Education is a social right! Unite teachers, students and workers against all cuts!

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/cali-m12.shtml

This statement will be distributed by supporters of the SEP and ISSE at rallies of teachers Friday in California to oppose attacks on public education. To download this statement in pdf form, click here. For a version that includes a meeting announcement in Los Angeles, click here.

Public education is under attack in California and throughout the country. As a result of budget cuts, primary schools are being shut down in district after district and state after state. Class sizes are soaring, teachers are being laid off and key programs eliminated.

Teachers, who perform one of society’s most important functions, are being victimized for the crisis created by chronic underfunding. Politicians from both parties and the media denounce teachers for being overpaid and responsible for “failing schools.” Los Angeles is a model for new methods that supposedly evaluate performance, but, in fact, are aimed at scapegoating teachers for a crisis they did not create.

At the community college, college, and university levels, budget cuts are leading to falling enrollment, cancelled classes and soaring tuition. Students are graduating burdened with thousands of dollars of debt, only to face a life of unemployment or low-wage work. Last year, for the first time in history, student debt surpassed credit card debt nationwide.

More at the link --

It's a joke to me that it is only when funding is at jeopardy that we discover our kids are getting short changed.