March for California's Future culminates with huge rally at Capitol
César Chávez Day came and went without acknowledgment from most mainstream print media of a Chávez-inspired 365-mile march that lasted 48 days and culminated in thousands of Californians converging upon the State Capitol April 21st. Wave after wave of union workers, educators, students, parents, and demanded funding for basic public services that citizens in developed nations expect for their tax dollars, such as functioning schools, roads and parks.
The route was twenty-five miles longer than the one originally led by César Chávez in 1966 from Delano to Sacramento to protest growers’ deliberate spraying of striking farm workers with lethal pesticides. “Most of the farm-workers’ energy was focused on the grape boycott. At its height, more than 14 million Americans helped by not buying grapes. The pressure was irresistible, and the Delano growers signed historic contracts with UFWOC in 1969,” observed PBS film-maker Rick Tejada-Flores in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas.
The recent March for California's Future began in Bakersfield on March 5 with the aim of safeguarding the future of California’s students, the infirm and elderly, and to protest the severely deteriorated quality of life of the majority of Californians. The core group of marchers that reached the finish line include a San Diego college professor, a Los Angeles probation officer and a Bay Area community organizer. They endured rain and heat, slept in churches, schools and RV parks, according to Lori Abbott (PNS) in the San Jose Mercury News. While mention of the march can be found on the web at the Huffington Post and KPBS, the San Jose Mercury News was the only established print media outlet that followed the story in any depth.
Before Governor Schwarzenegger’s latest cuts, California ranked 47th in the nation per pupil spending. Now critics predict it will be closer to 49th. Adult schools, the last safety net for those who “have been left behind” are being closed throughout the state, increasing the likelihood of more costly incarceration, noted Berkeley Adult School Educator Lynn Kalmar at Wednesday’s rally. Among other cuts to parks and public services affecting children, the poor and elderly, the governor has threatened to eliminate the state’s In-Home Supportive Services Program employing 65,000 of the state's in-home care workers and jeopardizing the lives of the disabled they care for. Yet this is “the richest state in the richest country in the world,” says the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. The math doesn’t add up.
At the Capitol Rally, Marty Hittelman, president of the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), attributed California’s woes to the absence of a progressive tax system requiring the ultra-rich pay their "fair share." CFT spokesperson Fred Glass explains, “Taxes for the wealthiest have been steadily reduced even though the top one percent of taxpayers in California [averaging $1.6 million in annual income] has nearly doubled its share of adjusted gross income since 1993 from 13.8% to 25.2% in 2007…The state income tax rate of this super-rich group has been pared during that time from 11.3% to 9.3%, robbing the state of $3 to $6 billion each year. Another $9 to $10 billion in annual revenues have been whittled away through corporate tax reductions.”
According to Alternet’s David DeGraw, "The poorest one-fifth of the population pay more than eleven percent of their income in taxes, whereas the top one percent earning an average of more than two million dollars a year, are paying about seven percent." Over the last sixty years, the federal income tax level levied on those earning more than $400,000 has dropped nearly twenty percent from 91 percent to 70 percent, according to a recent report by the Institute for Policy Studies.
Apparently, not everyone in our nation is suffering from the recession. DeGraw points out that the United States has the highest inequality in the industrialized world. According to Forbes, the first full year of the economic crisis, the wealth of the 400 richest U.S. men increased by $30 billion. This, says DeGraw, brings “their total combined wealth to $1.56 trillion, which is more than the combined net worth of 50% of the US population.”
In 2007, the top 1% held 43% of U.S. financial wealth, according to UC Santa Cruz Professor G. William Domhoff. It is tempting to reason that were this wealth divided among the remaining 90 percent, it would likely be almost twice as wealthy. Instead, Governor Schwarzenegger and Republican lawmakers recently led the charge in recent budget negotiations to further cut corporate taxes by $2 billion a year, according to Judy Lin (AP) in the San Jose Mercury News.
To help remedy this situation, State Assembly representative Alberto Torrico has authored AB 656 that will levy a 12.5 percent extraction fee on oil companies that currently don’t pay a dime in taxes to extract California’s oil. The revenues would generate nearly $2 billion a year for the state’s public colleges and universities. “Even Sarah Palin's Alaska and George W. Bush's Texas levy an oil severance fee,” says Torrico in an opinion piece in the San Jose Mercury News. “California is the only oil-producing state that continues to miss the opportunity to generate funds with a fair oil severance fee.”
