Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

Stand UP For Public Education

Our Children’s Future At Risk

Statement Of The Transport Workers Solidarity Committee TWSC

Using the pretext of not enough money, the governor and legislator are cutting tens of billions from education for our children and our right to public education. K-12 class sizes are being increased and teachers are being cutback in poor and working class districts like Oakland and Richmond. How can our kids learn when classes have 30 to 40 students. This is a racist attack on most poor Black and Latino kids while schools in the richer districts get more money. The ILWU stood up for Oakland students in the past when they stopped work in the Port of Oakland to demand that the port help pay for the education of the children in the district.

While Chevron and the Refinery for example in Richmond make billions they refuse to pay taxes for the schools in the district. Why is that there are not even enough pencils and books for our children in these school districts in the richest state and the richest country in the world? There will be a student/teacher worker march on Feb 27, 2010 in Richmond to demand that these corporations pay for education if they want to operate in California.

At the same time these, same politicians shift money from education to more prisons and have just passed a bill for $700 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There apparently is plenty of dough for prisons and war but our kids can’t get a decent education because of budget cuts.

At community colleges, the CSU system and the UC system teachers and staff are being laid off, classes canceled including night school and summer sessions, jobs privatized at Wal-Mart wages and the massive fee increases are privatizing the university and college system for only the rich. Our children have a right to a free and public education without having to borrow $125,000 dollars and end up in debt with no job. These same regents at UC and the CSU system are giving multi-billion dollar contracts to their friends for more construction while they cut the students, cancel classes and encourage wealthy students from outside the state and even outside the country where countries like China pay for their youth to attend schools in California. They even give pay raises to the $500,000 a year managers.

There have been student/Teacher/Staff mass strikes and actions against these attacks. On September 24, 2009 over 5,000 students, teachers and staff went on strike at UC and at a major assembly on October 24, 2009 with representatives from throughout the state called for a statewide strike and actions to stop the destruction of public education. Students and teachers are organizing in Oakland, Richmond and San Francisco to join this action and there will be a mass march rally in San Francisco at the Civic Center on Thursday March 4, 2010 at 1:30 PM. We must support open free admissions for all students in California.

AFSCME Local 444 which represents East Bay Mud has endorsed the action and Oakland UBC 713 has endorsed. The workers in this country have the power if we use it collectively to fight for an education for our children. It will not happen without a battle however.

If we don’t stand up for our children and our right to a good public education who will?

Join US.

Transport Workers Solidarity Committee www.transportworkers.org January 20, 2010