Human Rights Watch Student Task Force club co-hosts candidate forum

Samo’s Human Rights Watch Student Task Force (HRWSTF) club co-hosted a candidate forum with the League of Women Voters of Santa Monica, on Thursday, Oct. 25 in the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium at the Santa Monica Main Branch Public Library.California 50th District State Assembly candidates Richard Bloom and Betsy Butler shared their views on education. Eloy Oakley, the president of Long Beach City College, represented Proposition 30 and Sandy Escobedo, a graduate of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), represented Proposition 38.“The state’s general funded budget that was passed this July, includes revenue directly related to Proposition 30,” Oakley said. “If Proposition 30 had failed, there would have been approximately six billion dollars in lost revenue to K-12 schools and community colleges, which would have come out of our budgets in January.”According to Oakley, Proposition 30 would raise the personal income tax on Californians filing as single taxpayers that are earning $250,000 per year or more. Proposition 30 would also increase the sales tax by a quarter of a cent. Oakley said these additional taxes will raise about six billion dollars in revenue, all of which would go to California schools.Escobedo said that Proposition 38 is a 12-year tax initiative and would have helped school districts such as Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) if it had passed.“We raise about an average of $10 billion, and in the first four and a half years we set aside 30 percent of those funds and in recognition that our state is going through some financial challenges,” Escobedo said. “Those 30 percent of dollars available could have been utilized to fund other services, like higher education, or social services so there’s no need to enact trigger cuts. The only way to do that frankly, is if either one of our initiatives pass.”Mayor Bloom, who went to Fairfax High School, attended the University of California (UC) Los Angeles, UC Berkeley and Loyola Law School, said that California schools need to not be put in jeopardy by budget issues.“Education is an issue that I am extremely passionate about,” Bloom said. “Nearly every year, our school districts [and] even SMMUSD were affected by economic swings, unfunded mandates, and reductions in funding from Sacramento and Washington D.C.”According to junior and HRWSTF president Linda Gordon, the club worked for weeks to put on the forum.“The entire forum was student run,” Gordon said. “The students did the introductions and moderated the Q and A sessions.”Gordon said that students wanted candidates to know that they care about the decisions that will be made regarding education in California.“We wanted to raise our student voice and say, we’re students who care about our education,” Gordon said. “We want to show them that they can’t bulldoze over our education — we’re here and we’re feeling these budget cuts.”According to Gordon, students will also be impacted by potential “trigger cuts,” cuts to the budget triggered by shortages in funding.“We [students] know that with these trigger cuts, our school year might be shortened, and seniors won’t be able to graduate in some schools,” Gordon said. “These are really serious issues and we want to put the student face and the student voice to the statistics.”According to Gordon, the members of HRWSTF were excited and had prepared a great deal for the forum. Gordon said the topic of human education as a right is one of the issues that the club focuses on.“We’ve realized that education is a serious crisis in California and we want to work locally to bring attention to the issue,” Gordon said.Junior and Director of Technology and Campaigns for the Samo chapter of HRWSTF Matthew Ware said that the forum went as planned and helped shed light on issues regarding education.“I was really enthusiastic going into this,” Ware said. “Considering this is the first time we’ve ever done an event like this, I think it went really, really well. We had great collaboration between us and the League of Women Voters, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.”Escobedo said that while the education system in California may not be at its prime, there is still hope for the future.“We are in a difficult situation as it pertains to our state’s future, but I’m still optimistic,” Escobedo said. “And the reason why I’m optimistic is because of the [students].”cdebeus@thesamohi.com