Public Education Spending: It's a Question of Priorities

I was impressed by the turnout in Berkeley and Oakland, California, on March 4, education's Day of Action. What I saw (though it was not by any means all of it) was heartening: students, teachers, legislators, and community members putting their collective foot down and demanding that we as a society preserve public education. The way things are going, in California, at least -- billions in cuts to K-12 schools and enormous tuition hikes, layoffs, and furloughs at public universities -- it is almost as if the state is giving up on the whole idea.

Luckily, the people aren't.

Across California, thousands and thousands gathered, marched, picketed, chanted, and even blocked freeways. I saw a tiny slice of that energy at UC Berkeley and in downtown Oakland. "Ask me what it’s like to teach 27 kindergarteners with no instructional asistant!" read one sign held by a member of the Oakland Education Association. “Bleeding from the Cuts,” read another, tugged along by a group of elementary school kids.

While this kind of thing is not exactly new, what I heard over and over, from megaphones at UC Berkeley to microphones in downtown Oakland, was a chorus of determined voices repeating “The money is there. It’s a question of priorities!”

Exactly. Why can’t we ever be forward-thinking enough to prioritize education? Schools, not prisons; schools, not wars; schools, not tax breaks for the absurdly wealthy, please!

One major suggestion for helping replace some of those much-needed dollars -- at least for California's public colleges and universities -- is California State Assembly bill AB 656. Proposed by democratic state assembly member and majority leader Alberto Torrico and lauded by most everyone I heard speak on March 4, the bill would leverage a 12.5 percent severance tax on oil extracted in California and raise roughly $2 billion a year for higher education. Torrico proposes putting that tax money directly into the California Higher Education Fund.

Apparently, California is the only state in the nation that doesn't tax big oil in this way. Texas and Alaska, for instance, both charge a hefty fee -- in Alaska, it's 25 percent. (For some more information, a piece in the LA Times, published last summer, explores the issue pretty extensively. Current supporters of the bill, such as the California Faculty Association and the University of California Student Association, are also calling for signatures. Check out Facebook.com/FairTuition for more details).

Why should big oil still win while state-funded education loses more and more? If oil barons like Chevron and Exxon Mobil are still going to be drilling and reaping enormous financial benefits, can't we shave off some of that money for our schools, as other big-oil states like Texas and Alaska do? Let's invest in our future instead of corporations and make public higher education something everyone can afford! Please sign a petition to tax the oil drilling in California and support AB 656.

Photo credit: Sara Bernard