This last week, teachers across the state rallied against the budget cuts to education. This made me realize how much funding was being taken from education over the years and that education was being put too close to last once again.

This article gave insight to the number of teachers (26,000) and other public school employees (15,000) being given pink slips, and the grand total of $8.4 billion being cut from public education by the state. I hope that this appalling number will shock students like it has stupefied me, so that we may all find a productive and influential way to right this unjustifiable wrong. At this rate it’s going, I am worried that we will have no public education for the generations to come.

April 15th is tax day. After sitting in on a Youth Making A Change meeting, I realized (once again) that tax day is our day. Meaning that we pay taxes to receive all of our public necessities. Because we pay taxes to maintain our schools, we have the right to demand an education from the state—this is our money, our schools, our education.

Yes, our economy is in turmoil, but the longer we put a lowering price tag on education, the further we step away from progress and the possibility of an educated and prepared future generation that can solve the issues and troubles presently put before us.

The children of California deserve new teachers who can relate to them and provide new, exciting curriculum that they can relate to. If the state needs other suggestions on where to cut spending, they should start with spending less on funding the prison industrial complex and more on the future of California students.
—Tanea Lunsford

This blog was written during a New America Media Education Reporting Fellowship for Youth, which was funded through The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.