Should the federal government be spending trillions on the military abroad while cutting social services like education at home? Should education continue sprinting down the path of privatization? On Thursday, thousands of people, particularly college students and faculty across the nation, marched, rallied and held panel discussions to respond with a resounding negative to those questions.
The booming negative was particularly loud in California — the cradle of the demonstration — as students participated in the momentous day at UC Berkeley and UCLA. But it was a national affair in the Northwest at Portland State and Western Washington universities; in the Midwest at schools like Southern Illinois and Wayne State universities and University of Iowa; in the south at LSU; in New England, prominently through the statewide march organized by the Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts (PHENOM) and; in New York at University of Albany and Brooklyn College.
In San Diego, students, parents, teachers and workers planned a funeral procession to downtown to mourn the assassination of public education.
“We’re being told by government officials that there’s no money for education, health care or social services. But at the same time we’re spending trillions of dollars on war effort, on bailing out banks and building prisons,” Wayne Scherer, a member of the San Diego-based Education for All Coalition, told USC’s Annenberg Digital News. “So it’s not a matter of the money not being there, it’s a matter of political priorities.”
This national demonstration, called the National Day of Actions and Strikes to Defend Public Education, was loosely organized by the October 7th National Ad-Hoc Organizing Committee to Defend Public Education. Its purpose — force the change of those political priorities in the White House, statehouses and local governments.
“As public funds that once made the U.S. the best education system in the world disappear, private investors seek to deform public education for their purposes, adjusting education to meet the market,” wrote the ad hoc committee in a press release announcing the day on its website, defendeducation.org. “The private sector wants to take over education and leave working people with nothing but a shell of the public education system, profiting along the way.
The day forged ahead with the momentum of the first national day of action for public education on March 4. Since there seems to be no end in sight to the government policies to prioritize war over education and private over public education, I am sure the days will continue. Student apathy is withering away. Thursday was the second of many still to come.
