The Sound of Silence: Reflections on a Trip to Our State Capitol
By Ernest Morrell
I recently spent a day in Sacramento with a group of 30 high school teens and 5 teachers from Los Angeles schools. These individuals are part of our Council of Youth Research, a decade-long collaboration between UCLA and Los Angeles students and teachers that focuses on developing youth researchers who can contribute valuable information to conversations about educational reform. Given that our focus this year is on the state of education in California, it made sense to take the trip up to Sacramento to speak to those who literally control the state and our public schools. So we loaded a bus of 40 individuals and headed North. We packed in a day of interviews with the likes of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, and staffers of state assembly representatives and state senators. I should say that for the most part these luminaries and their offices were extremely gracious with their time and space and their responses to the queries of the youth will greatly assist them as they prepare their research reports, which will be presented at Los Angeles City Hall next Friday.
As I reflect upon the visit I guess my biggest enlightenment from our Youth Council trip to Sacramento came not from the interviews with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction or the Mayor, it did not come from insights offered by the staff of Speaker emeritus Karen Bass, nor did it emanate from the words of the other state senators and lobbyist that we encountered. My biggest enlightenment came in the few minutes we spent in the empty chambers of the California State Assembly and State Senate. Despite being in day 30 of a fiscal year with no budget, and despite the loss of 50 million dollars a day and countless state jobs, the members of the state congress, we were told, were on “recess.” What some might call vacation! So a week off for the 120 members of the state assembly and state senate will cost us another 350 million dollars. Never mind that paltry sum, we’re told the Governor might not sign a budget at all this year. Given that it is only the first of August, someone add up that dollar figure. To save time just multiply 1.5 billion dollars by the remaining number of months (5) and you will have the 7.5 billion dollars that we will lose added to the 1.5 billion we have already wasted and, well, you get the picture. When I say that my moment of illumination happened while in the State Assembly chamber I should be more specific; I say it was the sound of silence that got to me, but not only the silence of the chamber itself, but the quiet outside of the chamber, outside of the Capitol, through the streets of Sacramento, and ultimately across the state. It was the absence of protest, the absence of revolt that was the most disquieting of all. Of course most Californians are upset and the delay may cost some politicians their job in the upcoming midterm elections, but the anger, while palpable, has not translated into a coalesced movement or a collective demand for justice. After all, the state of California boasts a 1.8 trillion dollar annual gross domestic product, making us the 8th most powerful economy in the world, and we cannot pass what would amount to a 100 billion dollar budget? As I pondered these numbers and more while sitting amidst the echoing chamber walls looking down on 80 empty seats along with a group of 15-17 year olds who were wondering whether their teachers would be returning in the fall, or whether their academic year would be further shortened (it is already 175 days and shrinking), or whether all Los Angeles public school students would be receiving that excellent internationally competitive education they are entitled to, I longed for a little more chaos!