Save Our Schools!
“California has the second lowest credit
rating in the union due its high rate of debt compared to the Gross Domestic
product.”(Mark Reynolds) This horrible debt that California
has created caused many education cuts all over California. 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 or more a year
or a couple making $500,000 or more a year. There will also be a ¼ cent sale
taxes raise. If Proposition 30 does not pass we will be faced with more budget
cuts up to $6 billion and our education system will cut a devastating amount.
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 tax raise will only be between 1-3% and be
continued for the next seven years. Also sales taxes will increase for
everyone, but it’s only a ¼ cent sales tax for four years. This would amount to
.25 cents per $100.
I’m sure
your wondering where all this money would go to. Well, 89% of it would go to
education for K-12 and 11% would go towards community colleges, so you know
your money is going to a good cause. People that are making $250,000 a year or
more, think about how you got the job or position that you are in making that
great of an income. It was most likely from going to school and getting a good
education. Everyone deserves this equal opportunity to succeed in life and get
to this place.
As a
student at a Community College, that 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 that 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 besides our
own?, “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….”(Voters guide), Why are they trying to incorporate two issues
that are 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 and 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 persons
students future. It has been guaranteed that the money raised, 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 take some of the money for something else.
For all the
people in California making $250,00 a year or more feeling like they are having
to support others, If Proposition 30 didn’t pass and your taxes weren’t raised,
I’m sure that they would eventually have to go up for something else. $250,000
is a lot of money to not be able to share a tiny percentage for education,
while 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 simple 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 because 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.
And as far as our jail systems go, really if wasn’t this money going towards them,
it would through some other way. So we need to look at all that we are really going
to gain out of Proposition 30, because I think it’s more than we would loose if
it didn’t pass.
California does need to do
a better job at managing where its money goes. I understand the arguments that are
against Proposition 30 and am not trying to shut them down because they are very
solid points, but the bottom line is that our education system is really struggling
and 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
off of office when re-election time comes.
“Funding
for education has been decline since 2008… California is now ranked 47th in the
country in per-pupil spending on education…”(Reynolds) AS the years have
continued the numbers have gotten worse. For all you voters who are going to
vote against this Proposition think about some of these facts. If Proposition
30 doesn’t pass K-12 gets cut $5.5 billion, cutting 3 weeks of school, CSU gets
cut $25o million resulting in class cuts, and 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 also our
economy.
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 ¼ cent. Everyone deserves an equal opportunity and
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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