California teachers begin weeklong budget protest

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110509/ap_on_re_us/us_california_teacher_protests

By ADAM WEINTRAUB, Associated Press – 1 hr 12 mins ago

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Thousands of California teachers began gathering Monday for a weeklong series of protests over the threat of deep budget cuts to public education, starting with an early morning rally in downtown San Francisco.

Rallies and teach-ins were planned throughout California as schools face mass layoffs, program cuts and shorter school years. The protests will culminate Friday with a sit-in at the state Capitol.

"We're here to make a statement that closing schools is the wrong solution," said Dennis Kelly, president of United Educators of San Francisco, which represents more than 6,000 employees of the San Francisco Unified School District.

Kelly was among about 100 school personnel who began gathering at 5:30 a.m. Monday and marched to the school district headquarters for a rally. About 60 then boarded a chartered bus to Sacramento to protest and lobby lawmakers.

Teachers want the Legislature to extend temporary increases to the sales, personal income and vehicle taxes that will expire by June 30. Gov. Jerry Brown favors a special election so California voters can decide how to close the state's remaining $15.4 billion deficit.

The rallies starting Monday are an escalation of efforts by the 325,000-member California Teachers Association, which waited while Brown tried to negotiate a deal with Republicans to put his proposal before voters in June. Since that effort failed, the teachers are now delivering their message directly.

"They (state lawmakers) have the opportunity to extend these taxes legislatively, and we believe that is the right way to go," said David Sanchez, the association's president. "If we wait until September, it will no longer be extending the taxes; it will be new taxes."

Without a renewal of the tax increases, Brown and Democratic lawmakers warn that the state will be forced to make spending cuts so deep they will affect the lives of nearly every Californian and further erode the quality of the state's public school system.

"If you think the $113 million we cut last year was something, wait until you see what $84 million more means," said San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Carlos Garcia, addressing the rally. "I think it's time to get mad as hell and say `enough.' This is a disgrace, a national disgrace."

Among other changes, Garcia said, California should consider revising Proposition 13, the 1978 voter initiative that capped property tax increases, so more tax revenue can be generated from commercial properties.

Edited May 9, 2011 by Why_Me

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://dailycaller.com/2011/04/26/californigaytion/ <---- wth are these teachers crying about ? California must be rolling in the dough seeing how they have the money for those classes.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Teachers in CA get paid a pittance and have done for years.