Late day antics in Sacramento at the California state Capitol has lead to the arrest of 65 teachers and students protesting California budget cuts. The protesters were arrested this evening after the building closed and California Highway Patrol officers warned them repeatedly to leave.
According to the Sacremento Bee, a crowd chanted "shame on you" as protesters were led off one by one, mostly without incident. All were booked into the Sacramento County Jail on misdemeanor trespassing charges, CHP spokesman Sean Kennedy said. He said two or three of the protesters also face charges of resisting arrest.
The daylong protest, organized by the California Teachers Association, drew about 1,000 protesters, according to the Bee. About 150 moved into the rotunda in late afternoon, and some of them refused to leave at the 6 p.m. closing time.
The protesters did not explain where money was to come from to support increased budgets, when the current level of cuts is laughable relative to the steamroller of debt that needs to be paid in upcoming years. They just know they have a "right" to the money.
According to the Bee, Mike Parker, a community college teacher who was among those arrested, said the protest was to provide a "moral witness...What's happening in this society is totally out of kilter."
Parker is right in that things are way out of kilter. I doubt, however, that he understands that community college teachers in general are pushing things more out of kilter, by teaching socialistic views at their colleges and not understanding the grave dangers of growing government.
I think they may be having a hard time articulating what they know in their gut.... and that is that looking at state and federal expenditures, there is a great deal of money wasted on the military, law enforcement, homeland security, and an endless list of other things that do not positively contribute to society. So much so, that we could probably avoid cuts in education if as a society we knew what our priorities are. I'm not saying that I agree with the massive education expenditures either, rather I am just trying to be a fair and objective observer of these events.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't the proper statement be "teaching Marxist views"? Socialistic views would be confined to economics while Marxist views would be social, political and economic, which is probably more accurate to what they are teaching (some unwittingly since that is what they were indoctrinated with all their lives).
ReplyDeleteI yearn for the day when teachers with sense protest government involvement in education. If teachers were truly educated, they would lobby for free-market schools, but alas, they won't. For them, government is God.
ReplyDeleteIt is perfectly natural and predictable for people to defend the organism that is providing their paycheck.
ReplyDeleteWithout state-run schools, many of these "professors" would be unemployed...forced to find something else to do and profess about...something society values and is willing to voluntarily fork money over to receive.