"Education is a right! We are here and ready to fight!" yelled protestors in San Jose, CA earlier this month. Recent California state budget cuts have reduced educational funding by $18 billion within the state. This is resulting in most school districts having to reel in a lot of long standing programs and even cut whole school days out of the year.



While some students may rejoice at the prospect at an extra week off in February, as is the case at Rocklin High, this could have drastic effects on our future.



California already ranks nearly last in the nation for per pupil spending, and we cannot allow this trend to continue. Regardless of economic problems, we cannot mortgage the future to save ourselves a little pain right now.



As they always say, “children are our future,” and we need to sacrifice whatever is necessary in order to give them the best start in life that we can afford.



The students who will no longer be in school all 180 days, who will lose access to music and art classes, who will be forced to endure massive class sizes and a general lack of supplies, will one day become our leaders, our scientists, and our entrepreneurs. Can we really afford to give them a lackluster education to save a few bucks now?



No, the students must come first, otherwise, years from now, we will be lost.



Of course, there is also the issue of teachers and staff. It’s not as if they simply receive a vacation in February like the students, they get an unpaid vacation. And no matter what opinion you may have of your teachers, there is no doubt that a week without pay will be a burden on them.



We cannot afford to risk our entire future in order to fill in the budget deficits. We cannot allow ourselves to be sucked into this pattern of making massive cuts in order to bail ourselves out. What we need to do is put the burden on those that can take it. Tax corporations! They are wealthy, and few people would argue if we decided to tax something like the cigarette industry, it makes the state money and allows us to more easily control something that very much needs to be controlled.



In the end, cutting education budgets is a short term solution to a very big problem. It does not end the problem, and in the long run, we only end up hurting ourselves very badly. Tax the rich and leave our schools alone, that’s what we really need to do.