Final Draft- Not Your Future, Our Future

Shawn Vogler

Instructor Knapp

English 2-76847

14 October 2012

Not Your Future, Our Future

Proposition 30 will be appearing on the upcoming ballot, which will greatly help our schools in California. If voters pass prop 30, around $6 billion in revenue will be made by increasing taxes from 1% to 3% on Californians making over $250,000 per year and couples making over $500,000 per years for seven years. The State sales tax will also increase by .25% for four years. This money will go to help K-12 schools, and higher education along with public safety. Today’s students are tomorrow’s future and they need a proper education; so when you are filling out this upcoming ballot, don’t just think about yourself but as a community and the golden state of California to keep our next generation safe and educated.

Voting Yes on prop 30 helps California get back on track to a bright future by providing schools with the needed funding to ensure the best education and safest streets California can offer. A brain learns how to process words through reading, speaking and spelling by age seven. In elementary school it is important to have teachers who can help any students try to achieve mastery. This is very hard when the state education’s budget dwindles daily. Prop 30 will give money to allow more teachers so students are not crammed like sardines into classrooms. Passing prop 30 will not just help schools, but it will also help keep our state and streets safe with more police, firemen and park rangers.

If Proposition 30 does not pass there will be an enormous amount of cuts that will take place to both our school systems and to public safety. If prop 30 is shot down, the schools will be cut short by three weeks because of the lack of money. K-12 schools will be cut $5.5 and CSU’s will be cut an astonishing $250 million making it hard to get the education you need. With all of the tuition hikes, students and their families cannot afford tuition- even at community colleges, UC’s and CSU’s. Before you get a job you need to be educated in school so you know how to accomplish it.  Larry Gordon who writes for the Los Angles Times wrote, “At UC, officials predict a 20% tuition hike, or about $2,400 a year. The Cal State system already boosted tuition 9% this fall and projects an additional 5%, or $150 a semester, if the proposition loses. Community colleges fear big drops in class offerings and student enrollment if Proposition 30 fails”. As a kid, you may have dreamed of becoming a Doctor, Fireman, Police Officer or Veterinarian, but all of these careers are coupled with an education. Imagine how hard it would be if teachers had enormous class sizes you only have two class to choose from because all the other ones were cut, that is what will happen if Proposition doesn't pass.

I have come through all of the K-12 classes and am currently a student in community college with tuition rising every semester. My fellow students and I at Cabrillo College get very frustrated because we are not able to get the right classes that we need. With the budget cuts that have already taken place, there is no money to hire any new teachers to teach. If prop 30 doesn’t pass Cabrillo College will have one in every thirteen classes cut. By cutting classes our college loses space for approximately 780 full-time students. You may not think that something like ‘paper’ would be needed so badly, but my 12^th grade calculus teacher would dig through every recycling can to find paper with a blank side that she could print on. She was not going to have us (her students) not receive a good education because my high school did not have enough money to give paper to the teachers. Mrs. Porrier was an amazing teacher, and I learned so much in that class because every day we had worksheets on bunches of different colored pieces of paper from the recycling. This is sadly, becoming the norm for California schools; however, it will be changed if voters pass proposition 30.

Why would I want to vote for this because the folks making over $250,000 per year worked hard for their money, and why should they be taxed more to pay for other peoples kids? Why should a customer have to pay extra sales tax if they don’t even go to school? To some this may sound like common sense and will not vote to pass prop 30, but I want you to think not just about you and your future but California’s future. Our jobs in technology and engineering are taking off and not stopping and right out of high school no one has what it takes to move right into a job like that; in essence, we need to educate tomorrows leaders so they can continue to propel California’s amazingly diverse job opportunities. 

With all of this important talk about funding education, we tend to forget that this proposition also funs police, Cal fire and the Department of Fish and Game. These California state jobs are very important because they help keep our lives and livelihoods safe. I know for a fact that they help all of us and save our lives from time to time. I am a commercial fisherman and the Department of Fish and Game help to regulate the ocean and make sure people are not abusing it by taking over the quota or over limits. We all need to vote yes to pass proposition 30 and keep these state jobs alive to make or future brighter

The billions dollars being wagered to all the California voters will either come from taxpayers our children’s education to better or worsen our future. I hope that you have the decency to not just think about yourself and vote yes on prop 30. Students haven’t done anything to deserve this punishment! If you do vote no, know this: you are hurting everyone else’s future because we are not preparing todays youth for tomorrow’s future.

Works Cited

Fensterwald, John. "Brown Struggling to Sell Prop 30 to Wary Voters." EdSource. N.p., 23 Aug.  2012. Web. 12 Sept. 2012. <http://www.edsource.org/today/2012/brown-struggling-to-sell-
  prop-30-to-wary-voters/19340>.

Gordon, Larry. "Prop. 30 Inspires Voter Registration Drives Aimed at Students." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 13 Oct. 2012. Web. 2 Oct. 2012. <http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-students-vote-20121014,0,1522296.story>.

"Yes on Prop 30 -- Take a Stand for Schools and Local Public Safety." California Labor Federation. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. <http://www.calaborfed.org/index.php/site/page/1715>.