#educateourstate

On behalf of the over six million children educated in public schools in California, Long Beach parents, teachers, and Educate Our State are organizing parents and supporters in a show of solidarity and frustration with the current educational system and the lack of support by the California legislature. Long Beach will be holding a rally at Longfellow Elementary School at 4:00 on Tuesday, May 24th to show local support for this statewide issue and demonstrate parents' objection to the potential massive budget cuts facing their schools. "Without the passage of the revenue extension measures by our legislature, our schools will cut nearly 20,000 teachers statewide, see burgeoning class sizes and elimination of nearly all enrichment programs," said Linda Shaffer of Educate Our State a parent led, non-profit campaign demanding high-quality schools for all children in California.

"The parents in Long Beach are standing up for their children and their schools. California schools have experienced $18 billion in budget cuts since 2007 and compared to every other state in the nation, we are at the bottom of the barrel in per student funding" said name Lisa Lindsay, from Longfellow Elementary. "Longfellow has seen annually increasing class sizes, reduction of services such as librarians and nurses, and elimination of programs. " said Lisa Lindsay.

Educate Our State, a grassroots campaign with over 35,000 supporters statewide, has gained substantial political clout and press over the past year (including an extremely successful recent campaign in which over 60,000 letters were sent to legislators in Sacramento), is organizing the statewide "Wake Up California!" day of events. On May 24th over 20 rallies will be held from Sacramento to San Diego. A map with an updated list of sites is on the website www.educateourstate.org.

"Parents want to bring attention to the crisis facing our schools" said Teri Levy of Educate Our State. "Parents are frustrated and want our legislators to save public education funding now." California lags behind all but a few states with respect to funding (lower than 43rd), standardized test scores (math 43rd and reading 46th; NAEP 4th Grade 2009), and staff to student ratios (50th, NCES Common Core of Data, 2007-2008).

Educate Our State founders stress that this event shows the public's desire to make education the priority it needs to be in order for this state to thrive. For more information about "Wake Up California!" and rallies scheduled in specific areas, please visit www.educateourstate.org, Facebook, and follow us on Twitter, and educateourstate.