When will the rich start to sacrifice?

SAN FRANCISCO--One thousand parents, educators, community members and students turned out for a town hall meeting called by the six parents in the PTA to discuss solutions to drastic cuts to public education.

Some $113 million in cuts are being proposed in the San Francisco Unified School District over the next two years.

Attendees filled the auditorium at Marina Middle School on February 25 to hear the high-profile panel of speakers, which included city and state representatives such as Mayor Gavin Newsom, School District Superintendent Carlos Garcia, state senators Mark Leno and Leland Yee, and state assembly members Tom Ammiano and Fiona Ma.

Newsom spoke about a parcel tax for property owners on the November ballot that would raise funds for a future rainy day fund. He also mentioned involving San Francisco businesses by asking them to match funds raised by local PTAs.

Garcia issued a call for action against the cuts and said he would go so far as to sue the state for underfunding schools. Ammiano said he has authored a bill to close the loophole in Proposition 13, which was passed in 1978 and has led to a massive loss in funding for schools.

Many of the speakers also talked about getting rid of the two-thirds majority in California necessary to pass the budget.

These solutions were well received by the crowd, but when the community was finally allowed to pose a few questions to the panel, they put forward sharp criticisms. For instance, a speaker pointed out the excessiveness of the $2 million allotted to assembly members Fiona Ma and her staff.

Newsom's parcel tax will raise revenue, but it has the potential to be another regressive tax that hits the rich and the poor equally. We've had enough of that. It's time to tax the people who have seen their tax burden decline over the last three decades in California--corporations and the wealthy. They made the money; now it's time for them to give back.

THE LAST speaker from the floor was a parent and teacher who had some words specifically for Superintendent Garcia. He questioned the superintendent's proposed cuts that would come mostly off the backs of teachers in the form of layoffs, wage freezes and furlough days.

The superintendent has said that we all must sacrifice, and this teacher proposed that, if these are indeed such hard financial times, no one in the district should be making more than $80,000. These words were greeted by a standing ovation.

Instead of asking businesses to match PTA funds, we say that they should be taxed to fund education. If Garcia wants to truly stand up to these cuts, he should refuse to submit a budget with these cuts to the state and demand full funding--and we, the community, will stand behind him.

Instead, Garcia has gone after schools that were trying to fight Sacramento by organizing for actions for the March 4 Day of Action. If Garcia fought Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger half as hard as he is fighting teachers and students, we might actually make some progress. His toothless appeal to sue the state through a lengthy lawsuit would take years and most likely go nowhere.

We support closing the loophole in Proposition 13 so that corporations don't receive the same tax protection as homeowners and start paying their fair share of taxes. We also support overturning the two-thirds majority for the senate to be able to pass measures necessary to reform California's tax structure.

This town hall meeting was a step forward, mobilizing families that previously haven't been active to look for solutions to this budget crisis. The comments from community members and teachers were a reminder that these politicians, though they say they are on "our side," still aren't sharing in the effects of the cuts in the same way parents, educators and students are.

We must continue to organize and keep the pressure on these officials to truly support education--not just with their words, but also with their actions.