It was fabulous. No other word for it. Speakers were passionate and speeches were informative and well thought. The buzz from those in attendance was totally positive (even the gent in the back who kept insinuating "Education, not occupation"). The march was purposeful and I am so proud of everyone who attended. I did have one person who counted and said we had about 500 people...

Californians have grown used to the annual budget tempests the state budget formation brings each year. This year, the state budget looks to be forming into a “perfect storm.”

Here some of the main factors causing the forecast to appear turbulent.
• A population that has heard the cry of “wolf” many times concerning the state’s financial woes. Citizens find it difficult to believe there really is a crisis.
• Term limits ensure California’s State Legislature is full of inexperienced politicians. Building consensus does not happen as regularly as it should.
• A 2/3 majority is needed in the both houses of the state legislature to pass any new taxes. This allows the Republicans in either house to block any new tax proposals. California is one of only three states with this high requirement (Arkansas and Rhode Island are the other two).
• Badly gerrymandered state districts that have made almost all of the legislative districts “safe” districts. Politicians do not have as much incentive to listen to the people they represent. It is more important to be in step with the party leaders.
• All but one Republican member of the state legislature that has taken Grover Nordqusit and the Americans For Tax Reform’s No New Taxes Pledge. Breaking this pledge is political career suicide.
• Conan the Governor, a body builder turned actor, with no previous political experience, is our leader. Thus far he has not been the “action hero” California was hoping for.
• The economy is going in wrong direction. The January 14.5 billion dollar budget deficit grew to 16 billion in March. By the May revise, the deficit will likely be higher still.

Our colleges and universities, K-12 schools, parks, police and fire, transportation, social services, and other essential government programs cannot meet the needs of the people they serve without proper financing. These important government functions will suffer significantly if the severe cuts the Governor is proposing, come to fruition.

If California is to remain the “Golden State” its residents must take action now. We must insist on adequate funding for the Government of California. Please write or call your Assemblyperson, your state senator, and the Governor to let them know what you believe.

When I was growing up in the 1960's, California was The Place to get a teaching credential and to teach. Great teachers came from all over to work in our schools and become part of our communities.

Now, because of our Governor's ignorance, our best teachers have been "Pinked" and are being lured away by Texas, Nevada and other states -- lured with signing bonuses & lower living costs and better wages. We train them -- they're grabbing them.

And once we have gotten through this mess and the governator has finally come to his senses (hopefully before December), the best, the brightest, and the youngest will all be gone -- exhausted by the insecurities of California's "Pink March". Yeah, that's gonna help our kids compete in a global economy.

Thank goodness our Superintendent, Dr Arriaga, has the confidence in Ventura's Moms and in the citizenry of California, to refuse to play the pink slip game. But we are still affected by the Governator's stupidity.

So what is our next step? I think we should gather our children and teens and march to the nearest state prison and demand entry -- they have the money to educate, to offer social services, interventions, health care, all with room & board. So before our kids have to be there, let's have them demand equal rights with our state prisoners!

Imagine what those prisoners could have done with their lives if only California cared to give them what they needed when they were younger.

We cannot afford to wait until Lucas Zucker of Foothill HS runs for state office to end this crisis once and for all. We need voices now to keep California's priorities on education, not incarceration.

Write and call your state assembly members and senators. Inundate the governator's office with the noise of disapproval. Vote for the voices we know will fight for education.

And thank you Hannah Beth, Pedro and Jill for walking with us yesterday.

You guys can protest all you want, the bottom line is there ain't no money! Instead of wasting your energy on this futile effort, you ought to be talking to your legislators about other places in the budget to cut to help mitigate the reductions to the school budget (which is going to happen).

The spendaholics in the Legislature are the ones that are responsible for this, not the governor. He's simply trying to balance the budget in a tough economy. Think about this when you go to the ballot next time.

There's plenty of special interest tax credits that can be eliminated or reduced to help offset the cuts to schools. Millionaire yacht owners, race horse breeders and high-profit oil companies can afford to give up a few perks.

Actually, those tax breaks amount to less than $26 million in the overall budget. That's not even a drop in the bucket in relation to a $14 billion budget deficit.

Mongo, ending the tax loophole for yacht owners, or "sloophole," as it is called, would generate $26 million all by itself. Oil extraction taxes would generate $1.2 billion and ending tax breaks for racehorse breeders would generate $40 million.

Independent Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill has proposed a good alternative budget which would only suspend the Prop. 98 guarantees by $800 million, vs. the $4.8 billion the governor proposes. I think her plan is a good starting point.

Marie, I'm not opposed to having the oil companies pay a little windfall profit fee given the enormous profits they're pulling in at the moment. In doing so though, we have to be careful not to disregard the need for more oil exploration and development (including offshore drilling) to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We haven't built a new refinery in over 30 years, thus the high cost of production and shipping that gets factored into the price per gallon.

OPEC is famous for thumbing its nose at the U.S. when we complain about the price per barrel of crude even though we're their biggest customers. This insanity has to stop.

As for Elizabeth Hill (didn't she just retire?), I think some of the ideas in her counter-budget proposal are worth consideration. But, as I've said before, the schools are going to have to step up to the plate since they comprise about 40% of the State's General Fund allocations. Maybe $4.8 billion is too much, I don't know. But, I think it's going to be in the billions (plural).

I recall when I was considering enrolling my kids in public elementary school here in Ventura County, back when my oldest son was entering 4th grade. I remember asking the teacher: "So, how much homework do you give out each day?" Her response to me was: "I don't give out homework, it harms the children."

Well, that was all I needed to hear. I immediately enrolled my kids in private school where they have gone ever since (all the way thru high school).

The public school system is no longer a fixable institution. I would highly recommend any parents considering sending their kids to public school to reconsider it and send them to private or charter schools instead. We did, and we've never regretted it!