NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING DONE..

                Education in the United States is in a steady state of decline. In a time where American jobs have become more advanced, having well rounded educated students is more important than ever. A steady stream of cuts over the past few years has resulted in a decrease in both quality and motivation in our students. As a first year college student, I have witnessed the impact of these cuts in all aspects of public school; I recognize the value of education, how important it is to have teachers that care and a school with enough resources to sustain an intelligent student body

According to the LA times, when Gerry brown took office we were about 25 million dollars in debt, and since then we have experiences many large cuts to the general fund. It is now the smallest share in our history; I think it’s time to get our priorities straight in California. Gerry Browns proposition 30 is a measure that will result in a slight increase in taxes (About 1/4^th of a cent in sale tax, and 1-3% raise in income tax for people who make 250,000 or more) and will put that money towards k-12 schools, community colleges and public safety. If the measure is denied, we will be facing $4.8 Billion in “trigger cuts” to many important programs in California. These programs include everything from higher education to public safety. These cuts will most likely devastate that already crumbling system, and will cause many students to not be able to afford higher education at all. It will result in three weeks less school for k-12 students and about 1 billion dollars in cuts to CSUs and community colleges.

In the past California has rejected many attempts to raise taxes and I definitely understand the mistrust people must feel with our government. It seems like this spending problem we have cannot simply be fixed by spending less, and it’s going to take a lot of time. Education is the best way to prepare our people to work and find jobs in this advancing market. Many jobs require much more than on the job training, they also require a general education. People need to have all the necessary critical thinking and writing skills if they want to be able to keep up with the world today. This country was once valued for its strength in education, and is now one of the lower ranking countries in that area. Countries like India and china have a much higher rate of graduate students, even accounting for their much larger populations. I feel like in the school system continues to decline like it has been, more and more jobs will be outsourced, and all of this will continue to weaken our middle class.

Critics argue that this proposition is just another way for politicians to take more of your money without giving back to schools at all. They claim that this is nothing but a “shell game”; supposedly they will be able to remove the money by taking the existing money for schools and replacing it with the money from the new taxes. They claim these “Massive hikes” in taxes won’t go to schools at all and it will only put California in even worse debt. In the actual proposition, it is stated that there will be strong fiscal control over this problem, adding to the constitution that the money will go into a special account guaranteed only to be used for schools. They claim that the money will be audited every year to assure that its being spent where they say it will, they have authorized criminal prosecution for misuse of the funds.

Over the past four years, there have been more than 56 billion dollars to education and public safety. These led to less police protection, increased fire response time, caused overcrowding in prisons, and hurt so many different groups of people. Proposition 30 will be a way to begin to fix this, as some of the funds will go back to these important programs. Prison overcrowding will be reduced by allowing more oversight of parolees, and will give people opportunities to take classes and improve their life instead of just staying in prison.