National Day of Action to Defend Public Education

Democracy Now! on the student protests about public education.  From the show:

ANANYA ROY: Well, we are beginning to look at a systematic destruction of the system of public education in California. And I think we’re feeling the effects of this. So, yes, much fewer students are able to join the community college systems, to enter the UC system, not only to be able to afford a college education in California, but to even be able to get into college. The community colleges turned away 40,000 students this year. And, of course, the K-through-12 cuts have a huge impact on whether or not students are able to get into colleges that they deserve to be educated at. So we have seen a horrible slide in California’s position in education in both the country and internationally. California now is forty-ninth out of fifty states in the number of adults with high school education. Its position in terms of the number of adults with college education continues to slip. And this does not bode well for California’s future.

So, if Californians care for nothing else other than economic competitiveness and job creation and economic recovery, then they have to pay attention to these trends. Many of us care for much more. We care about issues of social justice. We care about equality of opportunity. And when one cares about those issues, one has to pay attention to who is able to get into college, whether education has become a privilege for the minority or whether it is a widely held right.