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