Final Polish FINAL DRAFT

Jerry Bayless

English 1a

Instructor Knapp

10/15/12

Pass Proposition 30

California is in a declining state of education and public safety. This means that the economy is not doing so well, and education and public safety are failing. This is why Governor Jerry Brown has proposed Proposition 30. This proposition is going to give about $6 billion to schools and public safety. This money is going to disperse 89 percent to K-12 schools and 11 percent to community colleges. The overflow will go to public safety including: police, fire, parks and recreation, fish and game, flood control, and law enforcement programs such as jails. The way they would like to achieve this goal is by raising taxes in the state. Income tax for people who make $250,000 or more a year would increase anywhere from one to three percent and sales tax for the lesser would increase by ¼ cent. The sales tax would last for four years and the income tax would last for six years. If this measure does not pass then we will be facing more cuts, approximately $4.8 billion in “trigger cuts” on top of our already horrible public safety and education system. This could actually shut down schools around us.  When Jerry Brown was elected governor we were in debt approximately $25 million. Now prop 30 will help our school and public safety, but it will also help us get out of this debt we have been in for so long. According to the LA times “Proposition 30, Brown's proposal for a temporary increase in income and sales taxes, would fill that hole.” This means that even when this proposition is over we will still be on the right track to having a great educational system and public safety system. This is exactly what we need as a state.

Proposition 30 needs to pass to help our educational system. We cannot afford to keep having the budget cuts we do in the educational system. We need this prop to pass because we need that money to grow as a state and even as a country. Right now schools all over California are failing because kids are jam packed into these classrooms not being able to learn anything because of the teacher cuts made. At the community college level student are not able to get the classes they need because either the waitlists are completely full, or they just don’t offer that class any more because they are so understaffed. Classes are not just failing, but schools are failing as well there is not enough staff to keep some of the tutoring sessions open, also library time has been cut in half. It’s making our community suffer as a whole. Its not encouraging people to go to school to better them self’s, its actually making more people drop out because they are tired of the way the system is run. Having this prop pass could help the school systems a great deal. First, if this passes more classes could be available around community colleges, as well as more teachers. Tuition costs and other costs could go down allowing more people to go to school. We all want that "American Dream" whether it’s a myth or not. We would not be able to achieve this with having an even worse school system by taking more money out. This proposition needs to pass to better our community that we live in.

On top of all that education, we need this to pass for our public safety systems. Jails are over crowded, police and fire are understaffed, and programs that help the people in need are just dropped out of this system because of this economic hardship. Having this money will give people who are in prison a chance to change their lives by getting back on their feet, by getting a job, and by going to school. Having jails overcrowded and no money going to them, forces judges to let convicts go back into society and having to cut police will not give us the protection that we expect, and possibly need. On top of it all people that need help will not get what they need in the time that they need it. All the other public programs that keep our society running will also fail; making our economy crash harder then it is now. If prop 30 does not pass it could be devastating for our economy.

Critics argue that a tax increase has come at the wrong time, considering the economy. It would make the state, whose income taxes are already extremely high, even higher. LA times states “They also argue that the state's budget troubles stem from out-of-control spending, not a shortage of revenue.” Which means that it doesn’t matter where the money is going to, the government will still just spend that money and put us in even a bigger whole. People against prop 30 also state that the Proposition is kind of shady, it is very unclear of what in going on in the prop and where the money is going. Almost like a shell game, the way they will move money in and out of the account, not guaranteeing the money to any one person. I understand this but honestly, they are just worried about what has happened in the past. The unchangeable things of our past don’t matter.

I myself connect to this subject because I am currently a college student at a community college. This matters to me because this prop will affect me a great deal, by making classes more available so I can move on in life. I am in college because I want to better my education, but that can’t happen if they still make budget cuts and remove classes.  We need to be looking at the future, the future that my parents want me to have and the future I want my children to have after me. There will be no educational future if this proposition does not pass because there will not be enough funding from all the trigger cuts to keep all the kids and student in schools and safe. We need this proposition to pass to increase jobs, education and our economy as a whole.