Cal State report predicts harmful consequences from education cuts

Many students from low-income families earn college degrees at the 23 Cal State University campuses. KPCC's Patricia Nazario reports on a study done by the union that represents faculty at those schools released today.

Patricia Nazario: The 40-page report is filled with charts and graphs that point to the consequences of proposed state budget cuts. It concludes that fewer state resources mean fewer kids from working and immigrant families will go to college.

Lillian Taiz: If they can't work within the system, what's left for them, except to work outside of the system?

Nazario: Lillian Taiz is president of the California Faculty Association, the group that paid for the study. She expressed concern for young people the budget cuts may not allow the university to reach.

Taiz: Not only are they not doing something constructive, they're gonna cost us all.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa: There is a connection with the gang members that we see who can't read and write who are dropping out of high school.

Nazario: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spoke about the value of a good education earlier this week at his annual "crime stats" news conference.

Villaraigosa: There's a connection with the fact they don't have the skills to get a good job. If people can't read and write, they're not gonna be successful. They're gonna lose hope.

Nazario: That doesn't condemn every young person to a life of crime. But as California's agricultural and manufacturing jobs disappear, the faculty association study concludes, it's nearly impossible to find a manual labor job that'll still be around in 40 years.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting millions of dollars from public education to help close the state's $40 billion budget gap. CSU educators hope their report will get his attention.