Yes, you read that right. When workers are striking that means that someone, somewhere is refusing to negotiate health care, a living wage or safe working conditions.
And even worse, this strike is happening right outside my workplace. I scanned the flier I received while walking to get my lunch.
That’s not too much to ask, is it? Orange County, CA is one of the most expensive places to live in the US and the people who work theif forty hours a week should be able to afford to live here!
The dream of sending one’s child to College is an admirable one and it’s something that many parents aspire to. It’s a basic right that can help lift an entire generation out of poverty and provide the strong work force that not only California needs to move into the 21st Century, but our entire Country.
And guess what? Because the Governator is cutting Education budgets across the board the California State University system and the University of California system are raising their tuition fees.
Despite angry protests from students that led to 16 arrests at UCLA, California’s two public universities took actions Wednesday to charge higher fees for education in the fall.
The trustees of the Cal State University system voted to raise annual undergraduate student fees 10%, or $276. A key committee of the University of California regents approved a 7.4%, or $490, raise per year for undergraduates that is expected to be endorsed by the full Board of Regents today.
Student expensesThe actions would bring average statewide undergraduate costs to nearly $3,800 at Cal State and to more than $8,000 at UC, not including housing, books and other expenses, which can total $12,000 to $16,000. Graduate students will face even higher increases.
“This is one of the most painful things we do. None of us wants to raise fees,” UC President Robert C. Dynes said at the regents meeting at UCLA. “We’re between a rock and a hard place. The state doesn’t support us the way they should support us.”
Why don’t Republicans get it? Affordable education is what will allow people to care for themselves and to lift themselves out of the poverty they were born into, it’s practically the only way to do it. Should not all our children have this opportunity?
The whole reason we have the CSU system is to allow lower income students the ability to get a higher education. And the reason we have Unions is so that hard working families can care for their children and their dreams of having something better for themselves. The Republican way of thinking is absolutely antithetical to their supposed core belief, they are so opposed to tax hikes that they would cut their nose off to spite their face.
Don’t workers deserve a chance to make their children’s lives better? Shouldn’t Government be part of that opportunity rather than an impediment to it?
California’s public universities pay for themselves: For every $1 spent, about $3 comes back to the state as a byproduct.
You would think that conservatives would understand the importance of investing? But they can’t let go of their personal beliefs of “I’ve got mine, screw everyone else”. That’s what it comes down to.
So you see, I hate to see a strike. It means that the people who help keep my office clean and workable are being asked to forgo their dreams for the children so that big corporations can have a higher profit margin for the few of the people on their board of directors. The many must suffer so the few can prosper.
But if you do see a picket line, please take the time to say you support their dreams and you support their needs because in the end, this is about supporting everyone in our soceity and declaring that we all deserve a better life for not only ourselves but our children.