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Students, teachers, administrators, school board members and state legislators staged a protest and rally at the Berryessa Youth Center last Friday as a backlash to the 10 percent cut to education funding proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The cuts are part of the 10 percent across-the-board cuts in Schwarzenegger's January budget proposal.

Speeches were given by a variety of elected officials, administrators and heads of school employee organizations, but the message was mostly the same: California has failed to make public education a priority, and funding cuts alone will not lead to a balanced budget.

Berryessa Union School District Superintendent Marc Liebman began the sounding-off session, partially blaming the commitment of state Republicans to not raise taxes under any circumstances for the cuts to essential programs like public education.

"The governor could easily generate $6 to $8 billion by reviving the car licensing tax, and chooses not to," Liebman said. "They have decided not to tax the sale of yachts or private airplanes, but think it's OK to cut education funding by millions of dollars."

Berryessa Board of Trustees member David Cohen said, "Public education is the most important commitment that society makes to its citizens, and this country is failing that commitment."

Cohen added the proposed cuts could mean the elimination of "vital" programs, including counseling, library services, and music and art.

"The governor wants to balance the budget on the back of my daughter, and the backs of all our children," he said.

State Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose, called the state's kindergarten through 12th-grade education system a "starved, fragile system that is at its breaking point."

"I have experience in making budget cuts as a former member of the (Santa Clara County) Board of Supervisors, and the cutbacks must reflect the priorities and values of California. Proposition 98 set the priority, that children and schools should not bare a disproportionate impact of cuts," Beall said.

Proposition 98 is voter-approved legislation that requires a minimum percentage of funding to go toward public education. Schwarzenegger has threatened to put a freeze on Proposition 98 for the next fiscal year, as he did in 2003.

Beall echoed Liebman's concerns that a pledge signed by 31 of 32 Republicans in the state legislature not to add any new taxes is handcuffing the state as it tries to increase revenue.

California State Assemblyman Joe Coto, D-San Jose, said, "Cuts alone are not the solution, because it does not address the inadequate system of revenue sources in California. It is a question of survival."

Coto urged members of the audience to write letters and contact legislators, newspapers, radio and television outlets so that public concern is heard.

"It takes years to recover from the kind of cuts they're proposing, and this is much too important to give up that easily," Coto said. "We have the eighth largest economy in the world. It is not a matter of wealth or resources; it's a matter of will."

California Teachers Association President Joyce Singh said California voters made a promise to public education by approving Proposition 98, and that legislators should be made to "keep that promise."

"The governor says we have a spending problem. Can you imagine telling someone who spends all of their money paying for their home, mortgage, gas and other essentials that they have a spending problem?" she asked.

Singh added that identifying ways to increase revenue was the only real solution.

"This budget flunks the basic role of government," she said. "They can't simply cut their way out of this budget crisis."