At present, the Assembly Bill is likely to fall short of the two-thirds majority votes needed to raise taxes since Proposition 13 passed in 1978. This is why rally organizers are calling on citizens to sign UC Berkeley Professor George Lakoff’s petition for a ballot measure that will change the two-thirds voting threshold to a simple majority for the Legislature to pass budgets and to impose higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
But while this legislation is desperately needed as a quick fix, were César Chávez still alive, he might caution its supporters about turning over all their power to the legislature instead of building a movement willing to engange in direct action, strikes, sit-ins and boycotts. When the California Legislature created the Agricultural Labor Relations Board in 1975, the United Farm Workers (UFW) was forced to give up wildcat strikes and secondary boycotts. Growers used legal loopholes in the union election rules to drag out negotiations for years and avoid signing contracts with the UFW.
As for the media blackout on the story, one need only inquire whether the owners of the newspapers and stations are in that top one-percent earning more than 1.6 million dollars a year, to know whether they stand for a more equitable tax distribution or prefer that this story disappear.
More information is available at http://www.fight4cafuture.com.
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by Margot Pepper, a Mexican-born journalist and author whose work has appeared in Common Dreams, Utne Reader, Monthly Review, Z-net, Counterpunch, Dollars & Sense, Prensa Latina, NACLA, El Andar, El Tecolote, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, City Lights, Hampton Brown, Rethinking Schools and elsewhere, and can be found at http://www.margotpepper.com and http://freedomvoices.org/new/node/93.
District colleges join huge March in March
On March 22, over 10,000 students, faculty and staff--including 9 busloads from CSM, Cañada and Skyline--joined the "March in March" at the state capitol to protest education cuts. Click here to read the S.F. Chronicle report.
photo by David McLain
Click here to see a slide show of CSM's participation in the March in March (almost 300 great photos by David McLain, CSM Visual Communications Coordinator.)
Click here to read "Somos el Futuro: Voices from the March in March", by Katharine Harer
 Hundreds in District join
March 4 Day of Action to Defend Public Education
As part of the March 4 statewide Day of Action, hundreds of Cañada, CSM and Skyline students, faculty and staff demonstrated against budget cuts to education. Contingents from the colleges also travelled to San Francisco in the afternoon for a large march and rally. Read reports from: Cañada, CSM & Skyline.
Cañada Strikes Back & Skyline Against the Cuts contingents at March 4 SF Civic Center rally
(photo by Michael Hoffman)
College activities from March 4:
Cañada College March 4th Report
CSM March 4th Report
Skyline College March 4th Report
CSM Budget group Facebook page
Skyline Against Cuts Facebook page
AFT 1493 members marched with student protesters in the S.F. march and rally
AFT 1493 contingent in the March 4 march to S.F. Civic Center (photo by Alan Benjamin)
Other actions statewide:
Circulate petitions for the California Democracy Act and the Majority Budget Act
The California Democracy Act, a non-partisan constitutional amendment authored by UC Berkeley Professor George Lakoff, consists in its entirety of a mere 14 words: "All legislative actions on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote." This ballot measure would reduce the undemocratic 2/3 supermajority currently required to pass a state budget and to raise revenues in the Legislature to a simple majority. For more information, and to download petitions for signature gathering, click here. If you want to help gather signatures to get the California Democracy Act on the November 2010 ballot, please contact Chandra Friese, Northern California Campaign Manager, at 415-563-1177, 415-722-6914 (cell) or
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. We need everyone's support gathering signatures. We have only till April 12 to get CDA on the ballot!
CFT is working in a coalition with other public sector unions to put the Majority Budget Act on the November 2010 ballot. This ballot measure would reduce the undemocratic 2/3 supermajority currently required to pass a state budget in the Legislature to a simple majority. For more information, and to download petitions for signature gathering, click here.
March for California's Future
The CFT-led march through the Central Valley, which kicked off in Bakersfield on March 5, and arrives in Sacramento on April 21, is gaining partners and drawing volunteer marchers. The march is highlighting three themes: Restore the promise of public education; A government and economy that work for all Californians; and Fair taxes to fund California's future. Most people are walking segments. A few will walk the entire 270-mile journey. Click here to learn more about the march.
Hundreds attend teach-ins on the budget crisis
In one of the largest mobilizations in SMCCCD in recent memory, hundreds of students participated in teach-in activities on February 3 and 4 at all three colleges in the District.
Skyline students listen to Economics professor Masao Suzuki discuss the state budget crisis
CSM students sign up for buses to the March 22nd march against the cuts in Sacramento
At Cañada, faculty from all divisions and various departments suspended business as usual and taught about the cuts—how they fit into the broader budgetary commitments of the state and federal government and how they are affecting students, staff, and faculty here on campus. Some faculty stayed with their own classes and used their curriculum to elucidate the cuts. Math professors taught statistics by examining Cañada’s budget numbers; Reading instructors taught research skills by bringing students into the library to find information about the cuts for themselves.
