Below is a selection of news articles highlighting advocacy efforts led by Ocean State Action.
Show Some Guts -- Stop the Cuts!
Written by David Elliott, The Daily Kos
Wednesday, May 26 2010 13:02
Many of you may have noticed the coverage out of Trenton last weekend. A crowd estimated by police to be 35,000 strong protested at the state capitol. The protestors were angry at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s efforts to substantially cut public services to address a $10.7 billion budget deficit. The cuts would include an $820 million reduction in the state’s education budget and ending millions of dollars of aid to already cash-strapped municipalities.
The rally was the largest in the city’s history – but it’s also part of what is becoming a familiar storyline. Just last month in Springfield, the state capital of Illinois, 15,000 people gathered outside the state capitol – also the largest rally in that city’s history.
The introduction last week in Rhode Island of anti-immigrant legislation based on HB1070, the draconian law recently passed in Arizona, was troubling for many reasons. For those of us who consider ourselves true Democrats, one of the more disconcerting elements of the whole episode was that the bill was introduced by a Democrat – Cranston Representative Peter Palumbo.
Protesters Against Immigration Bill Crowd RI House
Written by Karen Ziner, The Providence Journal
Thursday, May 20 2010 09:02
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A tough, Arizona-style immigration bill newly filed by Rep. Peter Palumbo touched off a raucous demonstration Thursday inside the House chamber at the State House. The bill aims to identify, prosecute and deport illegal immigrants. At least 100 protesters chanted "This is What Democracy Looks Like!" and "Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Peter Palumbo's Got to Go!" The protest started quietly as demonstrators wearing banners that said, "Do I Look Illegal?" milled about the House floor. It gathered steam as the bell rang at the session's opening. Speaker Gordon Fox banged his gavel, and capitol police began telling the protesters it was time to go. They demonstrators left the chamber, but continued their chants -- "This House is Our House!" and foot-stomping in the hallway beyond the door.
SOUTH KINGSTOWN — More than a hundred parents and children walked to Wakefield Elementary School on Monday morning, in part to protest a proposal to close the school in the face of a projected budget deficit.
Wearing T-shirts reading “We believe in our neighborhood schools,” the crowd gathered on the banks of the Saugatucket River and then walked together down Main Street and High Street to the school, where the children were dropped off for the start of the day’s classes.
Fair, objective and predictable school funding formula
Written by Connie Grosch, The Providence Journal
Wednesday, May 12 2010 09:28
The Rhode Island is Ready Coalition conducts a lobbying effort at the State House to increase awareness of the need for a "fair, objective and predictable funding formula" adequate to support all of the state's public schools. Peter Asen, interim director of Ocean State Action, a regular at the State House, helps those less familiar with the process hook up with legislators, including the Speaker of the House.
Student Labor Alliance members, students, and alumni as well as Dining Services and libraries workers and organizers from the international labor group Unite Here gathered on the steps outside the Rockefeller Library today for a rally against the 60 staff layoffs the University announced in March.
Like countless other Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) success stories, Joshua Oberle paid his own way before graduating in 2003.
The Kingston resident then moved on to earn his bachelor’s degree at the University of Rhode Island (URI), where he’s now a graduate student studying labor relations.
“I paid my own way through my undergraduate studies, but I did it before there were all of these tuition increases. I’m not sure I’d be able to do it now given these perpetual tuition hikes,” said Oberle.
Oberle was just one of the speakers at CCRI on Wednesday who protested the state’s recent cuts to education, and demanded that the state legislature refrain from cutting the budget again this year.
The rally, held at the Commons at CCRI’s Warwick campus, lasted about an hour and featured roughly 10 speakers, including an administrator, teacher and student leaders.
WARWICK — Despite tuition increasing 46.6 percent over the last five years, professors and students at the Community College of Rhode Island say there are fewer services and not enough spots for even the mandatory core courses.
Jim Brady, the college’s outgoing student body president, said the situation — particularly the tuition hikes that don’t seem to have an end at all three of the state’s higher education institutions — is “completely disgusting” and counterproductive to helping the state build a 21st-century work force.
A call-to-action rally at the community college’s Knight Campus Wednesday afternoon was the first of several planned events to let the General Assembly know “enough is enough.” A petition is also circulating and a march to the State House is in the works.
The rally was sparsely attended, but the unified effort was evident with speakers from two of the three schools and all levels of the school communities — students, teacher assistants, professors and administration — as well as members of Ocean State Action, the political action coalition that helped coordinate the event.
Students rally at CCRI to urge lawmakers not to cut funding for higher education
Written by R.J. Heim, Channel 10
Thursday, May 06 2010 10:15
Immigrant activists rally against Ariz. law
Written by Karen Lee Ziner, The Providence Journal
Wednesday, April 28 2010 11:46
PROVIDENCE — Immigrant activists on Tuesday urged Rhode Islanders to support a widening call for an economic boycott of Arizona over a stringent new immigration law.
Opponents have called the law an open invitation to widespread racial profiling and harassment of Latino legal residents and citizens.
