Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 2019)
Oregonians march for students OREGON EDUCATION ASSOCIATION ORGANIZES RALLY TO DEMAND HIGHER FUNDING FOR EDUCATION photos by Jonathan Villagomez BY EM ILY R O B ER TS NEWS EDITOR. Even w ith tem peratures close to freezing, the March for Our Students crowd stayed fired up. On Presidents Day, nearly 4,000 people gathered outside of Oregon’ s State Capitol in Salem to demand legislators increase fu n d in g for education during the March for Our Students, a rally held by the Oregon Education Association. Teachers, students and citizens stood together w ith .sign s proudly held overhead as buses brought ih more participants. Attendees were encouraged to wear red during the march as the color is used to represent the support of education; red shirts promoting education funding were handed out to those who needed them. About 25 members of Clackamas Community College — students and staff alike — took the trip down to Salem to advocate for com m unity colleges. CCC instructor Suzanne Munro, who is chair of the English as a second language department, said that she wants to see com m unity colleges better funded in order to reduce student spending; having to spend more money on tuition each year creates roadblocks for students who are facing financial troubles, she said. James Logan, a CCC maintenance support w orker, shared M unro’ s hopes for reduced tuition. Logan also commented on the need for funding for resources. “ It can actually hinder students’ ability to learn without having the newest, latest, greatest technologies,”; Logan said. Many teachers that attended were critical of class, sizes, explaining the difficu lties that came w ith such a hefty number of students. “ I’m here because my class sizes are so big that I cannot individually meet with my students, conference about the writing; 1 cannot help my students be better because I’m only one person and there are 40 ° f them in a class,-’ said Becky M artin , a high school English teacher for the Ctackamas Print Beavertofi School District. According to information provided by the National Center for Education Statistics, Oregon has one of the largest average classroom sizes while having only m iddling funding for education compared to the rest of the country at the K-12 level. Colleges are affected by funding in regards to staffing, available classes, advanced technology and tuition costs. The rally officially started at 10:30 a.m . with m ultiple guest speakers ta k in g the m ic. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici pledged herself to everyone as à partner in Congress and vowed to , continue fighting for education and equity for all students. The crowd clapped and cheered for The march, held on Monday, drew 4,000 participants from around the state. Representatives from across the educational spectrum were present, including the congresswoman. A n other speaker was N ich ole many from Clackamas Community College. W atson, a fourth-grade teacher at Participants were encouraged to take Rosa Parks Elem entary School in In support. a card and write down their stories At 11 a.m ., participants took to the North Portland. W atson advocated for the arts to be more accessible to streets and marched in a loop that to send to legislators in hopes of students, for students to have better started and ended at the Capitol. persuading them to boost education medical and emotional support and for Marchers could be seen and heard funding. If you’ re interested in contacting students to have modern technology. from afar as they held their signs legislators about education funding, high and collectively chanted sayings W atson passionately stated that students should have “ teachers such as “ Red for Ed” and “ Fund our you can call them,»write a letter, an em ail or even sehd them a tweet. who th ey can see th e m se lv e s schools.” For contact information, visit www. T h e im a rc h lasted roughly 30 in every single d a y .” The crowd enthusiastically followed her speech m inutes, ending around 11:30 a.m . contactingcongress.org. th e c la c k a m a sp rin t.c o m _ _ _ _ _ February 20, 2019