Meanwhile, other faculty and students pooled classes and gathered in larger classrooms to hear panels of speakers and participate in open forums on the cuts. Eight-o’clock panels on both days drew 70-80 students to hear student Jose Antonio Perez, Librarian David Patterson, and Professor Robert Ovetz speak about the growing student movement, the history of community colleges, and the neoliberal economic agenda.
The highlight of the teach-in on Wednesday was a mid-morning panel that drew close to 200 people—the room was so full, some classes could not get in at all. Library staff worker Valeria Estrada voiced her frustration about not having the resources to help students as she has in the past. Counselor Gloria Darafshi spoke about cuts to counseling, EOPS, and DSPS that have reduced staff, funds, and programs that help first generation college students to succeed. Sociology professor Robert Ovetz spoke about the state’s use of the crisis to decimate and privatize public education. San Francisco State University students Jasmine LeBlanc and Jerald Reodica talked about why they decided to form a General Assembly and occupy a building to protest cuts and fee hikes at the CSUs.
The last event of the teach-in was a showing of Estamos Aui!, a documentary about the 2006 strike at UC Santa Cruz, with an introduction by Javier Garay. Garay noted that March 4th had the potential to be a history-making event, but that without ongoing organization, the student movement could go the way of the immigrant rights movement: after the brilliant “Day without an Immigrant” in 2006 the movement was driven down as racist attacks on immigrants continued. “It’s not just what happens on March 4th,” said Garay, “but what happens after.”
At Skyline more than five hundred students turned out on February 3rd for a teach-in that included:
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two presentations by Economics professor Masao Suzuki on the impact of the recession on the California state government,
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a panel of speakers--Linda Van Sciver from the Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSPS), Judy Heldberg of the Child Development Center (CDC), Maria Escobar from Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS), Pat Deamer from African American Success Through Excellence and Persistence (ASTEP), Moe Baydoun, a facilities workers, Chris Weidman from the California State Employees Association (CSEA), Leslie Shelton from the Learning Center, and teacher Laurie Hughes of Oceana High School in Pacifica--who described the impact of the cuts on student services, learning communities, staff, and facilities workers,
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a talk by History professor George Wright on the student movement of the 1960s and the relationship between the Civil Rights Movement and student protest
- a student organizing workshop that featured a moving video of the September 24th, 2009 protests at UC Berkeley against budget cuts and fee increases, and planning for how to participate in the March 4th “Day of Action” to defend public education across the state and the March 22nd March on Sacramento being organized by community college student governments across the state.
At CSM, teach-in sessions were built around class periods, beginning at 8 am and concluding at 2 pm on Wednesday, February 3, and Thursday, February 4, to enable many classes to take part. Faculty from different disciplines (Economics, English, ESL, Fitness, Foreign Language, Geography, History, Horticulture, Political Science, Speech) provided different analyses of the budget and the role of California community colleges, and every session included student speakers such as Desiree Almendral and Brayan Pelayo. Desiree was pregnant when she dropped out of CSM, eventually transferred to Berkeley, completed studies at Hastings College of Law, and credited CSM faculty for believing in the audacity of her dreams. Brayan spoke of an epiphany while in solitary confinement in juvenile hall that led to him teaching himself to read and taking his first class at CSM. They and other student speakers criticized budget cuts as eliminating opportunities for future students and called out fellow students to take action. In response, students lined up to sign up for Associated Students of CSM-sponsored buses to Sacramento for the March in March (March 22).
Each session began with a song (called “If We Could,” composed by CSM students Michael Carter and Timothy St. Louis) about the need to change public policy and the funding of California community colleges. A video of footage of the Candlelight Vigil, put together by ASCSM staff Fauzi Hamadeh, also set the tone for the session. These resources can be viewed at the CSM Teach-In Facebook page (which also includes updates and numerous photographs) by clicking here.
Nov. 23rd CSM candlelight vigil against the budget cuts. Read more...
The Movement against the Budget Cuts
by Mike Noonan, Cañada College, History
December 2009
The budget cuts are on everyone's minds. Education in California faces unheard of cuts from K-12 to universities, state colleges and community colleges. In our own district of San Mateo alone our budget will be cut by roughly $20 million dollars out of the district's $118 million budget over the next two years. If we let them happen, these cuts will destroy the community college system and education as we know it. It is an attack on our future as educators, but even more importantly it is an attack on students' futures.
Already people have started to organize against the cuts.
