March for California's future half-way to Sacramento

A half-dozen representatives of more than 100 statewide organizations are halfway through a 48 day, 400 mile march through the Central Valley from Bakersfield to Sacramento to call for restoration of quality public education and a fair tax system in the state. 

The March for California's Future began on March 4th, the day after thousands of people in cities across the state took to the streets to protest cuts to public education.  For the past 29 days, the marchers have walked on highways and streets, through small and large central valley towns continuing the protest, and calling for a fair tax that will provide the necessary funding to restore critical services in the state. 

Organizers say the purpose of the march is to transform a "crumbling California into the prospering State it once was by investing in public services vital to maintaining our quality of life:  our schools, parks, libraries, safety net services, and infrastructure."  

Jenn Laskin is one of the marchers and a teacher in Watsonville, where, she says there is a 27 percent unemployment rate, "It's the strawberry capital of the world and strawberries are a luxury.  In a recession, people stop buying them so workers no longer have jobs in the fields. I have many students who have both parents out of work, who grow food in our school garden for their families."  In the Central Valley, Laskin says, things seem worse, "The towns we've been passing through feel a lot more desolate. I see a lot of fields with nothing planted at all."

The official unemployment rate in Kern County in December was 16%.

The coalition supporting the march includes the California Federation of Teachers, the California Labor Federation, the United Farm Workers, Students for California's Future and the University of California Student Association among others. 

At 21, Ballesteros is the youngest marcher and says he's doing it for the youth and students in his community, "In Watsonville, there are fewer classes with more students.  That discourages the youth because they need help.  Now there's none."

In Delano, home to the United Farm Workers, the marchers report four prisons have replaced farm labor as the community's major source of employment.  Ballesteros says, "The families are poor, doing farm labor.  Now they're building more prisons in California than schools and there are more Blacks and Mexicans inside those prisons.  For young people like me, instead of being able to get a job, and achieving goals, they tell you, 'You're not going to make it.'" But the community organizer says, "This march might make a little bit of change here."

Teacher Jenn Laskin says education cuts have reduced the number of school nurses in her town to seven to care for 19,000 students and school psychologists and counselors, music and art teachers have been eliminated.  "Sports have become pay to play," she says, "which means that students who are talented and don't have the money lose the opportunity." And Laskin says, next year, K-2 classes will have 28 students, "One child in kindergarten told me, 'we can't even fit on the run anymore.'"

The legal limit of 20 students for K-3 grade classes was modified in the legislature's recent budget deals. 

In the San Joaquin Valley, Laskin says she sees the same crisis. "We've talked with many teachers who have received pink slips. I spoke with one teacher who worked three jobs to put herself through school.  She's in her second year, which means that on the first day of the next year, she'd have tenure and couldn't be laid off. So she's being laid off this year.  Her family's lived in McFarland for five generations and her father has been a custodian for the district there for 23 years.  Without a job there won't be anything to keep her in the community where she grew up."

The nearest city is Bakersfield where 200 teachers were recently given pink slips.

The marchers are asking people they meet to sign petitions to qualify a ballot initiative that would remove the requirement that two-thirds of the legislature approve any budget.  March organizers report that even though Democrats have held a majority in both the State Senate and the Assembly for years, a block of Republican legislators have prevented a vote to adopt a budget until legislators agree to cut spending, which they say has produced pink slips for teachers and fewer social services.

March organizers say the small San Joaqin valley towns they are marching through have a history of electing politicians demanding budget cuts and opposing tax increases.  Marcher Laskin says, "many  people are not making the connection that legislators elected here in the Valley are among those using the two-thirds requirement to slash services.  It's a long conversation.  The march creates the opportunity to talk with people, part of an education process."

As the marchers walk, they are holding town hall meetings, registering voters, getting petitions signed and collecting people's ideas on little yellow 'I Have a Dream for California' cards. Laskin says, "We'll be delivering thousands of them to Sacramento when we arrive on the steps of the capitol on April 21st."

You can follow the progress of the March for California's Future at this website:

http://www.fight4cafuture.com/events

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/mar/05/san-diego-professor-marches-400-miles-education/