Let's Fund our Schools
Arman Kalyani
“But the Dark cannot claim what Light does not surrender.”- C.L. Wilson
I grew up a pretty normal life. I went to a public school up until fourth grade. Upon testing 9th in the state in mathematics, my mother who immigrated to the United States from her native land of Turkey, was jubilant to send me to a private school so that I could grow into my full academic potential in a setting which she didn’t have the chance to have in her homeland. I attended fifth and sixth grade at this private school. The latter portion of my middle and high school life was spent in public schooling.
Going from private to public school revealed to me a major difference between the two. There wasn’t nearly the same attention and resources given to each student. This wasn’t due to a lack of effort from my teachers or the campus workers. This was because of ongoing budget cuts to the education system and a constant dwindling of resources at their disposal.
Having this experience really showed me the monumental importance of getting California back on track. This is a quote from the California Budget and Policy Center report on the state of California education spending, “In 2014-15, California ranked 42nd among all states in spending per K-12 student, after adjusting for differences in the cost of living in each state.” When considering the fact that California is the richest state in America, this is unacceptable to me.
This is why I decided to get involved with Evolve California. I want to fight to make sure that every student, regardless of their social conditions, gets the quality education that they deserve. The way to do that is to reform Prop 13! With the appointment of Betsy DeVos to the Secretary of Education, this is more important than ever. She is in favor of privatizing education and has shown a clear record of disdain for public education throughout her career.
When you couple this with the threats from the Trump administration, including cutting California’s federal funding, it is now more important than ever to make sure California can provide for itself. That means reforming prop 13 and making corporations pay their fair share in property taxes!