EDITOR: As a San Jose State student, I am directly affected by
the budget shortfall that has rippled through out the state. I have
seen my tuition jump, I have seen classes cut and I have seen
teachers not return.
EDITOR:
As a San Jose State student, I am directly affected by the budget shortfall that has rippled through out the state. I have seen my tuition jump, I have seen classes cut and I have seen teachers not return.
Now there is measure on the ballot that proposes to sell bonds to retrofit our schools, Prop 55. It is true that California schools are falling apart and are in need of an up grade, but is now the right time?
California schools can’t afford to stay open, so what will fixing them accomplish? We will have brand new schools with no teachers to teach in them and students being crammed into other schools to cut costs. Just look at San Jose and Oakland. In the past months, the news has reported several stories reporting parents who are fighting to keep schools open.
Since July of 2003 alone, the tuition has increased by 30 percent, and the school is still laying off teachers, cut back enrollment and has cut back on the classes offered.
Prop 55 will provide money for construction, not teachers’ salaries, not to keep schools open and not to keep costs to go to school down. Prop 55 is a good idea at the wrong time. We need to evaluate our priorities: better facilities or having facilities open.
The proposition, if passed, will allow for the selling of more than $12 billion worth of bonds. Again, it’s a good idea at the wrong time. California’s credit rating is teetering on the edge of junk, which means that the interest one each bond is drastically more that it was before the energy crisis. Which means it will cost California more in the long run, if the bonds are even sold.
California schools are in trouble and the trouble will not go away until the schools receive more money. Antiquated classrooms are bad, but no classrooms are even worse. Let’s cure the cancer and we can worry about the face lift when we can afford it.
Clodoaldo “Cheeto” Barrera,
Morgan Hill
