Walkout: The Steps that Led Us to Here
There is a budget crisis, but there is also a crisis of priorities. The leaders of our state-our own UC administrators and the California legislature-have failed to lead responsibly. That is why students, faculty and staff must organize together… The roots of this crisis can be found in Proposition 13 and California’s broken tax structure; in our state’s two-thirds majority requirement for passing any legislation; in our refusal to tax oil production; and in our prioritizing prison building over building universities and schools. However, these problems are compounded by the actions of the UC administration. Our state’s economic crisis requires long-term solutions, but the way in which this crisis has been seized upon to begin a program of privatizing the UC system requires that we act now. The administration has refused alternatives to its proposal for closing the budget gap… redirecting the surpluses created by the UC’s revenue generating units (such as its medical centers), cutting the UC’s highest-paid executives and reducing the massive proliferation of administrative positions in the UC Office of the President.
Read full article [here].
by Mary June Flores and Isaac Miller, The Daily Californian.