About 40 Arizona students and parents rallied at the state capitol on Tuesday to voice their concerns about the 2010 education budget.
Students For Students, an organization that tries to encourage educational reform in Arizona, met with District 17 Democratic Reps. Ed Ableser and David Schapira at the rally.
Tori Porell, the group’s cofounder and a senior at North High School in Phoenix, said the point of the rally was to show that students are concerned about the budget cuts.
“We are hoping to bring awareness to the current situation with education and show the legislators that people in Arizona do care about education,” Porrell said.
Ableser and Schapira, who represent Tempe, spoke with students and parents at the rally to listen to their stories and concerns. Ableser said it was important for students to see that there are representatives who care.
“The concerns that the students are raising are not falling on deaf ears,” Ableser said. “We’re fighting to try and maintain adequate education funding in the state.”
Schapira addressed the students and said they were doing the right thing by making their voices heard.
“Thousands of people agree with you and understand that if we don’t invest in education, we’re going to turn a one-year or two-year money problem into a generational problem,” he said.
Students For Students was also able to meet with District 8 Republican Rep. John Kavanagh before the rally. Porrell said Kavanagh seemed dismissive.
“He really told us everything we heard about the budget crisis and the education cuts was propaganda and that there were no significant cuts to education,” Porrel said.
Molecular biology senior Haroon Saleem, director of Speak Up Now Arizona, an organization formed in response to the proposed education budget cuts, was also at the event.
Saleem and members of Speak Up Now Arizona interviewed students at the rally for a documentary they are making. They will post some of the interviews on their Web site.
“Our hopes are that other people will come to our site, see these people speaking up, and that will actually encourage them to speak up themselves,” Saleem said.
After meeting with the two District 17 representatives outside of the capitol, the students stood on the intersection near West Adams Street and North 17th Avenue holding signs and encouraging cars to honk in support.
“Although the rally was small in numbers, I think it showed that students are willing to come out, that they do care about education, and I think they’ll be more active in the future,” Porrell said.
Reach the reporter at snrodri2@asu.edu.
