Education Cuts Spawn Rallies Throughout SF

San Francisco students, teachers, parents and others held rallies in the city Thursday to protest billions of dollars in state budget cuts to education.

Some of the rallies are part of a statewide series of "Pink Friday" events to oppose the thousands of pink slips being given to educators. Friday is the deadline for school districts to issue preliminary layoff notices.

The California Teachers Association has said more than 26,000 pink slips have been issued statewide. The San Francisco Unified School District sent out 453 layoff notices to teachers across the city on Monday.

United Educators of San Francisco spokesman Matthew Hardy said state budget cuts to K-12 education total about $11.6 billion.

UESF planned a large rally in Civic Center Plaza to call on the Board of Supervisors to commit more funding to the city's schools to help make up for the state budget cuts, spokesman Matthew Hardy said.

Mayor Gavin Newsom and most of the Board of Supervisors agreed on Feb. 24 to release at least $11.5 million from the fund to prevent some of the projected layoffs.

"What we'd like them to do is pass a resolution committing the funds as soon as possible so the school district can rescind as many of these layoffs as possible," Hardy said.

Members of the San Francisco State University chapter of the California Faculty Association joined UESF at the rally to protest cuts to higher education.

Sue Pak, a labor representative for the local CFA chapter, said the group from the university is joining the rally to support public education at all levels.

"It's a message of solidarity that we're all in this together," Pak said.

CFA researcher Aimee Shreck said that in the final budget, the California State University system received about $313 million less than it was promised by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. She said SFSU will receive $17 million less than expected.

Pak said the budget cuts forced the university to have 108 fewer lecturers for the 2008 fall semester compared to the previous year.

Another rally was to be held Thursday by SFSU students, who planned to join with students from City College of San Francisco.

SFSU students planned to stage a walkout at 11:30 a.m., and were scheduled hold a rally on campus before marching to CCSF's Ram Plaza at 50 Phelan Ave. for a 1:30 p.m. rally.

Student organizer Cole Ferraiuolo said at least 500 people would protest the cuts, which he said could affect summer classes or the per-unit cost of classes at City College.

He said some participants will join the rally at Civic Center Plaza.

UESF and CFA protesters planned to gather at about 4 p.m. at Civic Center Secondary School at 727 Golden Gate Ave before marching to Civic Center Plaza for a 5 p.m. rally.

Hardy said there will be several speakers and performances by the Angry Tired Teachers, a band made up of Bay Area educators.

He said many protesters will wear pink shirts in solidarity with the statewide "Pink Friday" events.

"We're going to stand together for our schools and really demand a real solution to the budget issues, because cutting funding for schools is a penny-wise, pound-foolish process," Hardy said. "This is going to debilitate school districts across the state and schools are going to suffer."

Camille Anderson, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, said that "in the face of the state's $42 billion budget deficit, the governor went to extraordinary lengths to ensure California's schools were given increased funding flexibility so they could prioritize their spending on what they need the most during this national economic downturn."