“It did get a bit disruptive”- MSM admits there were protests

Is hell freezing over ?

I look at the Sacramento CrapBee this morning, and it’s got a front page color photo of a cop trying to taser a student protester.  WTF ?  Slow news day ?  You aren’t printing whitewash for the Republican Party today ?

I look at the weather, and it’s got a link to a KCRA Channel 3 video on the students protesting at UC Davis yesterday, which is taking about a year to download for me, so I may as well write this up while waiting.  

The embedding has been “disabled by request” so here’s the YouTube link and my transcript below.

http://fwix.com/sac/share/b137…

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

News anchor intro: “More protests could be on tap today. Another big story not only in California but nationally. California’s struggling school systems certainly here in the spotlight.  It did get a bit disruptive. A group of UC Davis students are threatening more demonstrations after an already busy day of actions”

Reporter on the Scene, standing in the pre dawn dark on deserted street:  I just got off the phone with police, they have not had any official word that anything is planned for today, but they are still on standbye  in case something does erupt.   We’re on CA Ave right now, where you can see nobody is here but hundreds of students marched down the street yesterday  (she then describes the protests yesterday instead of having the video show it, so presumably somebody saw it other than the hundreds of student protesters )  The students made their way to the entrance ramp of I- 80 where they were met by a 100 police officers

Video finally shows cops firing pepper balls and using batons as students walk together down the street, as reporter says

“You can see it got a little violent there for awhile”

As a very small, limp blonde student is being dragged down the street by cop, voiceover continues  

“Davis students were amongst thousands across the nation standing up to cuts in public education, while others found the protests did more harm than good ”

Gets anti protest quote from somebody named Deji Aiyedojbon that just is one chopped off sentence “I mean like is this whole movement just to lower our tuition ?”  And an Andrew Koper “I think it’s a waste of money we have graffitti all over the streets.”  (ARC note:  Okay, you can run back to your parents for extra spending money now. )

Reporter: Police do have a plan if students protest again and at 2pm the UC Davis Student body association will meet to discuss how to move forward.

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I have had the pleasure of interacting with many students and graduates of UC Davis, which is an agricultural college which has one of, if not the best, veterinary schools and equine clinics on the West Coast.   Davis, CA, the town, also has a thriving Farmer’s Market and is just one of the nicest, most laid back places.

If you’ve lost UC Davis, you have a problem.  Go Student Protesters!  

The Sacramento Bee website is such a piece of navigational sh*t,  plus the site is subscription only, but here is the link to that, (the dumbwhucks will probably change the url later and you won’t be able to find it next week unless you’re a sleuth)

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/…

California Students Join Thousands  3/5/2010

pictures (wonder if the photographer’s presence had anything to do with that “taser malfunction?” )

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/…

And outside the state Capitol, about 1,000 demonstrators gathered for a peaceful, almost festive, rally that focused not only on complaining but on suggesting solutions to California’s budget mess.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking with reporters a day earlier, said, “I’m very happy that everyone is here … It’s very important to put a little pressure on (the Legislature) and to go and get the action going.”

The governor’s January budget proposal could pit advocates for higher education against supporters of the poor, disabled and elderly who – like colleges – also rely on state aid. Schwarzenegger’s proposal calls for increasing funding to CSU and UC by 12 percent – restoring some of the money lost in last year’s historic budget cuts – but slashing almost every other state program. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst has suggested more modest increases to higher education to offset cuts in other areas.  

This is from CNN, it’s very good amateur video shot by someone out the window of student protesters shutting down traffic on the freeway in Oakland, CA, yesterday, March 4

Here’s the most excellent writeup about Oakland and other Bay Area protests from the San Jose Mercury News  (and has good photo slideshow )

Education funding demanded in “Day of Action”   3/4/2010 Contra Costa Times

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_…

In a break from the relatively uneventful rallies, more than 150 protesters were arrested after they marched onto Interstate 880 in downtown Oakland as the evening commute was beginning, shutting the roadway in both directions. One person was hospitalized after falling from a tree near the freeway; his name and

condition were not immediately known.

After holding a midday rally that blocked the intersection of Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue near UC Berkeley, about 1,000 demonstrators walked nearly five miles from the campus to Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, in front of Oakland City Hall. There, they joined with at least 200 community-college and high-school students and employees to rail against legislators, school administrators, the media and a variety of other groups.

Grievances have ranged from union contract disputes to steep student-fee hikes at the Cal State and University of California systems. Both systems have approved 32-percent tuition hikes in the past year to soften the blows of back-to-back budget cuts. Over the past two years, the 23-campus Cal State system has lost more than $600 million in state funding, while UC’s state budget was cut by about $800 million.

California’s 110 community colleges estimate they have lost 200,000 students who have been unable to get the classes they need this year.  

Dumbwhuckitude Quote of the Week, or let them be born rich if they want booklearnin’

“As protests erupt Thursday, Experts say California’s Higher Education fee hikes actually help the poor”

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_…

“When students protest, they are protesting on behalf of low-income students – and I don’t think that is justified,” said William G. Tierney, professor of higher education at the University of Southern California and director of the university’s Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis.

“If Stanford and Berkeley are equivalent institutions, and Stanford tuition is $50,000, why are we discounting Berkeley?” he said. “We need to make sure that those who cannot afford to go to the university have the money to go – so the lower-income and middle class should be supported by grants and loans.”

“I see no justification whatsoever for giving money away to those who can afford to go to an institution that is equivalent to Stanford. It’s crazy to me. We have parents who spend $20,000 a year in private high school so they can get into a good UC,” he said. “We should not be subsidizing people who can afford to pay. That is bad tax policy.”

For decades, California’s public education was underpriced as a result of generous state support, said senior research fellow John Aubrey Douglass of UC-Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education.

“It worked because there was a state subsidy,” he said. “Now there is big sticker shock.”



“To maintain our social contract to all students, we’re taxing the wealthier families,” said Douglass. “It’s not the best way to do it, but it’s the political reality right now.”  

Read that.  It explains how the State of CA has done nothing but stick it to public education since the mid- 1990’s.

Tuition was free at UC and CSU during that time.   Fees at UC are going to go over $11,000 per year, with CSU’s fees nearly half that, at $4,827.   This does not include room and board, apartment rental, or books or other miscellaneous fees which would easily take the total costs over $25,000 per year.

This year, about 5.7% of the state’s general revenue fund goes to colleges.  In 1984, it was 11 %.

So instead of spreading the financial obligation to the general public with progressive taxes, they are doing huge fee increases on the middle class and keeping tuition low for poorer students, which keeps the wealthy in the state happy and hoping it would pit those students against the less well off ones who are getting more aid.  So the policy wonks are saying swallow the hikes because that way you’re helping the poor.

Just like the President’s pet health insurance economic “expert” Jon Gruber of MIT’s pushing that moronic “Cadillac” tax on health insurance benefits, so that the middle class can “help” the states sign people up on Medicaid, without instituting a tax on the rich, who could afford it.

Scam artists.  Protest them all.

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edited to remove CNN video which autoplayed, link now provided instead