The Situation Room Transcript
Aired March 4,2010
Students and teachers across the country say they are angry and they won't sit back while education budgets are being slashed. We are following protests in more than 30 states right now. We are going to show you how kids at one school are suffering.
BLITZER: You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Happening now, voting, bombings and possible postponings in Iraq. Early voting beginning for the national elections, bombings marring the voting, causing death. And, in a CNN exclusive interview, the prime minister Nouri al Maliki says, he may -- repeat, may ask for some US troops to stay longer than planned.
Our Brian Todd dons a helmet and goggles to stand in the middle of 200 tons of nuclear waste. He is highlighting a radioactive debate: exactly where should nuclear waste go?
I'm Wolf Blitzer. You are in THE SITUATION ROOM.
Right now, for students, you might say GPA isn't for grade point average, but grand protests and anger. Look at this. Crowds of students, parents and teachers in more than 30 states trying to teach lawmakers and administrators a lesson in civil disobedience. They are mad about budget cuts that caused tuition hikes, canceled classes, and temporary layoffs for professors. Slashed funds for elementary and secondary education are also an issue.
The biggest cuts happened in the nation's biggest educational system in California. And it has seen about one billion dollars in state funding cuts between 2008 and 2010.
CNN's Casey Wian is joining us now. He is over at UCLA. This is calling a lot -- causing a lot of anger out there, Casey.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Wolf. Here on the UCLA campus earlier today, hundreds of students, faculty, university employees gathered to hold a rally to protest an upcoming 32 percent increase in tuition. It is all because of California's massive budget deficit. And statewide campuses, from College all the way down to kindergarten, joined in on the protests over cuts in education funding.
CROWD: Save our schools! Save our schools! >>.
WIAN (voice-over): Students and parents joined their teachers outside Maywood Elementary to protest massive budget cuts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are losing teachers. We are -- class sizes are going to be increased. And it is really going to affect the education.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nice and neat.
WIAN: Mrs. Ciznero (ph) used to have 20 students or fewer in her first grade classroom. State funding incentives kept Kindergarten through third grade classes small. California has suspended the program to save money. So this year, her class started with 27 students.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Melanie, what are you doing over there?
One of the biggest problems in my classroom right now is going to be the sitting. Just finding a sitting arrangement for all those children.
Are you OK, Bailey? Yes. Can you make a little bit of room for Bailey, please?
All the work that four teachers would do, now three teachers do it. That's been a challenge as well.
WIAN: As you can see, there are no students in this classroom. That's because Maywood Elementary lost five teachers last year. It's now being used as a meeting room. Last year, the Los Angeles Unified School District sent out 8,000 layoff notices to teachers and other employees. About 2,000 actually ended up losing their jobs. This year, more than 5,000 additional layoff notices are going out. And by the end of next year, the district will have cut more than $2 billion from its annual budget.
LUPE FERNANDEZ, PRINCIPAL, MAYWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: We spent a lot of money out of our own pockets. Sometimes the trip to the teacher's store is $60 to $100. Those books, I purchased them all.
WIAN: Hernandez is Maywood's principal. Presided over four years of rising test scores and she knows some of her best teachers will get pink slips. What's this done to morale for teachers and other staff members here at the school?
FERNANDEZ: You know, our teachers really work hard. Because we have had such great success. It is hard for them. They are staying here longer and they -- fear of what's next.
WIAN: Educating a room full of six and seven-year-olds keeping them safe is not a job for those distracted by the threat of losing their jobs.
FERNANDEZ: Too many students that are -- there will be without an efficient teacher because you are stressed and thinking of the bills you have to pay and your mortgage. You are thinking of your own family. It is very hard for all the children to learn when you have a stressed teacher.
WIAN: Today another setback for education in California. State lost out on a portion of more than $4 billion in federal race to the top education funding. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says that he will push for more reforms in education in California to qualify for that money because in his words the students here desperately need it -- Wolf?
BLITZER: Serious, serious situation. Thanks, Casey, for that report. Let's bring in our senior political analyst David Gergen. You know, usually when it starts out in California, spreads out around the -- eventually across the United States. In this education, budget cuts, this is a really worrisome development.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: What's happened in California more generally is worrisome and worrisome all the way here in Washington to the white house. I talked to people there that are -- who believe that the -- California's the future of the country that the may be more dangerous than the problem of the desks. I think the students in California have every reason to be protesting. This system, you and I were growing up, the California higher education system, public universities and community colleges were the best in the country. And they made a commitment. Every student that had come in California get a high-quality education at low cost and invested in the higher education. What they found the -- economists found every dollar invested in Cal State University system, over time it produced $4 in return to the state. So it is a good investment. In the '80s '90s we began cutting back so that in -- in the '80s, the -- in California, high education was 17 percent of the state budget. That's now down to 9 percent. Prisons by contrast were three percent of the state budget and now 10 percent. They are spending more on prisons than spending on higher education. And I -- you have latest cutbacks and tuition increases. Coming because of the recession. And you have an explosion on your hands. It is the -- California dream is dying. It needs to be revived.
BLITZER: Not just high education. Also elementary and secondary school education and the -- statistics from the department of education here in Washington are not encouraging. We did checking. Fourth graders in math here in the United States rank 11th among 36 countries and beaten by Hong Kong Japan, Latvia, Lithuania a hole bunch of others. In science, fourth graders in United States ranked eighth out of 36 countries president. As they get older, look at this. Math, 15-year-olds, in the United States, lagged behind 31 countries. This is not very encouraging.
GERGEN: It is not. And once again, it is a bigger story. If you go back to the beginning of the -- of the 1900s, America had the best public school system k-12 anywhere in the world. And every generation was better educated than the last generation. Every generation seemed to get two more years of education than their parents. And we remain the best in the world. We had more going to college. More people going through high school. In the '70s and '80s we leveled off. We started lagging. Now we have gradually drifted down. You are seeing in a country large in public education, we have gone down. I want to say this before we leave. People are catching on. I'm going to be on the board for Teachers of America. Arne Duncan, first class reformer. A lot of cities, New York, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and Denver, and you are seeing education reform K-12 level. There are signs that we can revive it but right now, there are a lot of kids crunching this in the recession.
BLITZER: Excellent point. Education, I don't know. It is one of the most important if not the most important. What we can do for our kids. Priority number one. David, thanks very much.
This grand protest, anger out there over budget cuts, tuition hikes. That will be part of my discussion with two men who know a great deal about education and one is, as David just pointed out, the current education secretary, Arne Duncan, the other, former Reagan education secretary, Bill Bennett. They will be here together on Tuesday of next week. We will have a serious discussion on education. Arne Duncan and Bill Bennett.