Keep Your Cuts Away from the Classroom Education in an Era of Budget Cuts
By Theresa Dang

This was one hell of a district meeting.

There are people ranging from the age of four to sixty, students to Tuskegee Airmen, Hispanic to Caucasian. Some were standing from all directions and all exits of the meeting room, some were in the fifty-something chairs set up, some were sitting on the floor right in front of the East Side Union High School Board members, and some were flooding the hallways. A number of people were holding signs reading "Tell the Gov: New Revenue Sources, No Cuts to Kids!" or "I Am the Face of the Budget Cut."

If this is hard to imagine for some of you folks, let me give you a statistic instead: The usual number of citizen speakers at each board meeting is ten- there were in fact eighty people signed up to speak in front of the audience and board members.

They all gathered for one purpose: to demonstrate democracy and demand that if the board members and district must make cuts, they should be anywhere else but the classroom.

Budget cuts this year will be completely inevitable due to the fact that the housing market has gone down and majority of the school's money comes from the property tax received from homeowners. Teachers and educational leaders joined together to express their concern and urge the board members not to cut $9.2 billion away from the classroom.

As a high school student who goes to one the schools they were discussing, Independence High, I am discontent, annoyed, disappointed, angry, frustrated, baffled, bitter, resentful, dispirited, disheartened and defeated. Most of all, I am worried. I didn't know any better in elementary or middle school, but now I can truly see how defective and deprived our school system actually is. I am worried about the fact that some government officials seem to think that there should be more emphasis and funds going into our national military, rather than our future generation. To tell you the truth, I feel neglected and hopeless. If our noble and affluent elected officials don't believe in my potential enough to finance it, who will?

This article is not just another plea to board members as well as the Governor. This is a concern I need to express to my peers and the next president, President-Elect Barrack Obama.

Education is important. We all know that, but do we ever really think about why it is so important? On a personal level, it determines whether one will receive minimum wage or the preferred six figure salary. However, the importance of education goes beyond that and it appeals to all the people of America, especially Mr. Obama himself. Education in America is a matter of national interest. If education were to decrease in value over the next few years, my generation will not only become apathetic and ignorant, but uncompetitive and unable to keep up with the rest of the world.

In other words, this is supposed to be the future isn't it? Then why aren't we advancing?