Contact: Mike Roth, 916-444-7170
San Francisco - Governor Jerry Brown joined San Francisco Bay Area teachers, school employees and administrators to launch the Yes on Proposition 30 campaign to protect schools and public safety.
As students returned to school this week for the 2012-13 school year, the Governor reminded Californians what is at stake for our students and our future and why Prop. 30 is critical to getting California back on track.
“California’s students are our future, and I am asking Californians to join me in taking a stand against further cuts to our schools and local public safety,” said Governor Brown. “Prop. 30 is the only measure that will stop $6 billion in deeper cuts to public education and invest billions of new dollars in our schools starting this year."
After years of cuts, California’s public schools, universities and local public safety services are at the breaking point. In the last four years alone, schools have been hit with $20 billion in cuts and now employ 30,000 fewer educators. Today, California has among the largest class sizes in the country.
“My students are the future of the Bay Area and protecting their education is about the future of California,” said Victoria Duran, a world history teacher in the East Side Union High School District in San Jose, which has already been hit hard by cuts. “Let’s start to repair our public schools on Election Day. Vote Yes on Proposition 30 to give our students the resources, the education and the future they all deserve.”
To protect schools and safety, Prop. 30 temporarily increases personal income taxes on the highest earners – couples with incomes over $500,000 a year -- and establishes the sales tax at a rate lower than it was last year. Prop. 30 also writes a constitutional guarantee for public safety into the constitution, where it can’t be touched without voter approval. This provision will keep cops on the street and save California billions in future prison costs.
More information can be found at YesOnProp30.com
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Paid for by Yes on Prop. 30--to Protect our Schools and Public Safety, a broad coalition of business, labor, law enforcement, teachers and Governor Brown. Major funding by Californians Working Together to Restore and Protect Public Schools, Universities and Public Safety, Coalition of Educators, School Employees, Working Men/Women, Doctors, Speaker Perez & Community Org. Yes on Proposition 30 and United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.