Today, students across the country are going on strike, attending rallies, engaging in civil disobedience, and more as part of the National Day of Action to Defend Education. You can read more about it and find local actions here, read Campus Progress’s statement here, and take action here.
The latest updates:
Protestors in Sacramento being beaten, tased, gassed by police as they try to march forward.
-via @ CaliforniaAggie on Twitter
500 High School students and supporters in Baltimore, as part of the Algebra Project, marched to a youth detention center in order to draw attention to the “school-to-prison” pipeline. They’re insisting that money for the youth detention center be diverted to education.
-via SocialistWorker.org
Hundreds at UCLA convene in the Chancellor’s office to present their demands to Gene Block: lower fees and less layoffs.
-via Huffington Post
200 students at UMass-Amherst had the same strategy as UCLA. Disrupting the chancellor is a popular tactic today.
18 students arrested at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee after rallying with 250 others to deliver signatures to the chancellor. Police are accused of using excessive force. Video here and here.
400-500 UW students in Seattle marching in the streets demanding to see UW President Mark Emmert.
-via @JayBeeStarkey on Twitter
Fire alarms are being set off across several campuses in a symbolic effort to represent the state of emergency in higher education.
- via @reclaimuc on Twitter
Crowds are steadily increasing at CSUN for the March 4 higher education walk out while hundreds more gather at Berkeley and Laney College in Oakland.
- via @dailysundial, @NSNS, and @dailcal on Twitter
A Washington Post article highlights the student protest efforts that have taken place throughout the day noting the increased tuition rates and the drastic budget cuts that have sparked students to protest.
Approximately 2,500 people are already gathered at the State Capitol in Sacramento, CA to protest.
-via @mrdaveyd/loxocele on Twitter
Several hundred students at Hunter College in Manhattan faced police resistance when trying to enter buildings to encourage more walkouts. A march on Governor Paterson’s office may occur after this afternoon’s rally.
-via Socialistworker.org
More than 100 students turn out for the teach-in for education at Brooklyn College, still 3 hours to go until official demo begins
-via @SocialistZine Twitter
Service workers at UC San Diego are marching with the students in protest of layoffs and budget cuts.
-via @JenMeanIt Twitter
California’s Electronic Disturbance Theatre has initiated a virtual sit-in on the UC Office of the President. The simple action (available at the link above) involves just leaving your computer on.
Faculty at UC Irvine have released a statement encouraging faculty to participate in any action they see fit: “…announcing the events in class, allowing the students to participate in these activities without any penalty, teaching about the current crisis in public education.”
-via UC Regent Live
Children in Redwood City get in on the protest action. At the rate we’re headed now, they won’t be able to afford college once they reach that age.
-via @ StudProtest Twitter
A UCSC professor writes an open letter urging for the end of racism, sexism and homophobia at UC San Diego. The letter not only condemns recent racist events that have occurred on campus but also calls for an increase in African American student enrollment, increased funding for organizations that support underrepresented students, and an upgrade to the universities diversification office.
-via @NSNS on Twitter
The Washington Post has put together a guide to the March 4th protests including a list of events and key protests around the nation.
The Huffington Post has compiled a list of the largest tuition increases in public universities. Public universities have seen tuition increases up to an astounding 32%, which have added heavily to student debt.
Today, students across the country are taking action as part of the National Day of Action to Defend Education. You can read more about it and find local actions here, read Campus Progress’s statement here, and take action here.
The latest updates:
The national day of action to defend public education kicked off this morning with a blockade of the entrances to the University of California at Santa Cruz. Approximately 400 students are blocking the entrances to the school, infuriating commuters. As one car tried to tag along behind a police car to get through the crowd the driver has “run over” 4 students ending in at least one broken leg.
-Via @occupyca on Twitter
Students protesting at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, demanding free education for poor citizens, were dispersed by the police when they were sprayed with water hoses.
-Via iafrica.com
To get students excited about action all over the UC system today a prominent building at UC Riverside has been “decorated” with an encouraging banner.
-Via Occupy California
Tomorrow, students from around the country will be taking action against budget cuts to education, and all of the tuition hikes, enrollment caps, cuts to statestudentaid, lay-offs, wage cuts, furloughs, and other problems that they have caused. Here at Campus Progress, we hope that college administrations, state governments, and Congress are paying close attention: students are hurting, angry, and organized. You can see if there are actions planned in your area here.
There are already some great ways to follow this mobilization (for example, http://studentactivism.net/ has a great maps and a great blog), but I wanted to add two more options (below). We will also be posting some updates on this site tomorrow.
We disagree. No paranoid rhetoric about indocrination can hide the facts (via the Wonk Room):
Conservative projections on the real fiscal rate of return on public educational investments are high:10% for high quality preschool programs, 15% for innovative K-12 reforms like First Things First, and 10.3% for investments to encourage college access and graduation.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Other research has shown that increasing education levels means less incarceration, higher wages, less unemployment, and even longer life spans. Hopefully, lawmakers and the public will remember the following words of wisdom from Derek Bok, a former president of Harvard University:
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
Last night, Jon Stewart chatted about student loan reform with Austan Goolsbee, an economist and member of the Council of Economic Advisers. The college affordability action starts at 4:38, check it out:
Yesterday, President Obama answered a few of the 11,000 questions submitted on YouTube as part of its State of the Union Q&A. The first question on education (around 17:00) was about college affordability, and Obama again expressed his support for legislation that would cut subsidies to student loan companies, and invest the savings into Pell grants and other education initiatives. Check it out:
Funding our Future is a campaign to pass a progressive federal budget for 2010 and ensure that our nation.s key economic choices invest in our education, spark reform of our health care system, and address climate change through cap and trade and clean energy investments. Click here for more info.
Conservative projections on the real fiscal rate of return on public educational investments are high: