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Recently, roughly around 300 students and Berkeley educators gathered together with thousands of people from various school districts across California, to take part in a public meeting arranged to protest against state budget cuts in the field of higher education.

In front of the Capitol building, a huge crowd of at least 7,500 gathered. Students, teachers and Union leaders were among them and they vociferously protested against planned $1.5 billion budget cuts in the state in the field of public education.

According to estimates, an amount of $2.7 million was cut from the education budget at The Berkeley United School District, which in turn forced the official bodies to restrict on summer school funding, dismiss the staff members and increase the number of districts.

Cathy Campbell, president of Berkeley Federation of Teachers stated that, "Our state is essentially in a state of emergency," and "We're cost cutting education, but at the same time increasing the corporate tax loopholes, which  is a demoralizing formula in terms of a state,  mainly for young people."

The rally, in fact sponsored by the California Federation of Teachers, was also the conclusion of a 365 mile march. According to Jim Miller, a teacher at San Diego City College and one of the six marchers, the entire contingent  marched from Bakersfield to Sacramento for nearly 48 days starting from March 5 to "reach out to the Central Valley ", to bring awareness in the administration towards the effects of these budget cuts. According to Campbell, during the march's final mile, thousands of people joined the six marchers, of which 50 of them were Berkeley residents.

Janet Bass, Federation spokeswoman said that Randi Weingarten, the president of American Federation of Teachers, addressed the supporters at the rally, which was a part of nationwide trip to recommend the situation they face to lawmakers and community leaders.

Because of lack of resources and space provided, around 200,000 community college students in California can no longer attend their college, said Campbell. According to her, this condition denies many deserving people essential job opportunities and also restricts them from pursuing higher education.

Campbell said, "If you just imagine about five years down the road, we are all set for a worse tragedy than now", which should be controlled at the earliest. Miller stated that the population of youth has been exposed to "the ladder of financial and social portability, " now that most of the students, due to money shortage, are not able to attend community college.

Miller also stated that, "I hope this is the very beginning of an association to support education".
According to a statement in March by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, over the subsequent two years, an estimation of   $85 million in the area of federal financial stimulus fund is expected in the state of California.

The district spokesman Mark Coplan stated that he hopes Schwarzenegger will sustain education, in view of the fact that the governor has more potential to bring in much of his resources than previously expected