(May 23, 2011) -- A rally is scheduled on Tuesday, May 24 from 4:00-5:00 p.m. at Longfellow Elementary School, which event organizers say is meant to tell Sacramento legislators to "take action and secure adequate and sustainable school funding."
A Facebook page for the LB event -- linked here -- describes it as follows:
Parents and concerned citizens are coordinating a statewide day of action to increase awareness for the crisis facing California public schools and the need for our legislators to take action and secure adequate and sustainable school funding.
Let's come out in droves to show how much we love our schools, our teachers, our kids, our community...THE LBC! The more people who come, the more press we get. Please come, make a sign, bring your friends, bring your kids. We'd like to see every LBUSD school represented.
Speakers include Chris Steinhauser, LBUSD Superintendent; Michael Morgan, LBCPTA President; Mike Day, TALB President; and Former Senator Betty Karnette. School entertainment will also be featured. It's gonna be good.
The event is one of several across the state linked to "EducateOurState.org" which states for what it stands on this page and describes itself here.
On May 15, EducateOurState.org issued the following release:
On May 24th parents will be holding over 20 rallies throughout the state to “Wake Up California” to the potential disastrous budget cuts facing K-12 public schools.
San Francisco, May 9, 2011: On behalf of the over six million children educated in public schools in the state of California, Educate Our State is organizing parents and supporters in a show of solidarity and frustration with the current educational system and the California legislature. "Parents are organizing a statewide, multi-city day of rallies to demonstrate against the potential massive budget cuts facing our schools. Without the passage of the revenue extension measure by our legislature, we will see our schools cut nearly 20,000 teachers statewide, burgeoning class sizes and elimination of nearly all enrichment programs," said Linda Shaffer, co-founder Educate Our State.
Educate Our State, a grassroots campaign with 35,000 supporters statewide that has gained substantial political clout and press over the past year, is staging a "Wake Up California!" day of events to bring public awareness to the dire situation in which California's public education system currently finds itself. This event comes on the heels of Educate Our State’s last campaign, "Let Us Vote" which generated over 60,000 letters to legislators from every legislative district in the state.
On May 24th over 20 events and rallies will be held throughout the state from Sacramento to Los Angeles to San Diego.
"Parents want to bring attention to the crisis facing our schools," said Teri Levy, co-founder Educate Our State,
"Parents are frustrated and want our legislators to save public education funding." California lags behind all but a few states with respect to funding (lower than 43rd), standardized test scores (math 43rd and reading 46th; NAEP 4th Grade 2009), and staff to student ratios (50th, NCES Common Core of Data, 2007-2008). An updated list of rally sites is available at www.educateourstate.org.
The abysmal state of education in California has not gone unnoticed. Recently, the San Jose Mercury News cited a poll of Silicon Valley CEOs who feel "the biggest contribution state and local government could make toward an improved business climate would be to improve K-12 education"...
Educate Our State founders stress that this event is not just about funding for education -- rather, it is about making education the priority it needs to be in order for this state to thrive and recover.
LBUSD spokesman Chris Egtychiou says it the event grew organically among local parents who were concerned about how state budget cuts would impact school budget cuts locally; the parents connected with EducateOurState.org and LBUSD isn't directly involved with EducateOurState.org but accepted the local parents' invitation to speak based on the call for proper resources for schools.
FULL SERVICE Quality Plumbing: Drain Pros serves L.A. & Orange counties. For CURRENT DISCOUNT SPECIALS, CLICK HERE.
Mike Kowal, Realtor
