintain itself as a top
quality, Tier I research university? Meanwhile, K-12 schools face severe
budget cuts and curricular pressures created by the demands for
standardized testing, a situation of concern to us since the products of
the K-12 system become our students and the country’s future citizenry.
It’s time to stop and reverse this steady defunding and degradation of our
educational system and to defend a first-rate public education.

We urge you to support our students’ organizing efforts in support of the
statewide March on Sacramento on Thursday, March 4.

Signed:
Department Chairs, Humanities and Fine Arts and Social Science, UCSB

Diane Fujino, Chair, Asian American Studies
Eileen Boris, Chair, Feminist Studies
Francisco Lomeli, Chair, Spanish and Portuguese
Patricia Clancy, Chair, Linguistics
Ulrich Keller, Chair, History of Art and Architecture
Howard Winant, Chair, Law and Society program
Verta Taylor, Chair, Sociology
Simon Williams, Chair, Theater and Dance
Elisabeth Saatjian Weber, Chair, German, Slavic and Semitic Studies and Comparative Literature
Lisa Parks, Chair, Film and Media Studies
Jon Snyder, Chair, French and Italian
Jeffrey Stewart, Chair, Black Studies
Colin Gardner, Chair, Art
Francis Dunn, Chair, Classics
Bill Powell, Chair, East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies
Alan Liu, Chair, English
Ann Bermingham, Director, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center
Michael Stohl, Chair, Communication
John Majewski, Chair, History
Aida Hurtado, Chair, Chicana and Chicano Studies
Katharina Schreiber, Chair, Anthropology
Giles Gunn, Chair, Global and International Studies
John Woolley, Chair, Political Science
Matthew Turk, Chair, Media Arts and Technology
Paul Berkowitz, Chair, Music

The state branch of the national organization BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) is circulating a petition with the following call:

SHUT DOWN CALIFORNIA ON MARCH 4TH!
HELP ORGANIZE THE BOYCOTT OF ALL SCHOOLS!
 
*No more fee hikes, program, faculty or staff cuts in higher education
*A Massive Increase in federal funding for public higher education
*Defend public education from K thru 12
*Pass the Dream Act Now! Create Campus based Dream Scholarships to provide financial aid for undocumented students
*Stop the resegregation of higher education. Increase underrepresented minority student enrollment – Restore affirmative action now, no more separate and unequal!

*No more second class treatment of Latina/o students and students with and without papers – Make UCLA a sanctuary campus!
*Build the new civil rights and student movement!

hm 1/5/10; 2/3, 2/23, 2/25, 2/27