Readers voice opposition to budget cuts
Proposed cuts for certain student services a 'travesty'
Dear Editor,
How dare the Governor, the legislature, and the presidents and boards of community colleges slash programs for the disabled and economically impoverished. At De Anza College, the disability services programs and economic opportunity programs face up to 45 percent cuts. It is a travesty.
This will set these programs for the neediest and most deserving people back thirty to forty years! Every educational leader, policy maker and lawmaker in California should be ashamed of themselves.
Facing just a 15 percent cut so far, De Anza College already has given notice of termination to its award-winning and highly successful Career Development and Employment Program. Not a cut of 15 percent -- termination.
This program has existed for 20 years and plays an absolutely crucial role in assisting people with disabilities to prepare for and find meaningful careers. But the college leadership finds it easier to kill this relatively unknown, non-mainstream program than go after other better-known programs or demand an "across-the-board" 15 percent reduction for the college.
As a 30-year veteran professor of history in California's community colleges -- the last 17 years here at De Anza -- I am appalled at the lack of real leadership in California and the heartless willingness by those who claim to lead to solve the state's economic crisis on the backs of the disabled, the poor, children in our public schools and the disenfranchised. Do those who are comfortable enough to live in upscale neighborhoods, drive expensive SUVs and cars, and eat out two or three times a week really want the disabled, children and other less fortunate citizens to suffer because they can't cough up another couple of hundred bucks in taxes? Are the "haves" really that selfish?
Let's get real, Californians. Stop the vocal minority of conservative Republicans from holding the legislature and the Governor hostage because of the undemocratic (yes, undemocratic) two-thirds requirement for passing tax measures.
Let's tighten our belts with cuts, to be sure, but don't pull out the props that hold the state up, that make California a place worth living in and that make us truly human.
So what if it takes a surtax on the state income tax for a couple of years? So what if it takes restoring the vehicle license fee (it was based on weight, remember, and only supposed to be repealed until needed again)? Isn't that worth it to make our state a place in which we leave no person behind?
Show some responsibility, Californians. Stop singing "me, me, me, me." You have to pay to play, so step up and be counted for doing something for the greater good.
James Williams,
History Instructor
Possible tuition increases worries student, mother of five
Dear Editor,
I read the article, "Books, bombs or prisons?" in your Feb. 10 edition and I just wanted to let you know how worried I am about the government's decision to raise tuition for our community colleges.
I am a middle-aged mother of five, and I did not always make the best decisions in my life. In fact, I spent some time in prison a few years back. While I was there, I decided that when I was released, I was going to get my life together and make sure I never ended up back there again.
I knew the only way to make sure that happened was by getting a good education. I struggle to pay the bills, put food on the table for my family and still pay for tuition and books as it is. If they raise the tuition, I really don't know if I will be able to continue my education.
Not only does that make me worry for my own future, but it makes me worry for the future of my children. If I don't get a good education, how in the world will I ever be able to afford an education for my children? I know from personal experience that rising up out of poverty is difficult and sometimes, for some people, overwhelming. I don't want my children to take the same road that I did and end up in prison, too.
It seems to me that if the government would spend more on education for the youth in this country, we would not need so many prisons.
Jill Schneider,
student