RELEASE: Community to Gather for Education not Incarceration, Saturday, January 31st

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 29, 2004

For more information:
Alice do Valle (Spanish/English), Justice Now, 510-839-7654 ext. 4#, cell 510-499-4361
Dara Tom (English), cell 510-504-5455


Community Forum to Respond to Gov. Schwarzenegger's Proposed Budget and the Impacts on Oakland’s School Closures; Incarceration of Youth; Prison Spending

WHAT: Community Forum hosted by Education Not Incarceration Coalition
WHEN: Saturday, Jan. 31, 2004 – 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE: Laney College, Student Center, Irma P. Walker Conference Room, 4th floor
900 Fallon St ., Oakland.
WHO: Students, parents, teachers and concerned community members

CALIFORNIA – On the heals of revelations that California’s prison system has overspent its budget by $1.4 billion over the last five years, school districts across the state are being decimated by cuts to education. California spends more money per capita than any other state on prisons. The Education Not Incarceration Coalition is holding a COMMUNITY FORUM to explore how Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposed budget is impacting Oakland’s school closures and the incarceration of our youth.

News media reports and polls have consistently shown that Californians prefer investing in education over prisons. Even amid numerous reports of fraud and cover-ups within the state’s prison system, the governor is pursu ing further spending cuts for social services. While the Governor has suggested some cuts to the Department of Corrections, recent reports indicate that more than $450 million is being taken from the general fund to cover overtime pay for prison guards and other CDC budget overruns. Meanwhile, the hardest hit cuts will be in education, health care, public transit, and social services to meet human needs and keep people out of prison.

East Bay residents aren’t going to take it any more. This Saturday’s COMMUNITY FORUM will address how the budget impacts local schools and what the community can do about it. Featured presenters include Jason Ziedenberg of the Justice Policy Institute, who will speak about how the budget effects education and prisons and what current cuts are proposed; and Morris Tatum, president of AFSCME, Local 257 (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO), who will address the issue of O akland’s school closures and how budget cuts have been affecting employees at all levels in the school district, such as custodial workers and teacher’s aids.

Support for the Jan. 31 COMMUNITY FORUM has come from across the Bay Area and endorsers include Californians for Justice; C-Beyond: Youth Making History; Gray Panthers of the East Bay; Oakland Education Association; Gray Panthers of Greater Oakland; Women for Peace; Critical Resistance; California Prison Focus; Berkeley Bay Area Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc.; Proyecto Common Touch; Books Not Bars, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights; and Justice Now.

Education Not Incarceration is a coalition of students, teachers, parents and community members that mobilized thousands to descend upon the State Capitol last May 8 and organized TEACH-INS and a statewide DAY OF ACTION last November.
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