Santa Monica Lay off my friend Martin Editor:
By Hank Rosenfeld Ocean Park
Governor Davis' state budget cuts are hurting one group more than any other in California — the community college students and their families. He is slashing $288 million for this fiscal year alone but total cuts equal to $530 million are due for 2003- 2004. This is unprecedented in the history of California. Davis' silent and cruel cuts have caused Santa Monica College to cancel 250 classes during this spring session and forced a massive layoff in the departments assisting minorities such as EOPS, disabled students, Pico Partnership, and counseling.
But this is not enough for Governor Davis. He has managed to pass a proposition increasing the community college tuition from $11 a unit to an outrageous $24. The $13 per unit increase WILL NOT GO TO THE SCHOOLS, it will go to the state coffers.
More than 150,000 students statewide will no longer be able to afford the cost of education. Take for instance a low-income family with two children attending community college: 12 units per student will cost approximately $395 after adding the health fees and the parking fee ($75 next semester) per student, you are talking about $800 per 16 weeks plus the cost of books (approximately $400 per student). To summarize, HOW is a single parent, or a low-income family head of the household going to afford to pay $1,600 per semester to send their kids to school?
What about the independent student who works part-time making $7 an hour? How March comes in like a cool sea breeze off Santa Monica Bay...except for having to read Tittinger’s Take, “Blurred images send the world mixed messages” (SMDP, Feb. 27). Mr. Tittinger says it is the intent of “Hollywood's Wag the Dog spinmeis-ters to confuse in the interests of swaying public opinion that is so troublesome.” His fear of mixed messages and distortion of reality can be traced back to Ronald Reagan, first movie actor ever elected U.S. president.
He rips into Martin Sheen, saying “it insults the American intelligence” to hold Sheen up as a champion of anti-war sentiment. “There is little doubt the movement hopes to capitalize on the general public's association of Sheen with the presidency.” Wrong again. Sheen has been protesting since before that same Reagan administration that first confused all of us. I know Martin Sheen and you, Mr. Tittinger, are insulting our intelligence. I was arrested with Sheen in Minneapolis during the Honeywell Convergence Project days when thousands like us attempted to get that corporation out of the nuclear war and cluster bomb business and back to producing more of their fine milkshake blenders.
“What is the image we are sending that rest of the world?” Mr. Tittinger asks. The home of the brave, we call it.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 5, 2003. Read the original PDF.