Students, teachers block traffic over cuts

The school system in California was once considered a global model for what a public higher education system should look like. Now it is quickly being dismantled by a political system that values repression over education, prisons over schools. The statewide protests that started last spring, following the passage of severe cuts in the California state education budget, are continuing and growing.

The latest pro-education action in San Diego was called by local affiliates of the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, the San Diego/Imperial County Labor Council, and local community and student groups. On Oct. 29 several hundred angry activists rallied in Balboa Park, marched downtown to the State Office Building and sat down in the street outside the building, blocking traffic. They demanded a hearing from a representative of the governor.

Students, faculty and support staff from most of the area’s colleges and universities were in attendance for the rally, march and sit-in. High school students and community activists also participated.

A large contingent of faculty members from South County’s Southwestern College came wearing bright yellow T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan, “Support students, get suspended?” Faculty union leader Phil Lopez explained to the crowd at the rally that he and three other faculty members who attended a recent student rally at the school, following the announcement of major cuts in spring 2010 courses, were put on academic leave for “unruly behaviors.”

Three of the four, all active in the faculty union, have been barred from teaching their classes or even setting foot on campus. Police were sent to their homes to inform them of the actions against them. The school’s president was “on vacation” and thus unavailable for clarification.