The Southern Humboldt Unified School District was well represented, with a contingent of close to 35 people. Teachers were decked out in South Fork blue t-shirts, as were school board members Paulette Thiele, Jim Baker, and Susan Thompson. The ages represented ranged from infants to elderly and at times the line extended two city blocks.
As the marchers proceeded along their route from the California Teachers Association office to the offices of State Senator Pat Wiggins and Assemblywoman Patti Berg, people came out of offices and businesses along the way to cheer the marchers on and motorists waited patiently at intersections while the line of marchers crossed, sometimes honking their support for the effort to maintain school funding.
A marching teacher said it was the first time he’d been part of a protest since junior high, “and then we were only marching for the right to wear Levis to school.”
The march was organized through the CTA, with the Southern Humboldt Teachers Association
”We got really great support and have hundreds of postcards to turn in,” said Agnes J. Johnson School teacher Adele Andersen. “Southern Humboldt has lots of people here even though we’re the farthest away.”
The postcards protesting the budget cuts were turned over to representatives of Senator Wiggins at her office and then the march reformed and proceeded to the office of Patti Berg, where Berg’s representative Connie Stewart addressed the crowd.
”Let me tell you the news,” Stewart said. “We’ve just heard that the governor is going to keep Prop 98 funding flat and not give you guys a COLA. This means a $4 billion cut to education. Patti’s outraged, just so you know. We’re outraged that we’re not taking a balanced approach to this budget deficit and that the governor is not looking at additional revenue that can be generated.
”He also is making a proposal that we sell our lottery futures to help augment the budget, and that if we don’t do that, we agree to a sales tax increase of one percent. That will be on the November ballot. If the Republicans would vote for it, which I doubt they will, we all know that sales tax is the most regressive tax in the state, so it’s unacceptable. We need to look at other options.”
”What is Patti going to do for us?” one of the marchers demanded.
”She’s going to do her best,” Stewart said. “As you know, we need two-thirds in the legislature in order to get a budget passed and to get any increase in revenue, and two-thirds means six Republicans in the Assembly and two Republicans in the Senate. Unfortunately, all of the Republicans, except for one, have signed a pledge for no new taxes. So that means, essentially, that this budget has got to come up with at least $50.2 billion dollars worth of cuts. So, it’s going to be a long summer and Patti’s up for the fight.”
This produced sustained cheers from the crowd.
Stewart went on to encourage the marchers to walk past the Republican headquarters and to talk to Rotary clubs and the Chambers of Commerce.
”Talk to people,” she said. “We need a balanced approach. We need to fix the revenue problems of the state. We can’t continue to hurt our kids. We just can’t.”
Make the cuts at the top and not at the bottom, someone called.
”Believe me,” Stewart said, “the cuts are going to be made everywhere, even the legislature.”
She said that health and human services are also going to be taking major cuts.
”There will be no cola increase for parents on welfare and our safety net folks,” she said. “Not only do we hurt the kids at school, but there’s going to be less food on the table at home as well.”
”What about the prison expansion?” someone called out.
”Well, if we’re not going to educate them, we’ll have to lock them up,” Stewart said.
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