The most visible efforts have been the demonstrations at the UCs in the last months. Starting this summer, UPTE (The Union of Professional and Technical Employees) began planning a strike for September 24thth. The conference, attended by 600 people, put out a call for a Day of Action on March 4th - a day chosen by California K-12 teachers to take action against layoffs in their sector. The latest news at the UCs has been another three-day strike by UPTE against the Regents meeting in L.A. Thousands protested, making headlines across the country. against layoffs and cuts to benefits. The UC workers' strike became the start of a movement as faculty started calling their students to support the pickets and walkout, and students organized to spread the word. Thousands demonstrated across the UC system. The UC Berkeley students followed this with a conference on October 24.
Things are also starting to move at the community colleges. At Cañada College we are getting started. We have had several organizers' meetings with staff, faculty and students, forming a network of activists to prepare for action in the Spring. Faculty and students have also been organizing at the other San Mateo colleges. CSM held a candle light vigil on November 23rd to protest the cuts.
The most dramatic event at the community colleges so far has been the Teach-In Against the Budget Cuts held at Berkeley City College on November 7th. Roughly 200 students, faculty and staff from over ten different community colleges came together to share experiences, learn about the budget cuts, and to form a network of organizers across the community college system. Berkeley City College has been a center of organizing going back to the 10,000 student march against the Cuts in Sacramento in 2003. I know, I was one of those students! The plan this time? A statewide day of action on March 4, but this time we include EVERYONE!
The budget cuts are a challenge and an opportunity. We can't continue to remain isolated. K-12, UCs, CSUs, and community colleges, all fighting for a bigger piece of a shrinking pie. We can't wait and hope that those in Sacramento or Washington will open their eyes. Their eyes are open. They know the impact of their policies. But they're not counting on everyone who is suffering from the cuts joining our forces together. If we do, we can start to overcome the feelings of helplessness that people have. There are three million community college students in California, one out of every thirteen residents. We are the hub of the wheel of education. If we organize we can bring the whole state of California with us. Let's organize for March 4th!
For organizing in San Mateo – Join the email list at:
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and check out – OpenVoiceForum.blogspot.com. For organizing tools and info on the March in March – www.againstcuts.org
Is there a better way?
by Ernie Rodriguez, AFT 1493 Past President
November 2009
Where Initial Proposals Appear to Be Aiming
The roll-out of initial proposals dealing with the massive budget cuts facing the District and it’s three colleges has begun. The most well developed proposal is that currently being debated at College of San Mateo. This initial administrative proposal focuses on cutting courses, departments and programs. While elimination of two CSM administrative positions has also been formally announced, and other cuts have been alluded to, major emphasis has been placed on cutting classes, which in many cases results in elimination of entire departments and programs.
At the state level, it is already clear that the current state budget plan for fiscal year ’09-‘10 will not work and that, despite budget plans already in place, there will indeed be an additional significant budget shortfall for the current year. In addition, conservative estimates project a three year budget shortfall of $35 billion dollars for the state of California with no certainty as to when the budget situation might improve. It appears that ongoing budget deficits will plague community colleges for the foreseeable future.
In the face of this daunting situation it is reasonable to ask if the still emerging District budget reduction plan is the right way to go. Judging by the document distributed to faculty at CSM, it appears that the key District budget reduction strategy focuses primarily on cutting classes.
What Should Be the Guiding Rationale For Budget Cuts?
As one considers which criteria should be used in determining cuts, it is important to keep in mind the underlying core mission of the community college system. The term “core mission” is being thrown around a lot these days to justify cuts. This term apparently means different things to different people.
Probably the best definition of what is meant by “core mission” can be derived from the initial movement to establish community colleges in the first place. Prior to Proposition 13, community colleges were locally funded and locally controlled. As the community college movement progressed in California, local communities wanted their own open-entry colleges whose mission it would be to offer a college level curriculum, including occupational and vocational programs, to local residents. From this perspective the core mission of the three colleges in the SMCCCD is to offer college level classes and programs to local residents of San Mateo County.
Given that this is the historical core mission of our three colleges it makes sense that everything should be done to protect the college level curriculum, including vocational and occupational programs.
The apparent initial strategy being utilized by the District, as evidenced in proposed cuts at CSM, reflects the exact opposite of the above stated rationale. Rather than being the last to go, classes and programs are the first to go. A track record of several semesters of significant cuts has already been established. Over the past several semesters cuts have been made at all three colleges that have focused on eliminating course offerings.
