Jackson Joins Student Chant Demanding Additional State Financing for Education

SACRAMENTO —  Gov. George Deukmejian’s education budget came under new pressure Monday when the Rev. Jesse Jackson joined about 4,000 protesting college students on the steps of the Capitol to demand more money for schools and colleges.

Jackson, an unsuccessful 1984 Democratic presidential candidate who is laying plans for another campaign next year, blasted both Deukmejian and President Reagan in a rip-roaring campaign-style speech filled with the hot rhetoric and lyrical phrasemaking that have become his political signature.

“Education is not a social program, it is a national defense act. We must educate our children,” Jackson told the heavily minority cheering student demonstrators, who arrived by car and chartered buses from campuses up and down the state.

At one point Jackson picked up on a theme Democrats are using more and more in their budget fight with Deukmejian--that the governor is placing a higher priority on financing growth of the state prison system than he is on public schools. (Deukmejian’s budget calls for a 10% increase in the Department of Corrections, about twice the percentage increase he is recommending for education programs.)

Jackson said a four-year scholarship to a state university costs less than $30,000, but “those same four years at Soledad on a penitentiary scholarship will cost more than $150,000. Let’s choose schools over jails and give our minds a chance.”

Deukmejian’s name was booed nearly every time it came up in speeches by Jackson, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and student leaders.

The governor responded with a statement released by his office calling the protesters “complainers.”

“Once again, the complainers have found it easier to organize a march to ask for more money for education than to put their energies to work improving our schools,” he said.

As he has in the past, Deukmejian insisted that education is a “top budget priority,” with public schools, colleges and universities earmarked for 4.5% increases while his proposed $39.3-billion budget for next year is going up only 2% overall. He also noted that some Democrats have been calling for a tax increase.

“We all agree on the importance of education to our children and to California’s future. However, our critics favor tax increases. But we don’t,” he said.

Democrats were elated by the turnout at Monday’s demonstration, which state police and other observers said was about as large as the crowd that turned out for Deukmejian’s first inaugural ceremony in 1983.

March by Students

The demonstration, which began with a 10-block march to the Capitol from a downtown park, was organized by several student groups: a Latino student group called MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan), the African/Black Student Statewide Alliance and the Asian Pacific Islander Student Union.

Brown, who spoke briefly, said, “We haven’t seen this many people in Sacramento in a long time.” Later, he told reporters that he could not remember seeing that many students at a demonstration at the Capitol since the Vietnam War era.

Brown urged the students to register to vote, then to “vote with a vengeance.”

Referring to Deukmejian by his nickname, Duke, the Speaker said, “There is only one message the Duke is going to get. The Duke would be here today if he thought you could take his job, if he thought you could get him out of office.”

Looking to Debate

He invited the students to return to the Capitol on April 21, when the Assembly will debate the governor’s education budget on the floor of the lower house in the next of a series of theatrical “committee of the whole” hearings.

After his speech, Brown told reporters he thinks the pressure Democrats are putting on the Republican governor is beginning to show. He noted that over the weekend the governor used a speech to a group of educators in Palm Desert to defend himself against attacks on his budget. Brown said Deukmejian’s response “clearly indicates that he is getting the message.”

The governor picked up the issue again Monday in San Jose, where he told reporters that education officials like schools Supt. Bill Honig “are listening only to this one call for more money. They don’t have to worry about our programs for the elderly, for the sick, for the poor.”

Deukmejian said education leaders should recognize that “it isn’t just money that produces exemplary schools and outstanding students and they should be putting a lot more of their attention there instead of this constant complaining and saying they have to have more money.”

Democrats are pushing Deukmejian to increase his budget for public schools by $900 million.

Messages for ‘Duke’

As they marched, the students waved placards bearing phrases including “Stop the Duke” and “We demand more funding for education” and yelled out chants such as “Duke, Duke, don’t you know your blood and guts have got to go” or “Hey, Deukmejian, we want our education.”

In addition to more funding for public schools, the student protesters said they want a reinstatement of funding for bilingual education programs that have been cut in recent years, an end to tuition in community colleges, increased financial aid for individual students and an end to tougher entrance requirements to state universities that they say have been hurting minority students.

Jackson told reporters after his speech that he has organized a presidential campaign committee but that he is not ready to make a formal announcement about his candidacy. “I am considering it. A campaign is being organized,” he said.