It’s great to see that there are plans under way to save the students.

California’s community colleges are joining together and becoming aggressive in attracting donors and raising funds.

Unfortunately, the Califor-nia State University system still has not found its savior yet. As has been reported, before the start of the current semester, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a $312.9 million reduction in the CSU system’s budget in response to a $14 billion statewide budget deficit.

As [X]press reported on March 6, “The proposed cuts will result in denied admis-sions to 10,000 prospective students state-wide as well as reduced health benefits and compensation for CSU faculty and staff.” This information was released by the CSU Office of Public Affairs.

The public education system is for everyone—a place to enroll and gain an education in order to get a reasonable job. The future appears to become bleaker every day.
How can there be an educated workforce when classes are constantly being cut?

According to a 2005 report by ICF Consulting that said for every dollar California invests in the CSU system, $4.41 in spending is generated.

The education system is critical to our economy and yet it’s one of the first things to be cut when cuts need to be made.

Cut the military. The state of California should challenge the prison guard union and negotiate a deal that would stop them from draining our monetary resources.

Through this all, the students need to become involved, too. Last Wednes-day, approximately 80 stu-dents staged a “take over” of the quad to protest the raising of student fees.

Eighty students protesting fee hikes is sad and pathetic. When are people going to get tired of paying more for their education and getting less in return?

It’s outra-geous to keep paying more and more money only to have our classes cut back and watch our graduation chances slip further out of reach each semester.

It’s time to stand up and fight back. Money can be found to save our education system.

We urge people to attend an event the California Faculty Association is organizing on March 17 from noon to 2 p.m. in McKenna Theatre.

The event is to educate the community about the importance of CSUs and lobby for funding.