In addition, faculty are the only group to receive no recent pay raises. Indeed, in fall of 2007, the Board of Trustees increased pay for District administrators by approving a new five step pay schedule for administrators as recommended by District administration. At the time, AFT pointed out to the Board that major budget cuts were looming and yet administrators were still given significant pay increases. Faculty have also been told that no senior administrative positions are slated for elimination at the District Office. At this point it is appropriate to wonder to what degree our Board and administration support academic programs and classes as opposed to other priorities.
Are there other alternatives?
While it will, in all probability, still be necessary to cut classes, it is absolutely clear that the impact on courses and programs can be significantly reduced through implementation of strategies other than cutting classes. In addition, should budget cuts continue into the future, as appears to be the case, the current strategy of pruning back the existing curriculum will not work if the colleges are to remain viable. Of course, if cuts continue to be severe, nothing will be protected. But based on the original mandate that established the SMCCCD and the core mission of our District, it seems clear that everything should be done to try to protect the college level curriculum.
A well established, well researched strategy for dealing with change in the face of crisis involves the distinction between first-order and second-order change (please go to the National Academy for Academic Leadership website for more information, www.thenationalacademy.org/ready/change.html). What this research shows is that first order change strategies, essentially the pruning back approach, work when dealing with limited change. However, in the face of massive cuts, larger scale second order strategies are more effective. First-order change strategies will not work over the long run in the face of big, ongoing deficits. Second-order change focuses on saving dollars by first looking at structural reorganization and centralization strategies. The focus of second-order change is on doing things differently. So far, all of the emphasis of proposed cuts has involved first-order change that focuses on cutting back on what is already being done.
Examples of Possible Second-Order Change Strategies
Before proceeding to cut classes and programs vital to the core mission as defined above, every effort should be made to enact second-order change by focusing on structural reorganization and centralization. Clearly, some of the possible choices in this category cannot be accomplished given the short timeline involved in finalizing District cuts. However, a significant amount of money could likely be saved by implementing those second-order changes that can be accomplished by Fall of 2010. What follows is a brief list of possibilities for consideration. These possibilities, if enacted, would need to be costed out and vetted by all key constituencies before final decisions are made. It is highly likely that other second-order change ideas might emerge as a result of more focused discussion and brainstorming.
It is important to say that there is no joy in proposing the following possibilities. The situation is indeed so dire that we are cutting into bone no matter which way we go. But cut we must, inevitably dictating that any way you look at it, important components will need to be eliminated or redesigned.
The following possibilities are meant primarily as examples designed to illustrate second-order thinking and designed to show that there are many ways to go once you start thinking “outside the box.” They are intended as examples to explore and are not meant as firm recommendations.
- Centralize student services by creating one stop student service centers on each campus. Eliminate or integrate free standing programs (Skyline is already doing this).
- Reorganize District Office operations. Consolidate and integrate functions. Keep in mind that the District Office budget is equivalent to that of Cañada College.
- Eliminate Division Dean positions. Have VPIs with two full time, high level administrative assistants handle Division Dean duties.
- Eliminate several high level District Office administrative positions.
- Consolidate financial aid operations. Have financial aid for the entire District handled by one central office.
- Consolidate enrollment functions. Have enrollment for the three colleges handled by one central office.
- Eliminate printed schedules. Print only a brief, “Guide to Online Registration.” Direct potential students who do not have internet access to campus computer registration terminals.
- Relocate District Office staff and functions to the CSM campus. Rent out or sell the District Office site. Few remember that, at one time, we had no District Office; the District consisted of the three colleges and a rented District Office site in downtown San Mateo.
If even a few of these strategies prove possible literally millions of dollars might be saved. These dollars could then be devoted to saving sections of classes and important programs, all critical to the core mission of the District.
Inform Students
As word of impending cuts is getting out to students through word of mouth conversations it is apparent that there is a great deal of confusion, misunderstanding and understandable frustration among our student population.
Since students are our customers and the reason for our existence, a better job must be done of informing students and supporting them through this crisis. It is not enough to leave it to the good efforts of campus student government leaders to inform students. Our student leaders must be helped by administration to establish an effective process for informing our students about what is happening. A special effort must be made. Perhaps campus student convocations could be organized. An additional possibility would be to establish a special online site devoted to information sharing and dialogue about the budget reduction process as it continues to unfold.
Creative and Responsible Administration
Finally, it is important during this time of crisis that our campus and District administrators, as well as our Board of Trustees, act with creativity and high ethical standards, particularly when it comes to honesty and open disclosure. Our administrators must support faculty, staff, students, and our local community in expressing concerns and in becoming active shared governance partners in co-creating solutions. It is time to encourage a focus on second-order change strategies that support the core mission of our colleges which is to offer college level classes and programs to our local community. |
