Spokane7
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May 3, 2011 in City
EWU students protest budget
Rally calls for raising taxes instead of cuts for vulnerable
EWU social work studies student, Melissa Eastman, left, 21, and Spokane resident, Jessica Abbarno, 27, shout their support during the “Cuts Have Consequences” rally Monday on the Eastern Washington University Campus in Cheney.
(Full-size photo)
A group of Eastern Washington University students have begun a weeklong protest on the Cheney campus to draw attention to imminent spending cuts by the state Legislature, now beginning its second week of a special session.
The protesters, largely comprised of students in the School of Social Work and Human Services, are calling on lawmakers to consider eliminating millions of dollars worth of tax loopholes in order to soften the coming blow to education, health care and social services.
“It’s easy to make these cuts to our vulnerable population because their voices are so seldom heard,” said Althea Jamison, an EWU senior in interdisciplinary studies and an organizer of the campus protest called “Cuts Have Consequences.”
The protesters have pitched tents throughout the campus to symbolize tent cities that they say will be needed to shelter the newly homeless as a result of further funding cuts.
Lawmakers must offset a projected revenue shortfall in the next two years of about $5 billion. None of the proposals offered in the state House, the Senate or by the governor balances the operating budget by raising taxes or closing tax loopholes. To do so would take a voter-mandated two-thirds majority of both legislative chambers.
The protesters called for eliminating tax breaks for out-of-state shoppers, private jet owners and members of country clubs.
They contrasted these exemptions or credits with expected cuts in higher education and financial aid for students, children’s health care, disability and other human services.
Proposed cuts to higher education are expected to force tuition hikes again at state universities including increases of as much as 11.5 percent at EWU.
“These cuts will have a major impact, and people need to know about them,” said Melissa Eastman, a junior in social work picketing Monday outside Monroe Hall on campus.
The protest continues through Sunday.
Rights panel poorly understood 
citizen on May 03 at 8:26 a.m.
Aren’t these students intelligent enough to know these cuts are cuts from the new extravegent budget increase? The liberal democrats backed by the decieving media know these demomstrators are stupid when it comes to political crap-talk. I think they should have been taught civics and deception in K12 before they enroled in Eastern. Citizen
Patanjali on May 03 at 10:20 a.m.
Citizen: You have no idea what you are writing about. Do you know any of these students personally? I doubt it. I do know many of them. There are 183 students on the facebook event page for this group and they are among the best and brightest of their generation, future leaders of this country. You my fellow citizen are not the only one deserving of that title. These students are also citizens and true patriots. My suggestion is that you go out to Eastern and sit with these students for a few hours. Perhaps you could learn to love them as you would your own children. If you have something to say to them be brave enough to say it in person, to their faces.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 03 at 11:44 a.m.
I spent some time with this dedicated group of young folks yesterday and spoke to them for a few minutes…. They do have a handle on the issues… and are simply trying to make a difference… the diversity of the group was very wide and impressive….. Bright, very capable bunch of “community organizers” in the making….. best Gus…
Ed Byrnes on May 03 at 12:29 p.m.
I have had the privilege of knowing many of these students as students in statistics classes that I teach. I suggest that these young people have forgotten more about quantitative analysis than most people will ever know.
What makes me proud of them is that they are turning their intellect and talents toward a social good for all of their fellow humans.
We would be better off if more of our people took this path.
Ed
Coffee on May 03 at 1:53 p.m.
Social Work and Human Services = welfare for the college educated.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 03 at 6:45 p.m.
Thank you Prof Byrnes… it made my “year” to know there is a new breed of educated folks that want to do some “calling” rather than a money directed career…. I’ll be there again tomorrow pm after noon…. if you are around come say hi? best Gus..
Ed Byrnes on May 03 at 9:15 p.m.
Hey Gus it warms my heart that there are people in our community like you who support young people who see the value in making a difference rather than just making cash.
