Apparently education is too far down the food chain. Why is education the last thing the government wants to fund? It doesn’t make sense to me how this works out. One inspiring person I know who’s trying to make a difference is my economics and government teacher. Since we got the news of the budget cuts and how much it will be affecting not just our school but schools around the country, he has been trying to organize and get people’s attention. So far the community hasn’t really responded to him, and sometimes it feels like he’s protesting the budget cuts to education all by himself. This to me is an outrage and quite saddening knowing that my community is just standing there with their hands tied when they know full well that they can change what is going on within their community.
On Thursday May 7, a sort of call out to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa happened at the entrance of my school, Roosevelt High, during lunch. Sadly fewer than the expected number of people showed up, and some students were not allowed to join, but nothing could be done about this. This clearly shows that the powers that be are trying to silence us even more. Luckily I was there to cover the event.
Even though in his first State of the City address, Villaraigosa said that one of his goals was to take charge of the Los Angeles Unified School District, he hasn’t really followed through with his promise. He chooses to stay neutral and tells the people that he’s with us all the way. But it seems like his goal is to become governor of California and so he tries to stay away from any rabble-rousing issues like education. What he does not realize is that the more he ignores us, the more we will make noise.
I feel that the mayor heard us and how outraged the teachers and, more importantly, the students, staff, and parents are about this whole ordeal. I just can’t believe the government takes all of the community’s hard earned tax dollars only to not even give us back our fair share of that money in the form of a good education.
Unfortunately, those of us who really are standing for the change don’t have enough back up. The whole community needs to get behind us. Even if the people appointed into office are from our community and say they know what it’s like, they are voting against us and are just thinking about their politics. We don’t want to kick them out; just make them do their job, which is the reason why we elected them in the first place.