MIDNIGHT RIDE TO SACRAMENTO: School workers will board buses to capital to urge legislators to maintain tax revenues to stop budget cuts to education!

SEIU Local 99 Press Release (from the Biloxi, Gulfport & South Mississippi Sun-Herald) | http://bit.ly/mkd7VH

LOS ANGELES, June 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following release is being issued by SEIU Local 99:

WHAT: Just days before California's June 15 budget deadline, cafeteria workers, classroom aides, school janitors, child care providers and community college employees will rally, board a convoy of buses and travel all night to Sacramento to urge legislators to support existing tax revenues to stop even more cuts to education.

WHY: Over the past three years $20 billion has been cut from California's schools and community colleges, severely impacting student programs and services. And tens of thousands of young children have been impacted by more than $1 billion in cuts to child care during the last couple of years.

Education workers will spend all day Tuesday, June 7, visiting legislators and urging them to support Governor Brown's proposal to repay schools money owed under Proposition 98 and voting to maintain existing tax revenues.

Under Governor Brown's "May Revise" budget proposal, K-12 schools and community colleges would receive $3 billion of the $6.6 billion in increased state revenue. For the Los Angeles Unified School District alone, the second largest school district in the country, this would mean additional funding of $183 million, saving vital after school programs and other student services.

If tax revenues are not maintained, an estimated $5 billion more in cuts to education will have to be made, resulting in a shortened school year, increased class sizes, and the further reduction of critical student services. And another round of cuts will gut child care programs that families rely on to stay in the workforce.

WHEN: Monday, June 6, 2011 10 p.m. - Rally12 Midnight - Buses Depart

WHERE: SEIU Local 99 Headquarters, 2724 W. 8th St., Los Angeles, CA 90005

WHO: Cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, child care providers, and other education workers.

School Board members including LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia, Lynwood Unified Board Vice President Jose Solache, Compton Unified Board Member Micah Ali and Los Angeles Community College Board Vice President Miguel Santiago.

VISUALS: Hundreds of workers in their purple union T-shirts with signs, chanting, boarding buses.

SEIU Local 99 is a union of more than 40,000 education workers, including K-12 schools, early  education centers, and community colleges. We are teachers, teaching assistants, custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and others working in schools, colleges, and administrative offices throughout Southern California.

SOURCE SEIU Local 99