These students are pretty smart and can do things like differentiate when logistic versus multiple linear regression modeling is the appropriate quantitative analysis, and detect fundamental flaws in the design and analysis of quantitative research studies.
We teach these things so that these students can arrive at their own independent assessment of alleged facts on the basis of reason and sound scientific principles.
These students, upon using their critical thinking skills to analyze budget decisions, knowing that budgets are policy statements, took it upon themselves to organize this rally.
I will be speaking at the rally on Friday at noon and would love to get to meet you in person. I am familiar with all you do for our brothers and sisters who are living in poverty so I would be honored to shake your hand.
Ed Byrnes on May 03 at 9:22 p.m.
Citizen and Coffee, you appear to be questioning these students intelligence and assert that they need welfare to make it in life.
Out of a sense of fairness I can present you with a question or two from these students’ statistics exams and let you take a run at it.
I will even be kind enough to pick one that at least 90% of them answered correctly.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 03 at 9:29 p.m.
Perhaps… just perhaps.. but I doubt it.. “Citizen” and “Coffee” otherwise unidentified.. might be willing to show up and actually “face” the folks they are critical of without meeting… come on down to the House Of Charity ( my current volunteer chef slot) and have lunch with us some mid morning? (Professor E… not one, not one of these folks has had the temerity to actually come and see us face to face) I am in the phone book, and easy to find… where are “THEY”… hiding behind screen names and casting aspersions…. not much in the way of ‘Street Cred”.. a bientot gus
ZagChuck on May 03 at 9:54 p.m.
I love the sign in the background that says “share the wealth.” Perhaps they should do a little research first, and look within thier own school for real solutions. We can’t keep spending money we don’t have.
At EWU the top 250 Non-Teaching positions average salary is $73,500., not including benefits. http://lbloom.net/ewu09.html 26 of whom make over $100,000 per year. And those are the numbers for 2009, we know they’re higher now.
That doesn’t include coaching salaries. that’s all the administration. President, Vice Presidents, and all their support staff.
And that’s just EWU, it’s much larger at WSU and UW.
Perhaps it’s time for some intellectual honesty from our higher education folks. Then we can get down to trimming the administration costs in every piece of our government.
Ed Byrnes on May 04 at 12:50 a.m.
I concur about the need to substantially reduce administrators numbers in both higher and k-12 education. I just read an article about personnel cuts in Spokane School District 81 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42869318/ns/local_news-spokane_wa/) and did not see any administrator positions being cut. We could probably find many places to cut administration across all of state government.
That being said some of the cuts to the state budget really do have a harmful impact on children, who are our most vulnerable citizens, and other approaches should be considered. Since children don’t vote they tend to get the short end of the stick. Even if one wants to be purely self interested these children are the future workers who we will turn to for support in our old age, hence strengthening children is in our self interest.
One should keep in mind that budget reductions are, in all honesty, a reallocating resources and citizens should question some of these reallocations. For instance do we really need to waste millions on a war against people who mildly alter their consciousness with cannabis, and forgo the hundreds of millions in revenue if it were legal?
deacon46 on May 04 at 7:11 a.m.
Life is tough. As a tax payer I do not owe you a living. You made a choice. Get over it and move on.
ZagChuck on May 04 at 8:00 a.m.
Prof Byrnes.
The legalization for taxation plans always wind up the same. We would spend more money on regulation and enforcement than we are already spending, and more than the “revenue” generates. It would grow government, and that’s always been done larger and more expensively than planned.
Furthermore, we’re simply not ready to legalize it yet. There needs to be a significantly increase in studies performed to learn long and short term effects for both occasional and long-term users. There are a number of studies already that point to significant increases in prostate cancer for occasional users, significant increases is psychotic episodes for occasional users, infertility for occasional users etc…
There may be studies showing the opposite. That’s part of my point. We need to know more, to ensure we understand the actual cost of legalization, before we make the decision, so that we can make it a decision based on as many facts and factors as possible.
