When will the rich start to sacrifice?

[Hannah Bell]

SAN FRANCISCO--One thousand parents, educators, community members and students turned out for a town hall meeting called by the six parents in the PTA to discuss solutions to drastic cuts to public education...

(Mayor Gavin) Newsom spoke about a parcel tax for property owners...for a future rainy day fund. He also mentioned involving San Francisco businesses by asking them to match funds raised by local PTAs.

(Superintendent) Garcia... said he would go so far as to sue the state for underfunding schools. (Assemblyman) Ammiano said he has authored a bill to close the loophole in Proposition 13...
Many of the speakers also talked about getting rid of the two-thirds majority in California necessary to pass the budget.

These solutions were well received by the crowd, but when the community was finally allowed to pose a few questions to the panel, they put forward sharp criticisms.

instance, a speaker pointed out the excessiveness of the $2 million allotted to assembly members Fiona Ma and her staff...

THE LAST speaker from the floor...questioned the superintendent's proposed cuts that would come mostly off the backs of teachers in the form of layoffs, wage freezes and furlough days.

The superintendent has said that we all must sacrifice, and this teacher proposed that, if these are indeed such hard financial times, no one in the district should be making more than $80,000. These words were greeted by a standing ovation.

Instead of asking businesses to match PTA funds, we say that they should be taxed to fund education.

If Garcia wants to truly stand up to these cuts, he should refuse to submit a budget with these cuts to the state and demand full funding--and we, the community, will stand behind him.

Instead, Garcia has gone after schools that were trying to fight Sacramento by organizing for actions for the March 4 Day of Action.

If Garcia fought Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger half as hard as he is fighting teachers and students, we might actually make some progress. His toothless appeal to sue the state through a lengthy lawsuit would take years and most likely go nowhere.

The comments from community members and teachers were a reminder that these politicians, though they say they are on "our side," still aren't sharing in the effects of the cuts in the same way parents, educators and students are.

We must continue to organize and keep the pressure on these officials to truly support education--not just with their words, but also with their actions.

http://socialistworker.org/2010/03/08/when-will-the-rich-sacrifice

[zbdent]

1. When will the rich sacrifice?

I thought that was what the commoners were there for ... sacrificing so the rich and in power can avoid having to sacrifice any of their own ...

[sendero]

2. When..

... the torches and pitchforks come out. Not one day before.

[Voltaire]

12. Yup, I was going to say

when you literally press a pistol to their sweaty temples, and not a minute before. I do not know why people don't understand that. Frederick Douglas and Martin Luther King and scores of others have pointed this out.

[maryf]

3. Tax the rich

and end the wars, we need Education, Jobs, Healthcare and Housing, K&R

[peace frog]

4. Never, and

they've made damn sure of it. As the saying goes "it would take an act of Congress" and with the spineless, gutless weasels currently in power, that ain't gonna happen.

[Uben]

5. We're lookin at 2088 for a start

Should be rid of the middle class by then.

[diane in sf]

6. If the rich won't sacrifice we should start sacrificing them--or tax them out of existence

[DailyGrind51]

7. When the rest of us start building gullotines!

[hobbit709]

9. +1

"The privileged class never get the point until they are running for their lives"

[guitar man]

17. +1000

That's about the only way, they will never do it of their own volition.

[midnight]

8. K&R.

[blindpig]

10. When we make them.

Expropriate without compensation.

k&r

[Voltaire]

13. I like that one too

because turnabout is fair play. . .

[ThomWV]

11. Hannah Bell, the Rich have been sacrificing (the poor) since time began.

The rich have always been willing to sacrifice. They will find a poor man's first born and toss him into the volcano at the first hint of trouble.

[troubledamerican]

15. Human Sacrifice: If we don't storm the Bastille, they guillotine the little guy. You choose.

[indepat]

14. On the seventh of never?

:P

[Kievan Rus]

16. When the IRS audits more of these self-worshipping greedheads

People like Neal Boortz says, "liberals favor using the power of the government to re-distribute wealth from the rich to the poor."

Well, Mr. Boortz, I believe in that, AND I'M PROUD OF IT.

Three words: tax the rich.