All sectors of education have been massively impacted by the educational budget cuts California specifically has been in a downfall for years regarding education. California use to be #1 in education now we are #49, is California broke or is there more to it?

Kindergarten through twelve grades has suffered an $8 billion dollar budget cut in the past TWO years! With teachers being cut from left to right classes are increasing, many agree that it effect the performance of students negatively.

The average dropout rate for high school students in California is already 20% and in some neighborhoods such as Oakland, Richmond and Los Angeles the dropout rate reaches up to 50%. High schools no longer have a variety of electives to choose from, in Richmond High the beloved music teacher Mr. Sims received a pink slip last year, he no longer teaches.

Community Colleges who educate most of the working class are basically seeing their budget cut in half. In Contra Costa College student programs such as EOPS, which gives students money for books, has been cut in half. Library hours have been cut, for students such as me who are having Internet difficulties at home this is a big issue.

Classes have been cut as well, fees have increased, and I found out that the surplus of the increase goes to the state and not the school. In the past two years community colleges have also had massive budget cuts of $840 million. Many students are feeling hopeless and are deciding to drop out.

Students in Community colleges, CSU’s, and UC’s are paying more for less! Since 2008 CSU’s have suffered a 1 billion dollar budget cuts. Fees have increased in unprecedented numbers in the next two years over 40,000 students will be turned away, due to budget cuts!!!

In the UC system students are being forced to drop out due to the budget cuts, the students who are most likely to drop out are those of color. From 2001 to now fees have risen over 277%. The approved fee increase in November 2009 by UC regents jeopardized many futures, students who cannot afford to pay $10,000 a year are forced to say goodbye to their dreams.

Is California really that broke? Lets see, we are the wealthiest state in the country! We are among the 10 largest economies in the world, and we also produce 12% of the US’s wealth. So what the hell is going on? The US spends about $3,000 a SECOND on the WAR! In California more money goes to prisons than to education. We don’t tax the rich adequately either, for example our “friendly” neighbor Chevron who has got away with paying a flat fee instead of 10% on utility taxes like everyone else!

I’m not saying to take action, which would be the ideal situation for me, but to begin thinking about our future. What are we without an education, how are we going to protect ourselves when politicians pass laws we cant even comprehend. Living in a capitalist economy we live in a society where its survival of the fittest, what kind of shape will we be in if we don’t have the knowledge to compete? The rich are getting richer and the poor and getting poorer. I wonder to myself what the future look like if we don’t take a stand and say ENOUGH is ENOUGH.