Genevieve Vandeutekom
October 14, 2012
Professor Knapp
Proposition 30
Save Our Schools!
California's education system is facing a serious crisis due
to the budget cuts that have occurred and will continue to if we don't do
something about it. According to the Independent Voter Network, Mark Reynolds
states that "California has the second lowest credit rating in the union
due to its high rate of debt compared to the Gross Domestic product.” Governor Brown, who took office in 2011, has
come up with a proposal to help fix our lack of money for education and public
safety. If this proposal, Proposition 30, passes this year, there will be an
increase in taxes for people making $250,000 as an individual a year or a couple making
$500,000 or more. There will also be a temporary 1/4 cent sale taxes
Increase. If Proposition 30 does not pass we will be faced with more budget
cuts up to $6 billion which will cause devastating results to our education
system. In order to continue our education as a society we need to vote yes on
Proposition 30 this November.
When Californians' hear
that there is going to be an increase in taxes, which will affect them in any
way, they automatically become skeptical, and most likely will vote against the
proposal, shutting the rest of the information down. But, in this case, as well
as most cases we need to look at the bigger picture. First of all, Proposition
30 will only cause a raise in income taxes to people earning over $250,000 a
year or more as an individual or couples earning $500,000 a year as a joint.
This temporary tax raise will only be between 1-3% and be continued for the
next seven years. Also sales taxes will increase for everyone, and it’s only a
¼ cent sales tax for four years. This would amount to .25 cents per $100.
I’m sure you're
wondering where all this money will go if the Proposition passes. Well, 89% of
it will go for education for K-12 and 11% will go towards community colleges,
so you know your money is being used for good purposes. Californians that are
making $250,000 a year or more, think about how you got the job or position you
are currently in and now have a significant income. This opportunity was
probably available to you because of your extensive educational background.
Everyone deserves the same opportunity to succeed in life.
As a student at a Community College, who has been effected by
these budget cuts and will continue to, I feel that I have the right to argue
for Proposition 30 to pass. The people who are opposed to Proposition 30 might
make some of the following arguments. There’s no guarantee in the way that the
Proposition is written that the money will be used for schools. Why should we
(people making $250,000 a year or more), have to support other peoples
families? According to the voters’ guide, “The Governor, politicians, and
special interests behind Proposition 30 threaten voters. They say ‘vote for our
massive tax increase or we’ll take it out on schools.." Why are they
trying to incorporate two issues as big as education and public safety into one
proposal?, and what if we don’t want more money going towards supporting the
jail systems?
Although these
arguments are well recognized and good arguments, it is crucial that
Proposition 30 passes. My school, Cabrillo College, has suffered greatly
already from budget cuts. With the possible $6 billion more that has to come if
Proposition 30 doesn’t pass, Cabrillo will face losing space for 780 full time
students, cutting 1 in 13 classes and eliminating, five averaged- sized
programs or majors, which in context will cause the loss of at least one
students future. I know that for me with the class prices rising, it is extremely
hard to make it by. I rarely get into the classes that I need and struggle to
even buy textbooks for my classes.
It has been guaranteed
that the money rose by the tax increases, if Proposition 30 passes will go to
education and the money will be available for the public to see where it goes
to. Also the Legislature won’t have access to it, so you know they won’t try to
use the funds for something else. If Proposition 30 doesn’t pass, K-12 gets cut
$5.5 billion, cutting 3 weeks of school, CSU gets cut $250 million resulting in
class cuts, layoffs of staff, and enrollment cuts. CSU students could face an
additional $150 tuition increase for spring classes. Cabrillo College will face
an additional cut of 7.3%. This would be very bad for our school systems, and
our economy and our future.
For all the people in
California making $250,000 a year or more, and are feeling like they are forced
to support others, consider this. If Proposition 30 didn’t pass and your taxes
weren’t raised, they would eventually have to go up for something else anyway.
$250,000 is a lot of money to not be able to share and contributing a tiny
percentage for education will be worthwhile. Otherwise people making minimum
wage won’t be able to get education and move up in life if this proposal
doesn’t pass.
The Governor is not
threatening us on this Proposition, but simply informing us of the importance
of this issue, and how our economy would fall apart even more if education
wasn’t available. Public safety goes hand in hand with education. If we didn’t
have education, there wouldn’t be as many jobs for safety, which would cause
even more of a crash in our economy. Public Safety money would go towards
programs such as law enforcement and prisons. The outcome would be focusing attention
on departments that protect the community. As far as our jail systems go, the
money that is needed to support them is going to come out of our taxes either
way. So we need to look at all that we are really going to gain out of
Proposition 30, because we’re either going to pay a little now, or a lot later.
California does need to do a better job at managing where its
money goes. I understand the arguments against Proposition 30, and I’m not
trying to shut them down because they are very solid points, but the bottom
line is that our education system is really struggling. At this point,
Proposition 30 is a really good choice to help save our schools. Also, if
people don’t like how the Legislature budgets our money, they can vote them out
of office when re-election time comes.
In conclusion, I am asking all of you voters to vote this
November yes on Proposition 30. You will be able to help provide education
funding and only where it can be afforded by Californians. Only people making
$250,000 or more a year will have to contribute to the income tax increase and
the sales tax increase that will affect everyone will only go up tiny amount. With
support on this proposal California will gain about $6 billion to help our
system and education bloom again. This is not only my future, but also yours.
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