Also, legalizing marijuana in Washington State wouldn’t end the “war on drugs.”
Coffee on May 04 at 8:57 a.m.
ChefGus: Are you receiving tax money to volunteer your time at the House of Charity?
When Social Work and Human Services workers take a vow of poverty or get jobs producing sell able goods or services than donating their time as you do.then I will retract my statement.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 04 at 10:21 p.m.
coffee… all of my volunteer time over the past 40 years has been compensated only with psychic income…. There are paid staff at House of Charity of course…. but there are hundreds of volunteers each month.
My time at Shalom as Volunteer Chef for the past five and half years was about 40 hours a week Sept through May, except when the warming shelters were open during very cold weather… and then it was around 60 hours…. I fully retired from Optometry at Group Health on the West side in 2000 at age 55… and have investment income as well as my social security and medicare.
My earlier years of volunteer time were on my own time before and after work and on vacations and included a fairly wide variety of interests…. Big Brother, Guardian ‘Ad Litem, King County Crisis line, Camp Casey summer camp for kids with spina bifida and cerebral palsy, Seattle Bach choir as treasurer, Confirmation class instructor for ELCA Lutheran kids… Summer Cook at Holden Village, Habitat for Humanity…. and more…. but I’ll stop now… j
Coffee on May 05 at 8:59 a.m.
There is the difference I am going after. You have a calling that you have sacrificed to fulfill were as the the people going into
Social Work and Human Services are not going because of any great love of humanity but for the pay and benefits.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 05 at 9:37 a.m.
Coffee…copy that… have to agree that the social services framework and network do drain a fair amount of resources from the direct services that we volunteers provide… and “Volunteer Coordinators” as paid positions make little sense…. you can not “coordinate” volunteers.. they either show, or don’t show… and you just have to simply trust that the folks needed to cook and serve Will show up ….
So what would have helped me stay in the trenches was a minimum wage paid steady employee to open and close the kitchen… I do not need an executive director at a high wage…. and I’ve done volunteer coordination as a member of a team trying to elect folks to various political offices….
The young folks I met and talked to do have a sense of a “calling”… and the balance of trying to make a living after your training in Social Service/; MSW stuff and balance your life is one that takes some time to figure out.
Thanks for your thoughts… i think I get your point now a bit better and actually am in agreement… there are 65 different agencies in Spokane County serving the low income/homeless/disabled populations…:)) j
Kathy9 on May 05 at 9:58 p.m.
Speaking as one of these students, I will first point out the complete absurdity of the comment about future salary and benefits. Nobody ever says, “I think I’ll go into social work and strike it BIG!”… We are not economics majors, but we have examined current and historical policy enough to note some trends. The devolution that only really took hold during the fundamentalist-driven Reagan years, and its shift from valuing all citizens toward only promoting rampant greed and visually stunning charts that indicates soaring profits for the top 2% of people in America is appalling. Speaking only for myself, I have seen people from many walks of life – business owners, teachers, law enforcement, and community leaders – express grave concerns over the immediate impacts and future consequences of slashing vital services. Failing to invest in early childhood education, worker re-training, higher education, and housing for people now, results in an uneducated, poorly developed, un- or under-employed, homeless angry populace. The divide between the “haves” and “have-nots” is now a deafening vortex as it swallows up what we once referred to as our middle class. During these economic times, there are viable options of revenue that simply are not being addressed because they have been sacred cows of unbridled commerce, or are simply the most powerful factions of society buying their way into public policy at the peril of us all. Small business and the local economy must be cared for… However, the elite few at the top of “big business” have done an exemplary job of masking their crimes against humanity, and continue to sway public opinion. “Citizen” and “Coffee” are exhibits A and B for this, and have fallen into the trap of pitting the poor against the nation. How sad. In a country that claims to be the greatest land on earth, we are failing our most vulnerable at alarming speeds, and then mocking them for not “pulling themselves up”. If we lack compassion, we must at the very least, have great trepidation for the statistics and projection of facts that point to a fatal loss of hope for great numbers of people. The responsibility we all have as a society and as individuals cannot only be to feed the insatiable appetites of the very few. The greater good – the lifting of all boats, and the gentle but well-informed, deliberate nurturing of future voters – must be met. Human rights at its very core is at stake with this budget. What are you doing to help?
ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 05 at 10:06 p.m.
Kathy9 good job… fine response…. do NOT let the detractors keep you from your chosen path…. best j
Ed Byrnes on May 06 at 6:27 p.m.
Thank you Kathy, you are an exemplar of the level headedness of deep compassion.
Ed
Coffee on May 06 at 6:36 p.m.
d have literally drowned in the liberal propaganda spewed out of radical left wing educational establishments. Not thKathy9 you write as well as I expect of an educated liberal socialist that has not yet lived. I do not say that in a bad way. I have watched the America that I grew up in slowly change into a place were half of my countrymen are on the dole, where a man’s word means nothing and a hero is some cracked up TV star. I hold folks such as yourself responsible for this happening, who haven’t worked an honest day in their lives anat you are evil or bad, but you’ve been brainwashed into believing that everyone who doesn’t live under a diehard form of altruism is going to inevitably destroy civilization and the world as we know it.
True, times change and the time of people such as myself are coming to an end, but as the man said I will not go quietly into the night.
Coffee on May 06 at 6:37 p.m.
Kathy9 you write as well as I expect of an educated liberal socialist that has not yet lived. I do not say that in a bad way. I have watched the America that I grew up in slowly change into a place were half of my countrymen are on the dole, where a man’s word means nothing and a hero is some cracked up TV star. I hold folks such as yourself responsible for this happening, who haven’t worked an honest day in their lives and have literally drowned in the liberal propaganda spewed out of radical left wing educational establishments. Not that you are evil or bad, but you’ve been brainwashed into believing that everyone who doesn’t live under a diehard form of altruism is going to inevitably destroy civilization and the world as we know it.
True, times change and the time of people such as myself are coming to an end, but as the man said I will not go quietly into the night.
Kathy9 on May 06 at 9:35 p.m.
Well, I’ve lived for almost 44 years. At what point will I qualify for saying this?: I did all this “right” things - although never perfectly, I finished high school, (worked on farms as a child, picked fruit as a teen, waited tables, cleaned hotel rooms, and applied myself to self-taught writing, accounting, and software skills). Married at 20, had a child. Worked 40+ hrs in entry level office jobs while waiting tables on weekends. As a newly single-parent of a teen, volunteered in schools and at place of worship. And yet i have no healthcare, and struggle to pay my rent. I have been through some living, and have “some experience”. Now i work to finish collegein the hopes of bettering myself, paying taxes, and one day workingwith the desperate families i see. I have hope in resilient people. What I do not have, is any more time for fools who make wide, sweeping assumptions about things and people they know nothing about. Good day, sir.
Kathy9 on May 06 at 9:49 p.m.
ChefGus, thank you for your level, fair discussion. Yes, maybe fewer manager. Good point. Thanks.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 06 at 9:54 p.m.
K… I am on your side all the way… My best friend got out of an abusive marriage with three kids after 35 years… got her bachelors while working at the Juvenile court and then got her Masters in the same program as you at night and on weekends while working.. she then worked as a Guardian Ad Litem in the CASA program and retired at age 64… She is my hero… ( and as close as my sister)… hang in there… you are on the right track… and you WILL make it… best regards j
Ed Byrnes on May 07 at 5:04 p.m.
The comment by Coffee demonstrates their ignorance, plain and simple.
At this rally were young people, people in their 50s returning to school after working for decades, combat veterans, parents of active duty military whose children are in Iraq and Afghanistan now.
Coffee, before you go making broad assumptions about their teachers consider that I, for one, worked for two decades with gang kids in another city who most people would be afraid to deal with.
Coffee, what do you contribute to society?
Ed