Cutting classes--and pencils--at CCSF

COMING FROM a small charter high school with a graduating class of 79, there were usually more than enough supplies to go around, small classes and good arts funding. Claims of "budget cuts" and "struggling" schools seemed like hype.

After graduating, I decided it was important for me to not go thousands of dollars into debt in this economy, and chose to attend City College of San Francisco (CCSF). I expected thousands of other working-class kids like me, in similar situations--but what I did not expect was the extreme financial negligence toward CCSF.

My first time at the school, I was there to take my placement tests. The teacher told our overcrowded testing group not to use the erasers on our pencils because the school did not have the funding to buy new pencils.

Less than two weeks later, when school started, each class I attended on the first day had at least 20 additional kids trying to crash. I was unable to get an English or math class due to the cutting of classes and teachers. Not being a full-time student led to the canceling of my health insurance coverage from my family's sub-par employer-based insurance policy.

Some of my classes still have students sitting on the floor because there aren't enough chairs. Even if there were enough chairs, the classes would still be about 15-20 kids too crowded.

I have a lot of respect for the International Socialist Organization members organizing at CCSF--and I know that if other students have been feeling the squeeze as much as I have, we can mobilize and have our basic demands met.

I don't expect a Harvard education from City College, but I do think that if the U.S. can occupy two countries at once and have the largest defense budget in the world, I should be able to get an English class and pencils at one of the largest community colleges in the country.

Our nation's priorities are fundamentally wrong. Enough is enough.
Phil H., from the Internet