Students Rally Against Education Cuts
- March 4, 2010
By KCBS Radio Team Coverage
Protesters were arrested after they climbed onto Highway 880 at 980 in Oakland. Traffic was stopped for a time in the middle of the afternoon commute.
Demonstrators also blocked Bancroft and Telegraph in Berkeley on Thursday as part of a nationwide day of demonstrations by students of all ages to protest cuts to education funding.
KCBS Team Coverage: Education Protests
The UC Berkeley rally ahead of a march down Telegraph Avenue was one of many similar demonstrations across the country that were part of what organizers call a National Day of Action in response to unprecedented hikes in student fees, teacher furloughs, layoffs and canceled classes.
Demonstrations so far have been peaceful, although both entrances to UC Santa Cruz were closed after about 200 protesters assembled nearby. A spokesman for UCSC said there had been several incidents of protesters intimdating staff and vandalizing university property.
KCBS’ Mike Colgan Reports on the Santa Cruz Protest
Employees of the 16,000-student campus were told on Thursday morning not come to work.
UC President Mark Yudof, criticized by many public university students over the system’s budget situation, tells KCBS that California needs to change its funding priorities.
“These are tough problems. I admit that, but you have to have priorities. Even in the Great Depression we had priorities. And one priority is all about jobs. Another priority is how we’re going to educate our people.”
Before sunrise, students at 91短视频 in Hayward were busy making signs and planning a demonstration at the entrance to the school they say is meant to to shake people from their complacency and defend public education as a right.
Freshman Sean Shultz said he’s never stood up for anything like this before, but was so frustrated when he couldn’t get the classes he needed this quarter.
“What really gets me about college is that I’m paying for this and I’m not getting anything for my money,” he told KCBS reporter Holly Quan. “It’s getting harder and harder to pay even with financial aid.”
KCBS’ Holly Quan Reports on the Students’ Personal Struggles
Last night, several dozen students at De Anza Community College braved the cold and wet to camp out on campus as way of calling attention to Thursday’s planned march to Cupertino City Hall.
“We need funding for California community colleges and we’re not receiving the funding that we need for them,” said Justin Taylor, a third-year student who spent the night in one of 20 tents set up in the main quad.
The group behind the De Anza March said the budget cuts affect not only instruction. The college has had to lay off 70 non-faculty staff.