On a sunny day to a crowd of dozens of students, the “Education, Not Militarization” rally had students cheering, all in the name of their education.

Student speakers and special guests gathered to give speeches fighting for more state funding toward education all the while questioning the large budget for military use.

“If you’re tired of the government raising the price of our tuition, make some noise,” Brandon “Stixx” Salaam-Bailey, EC student and rap artist said.

“My name is Stixx, I am a student here.  We’re fighting today for education.  Without education, we have nothing for the future,” he said to a cheering crowd, “they want us to get a degree, they want us to get a better job, but if they take education away from us how are we going to get that degree?”

“Last year alone, the budget for the department of defense was about $700 billion,” Ariel Manjarrez, ASO commissioner of justice, said.

Similarly Bowen pointed out the “$10 billion alone [spent] in Afghanistan,” posing the hypothetical question to students of what that amount could do for California’s education system.

The event, which was conceived by Randy Firestone, behavorial and social sciences professor, also had speeches given by Secretary of State Debra Bowen; Philosophy Club president Curtiss Jensen; Ryan McGwire, 20, political science major; Tito Lopez, president of the Political Science Club; and Peter Mathews, political science professor Cypress College, founder of “Rescue Education California.”

Mathews’ speech highlighted his initiative, which is a proposed measure that will put a 15 percent tax on each barrel of oil extracted from California, with that tax revenue being spent on educational funding, including 48 percent of if going to community colleges.

“You know, one of the things I learned from my dad when I was a kid was that if you don’t like the way the furniture is arranged, move it!” Bowen said.  “If you guys don’t like the way the budget’s arranged, let’s change it.  Let’s change the priorities.”

Mathews’ initiative measure can be found online at http://www.rescueeducationcalifornia.org/.