SACRAMENTO, CA –In this week’s Democratic weekly radio address, Assemblymember Anthony Portantino, Chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, congratulates California’s graduates and explains why protecting funding for public higher education is important for our state.  Assemblymember Juan Arambula (D-Fresno) provided the Spanish translation.

Click here for the English language MP3 file. The running time is 2:55.

Click here for the Spanish language MP3 file. The running time is 3:58.

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Portantino: Hello, I’m Assemblymember Anthony Portantino, Chair of the State Assembly Committee on Higher Education.

As Californians graduate from universities, our state has thousands of new reasons to hope for a bright and prosperous future.

This year, the California State University system has produced a crop of over 90,000 graduates while its sister university system, the University of California, has graduated 40,000 students.

Besides providing every Californian access to a world-class education, our university system also serves as an essential engine for our state’s technological innovation.

From UC Davis students developing drought-resistant grains to UC San Francisco training tomorrow’s best doctors, California’s universities provide our state, our nation and our world with the tools to solve today’s biggest challenges.

It’s becoming clear that no one can succeed in today’s competitive economy without making education their top priority. 

This is why Legislative Democrats are committed to our state’s public university systems this tight budget year.

While structural revenue shortfalls and a downturn in our country’s economy have helped produce a gap in our state’s budget, cutting education would be a disastrous step in the wrong direction.

Economists estimate our state already lacks the skilled workers needed to meet the demand for high-paying jobs like software engineering and nursing.

And while Californians lose out on the great salaries these jobs will provide, the growing demand for services goes unmet, immediately driving up costs for everyone.

So as budget negotiations continue this summer, let’s keep the dialogue sensible.

Californians know continued investment in education pays off every time and want a balanced approach to filling our budget gap.

Legislative Democrats agree and we’re working hard to find the revenue solutions we need to protect education while working with our Republican colleagues to close the budget gap.

Our investment in education pays dividends for everyone in the state, which makes all of us shareholders.

This is why we encourage all Californians to be responsible investors and get involved in this year’s budget process. 

Contacting your legislator or attending rallies to protect education funding is an important contribution you can make to ensure our students have the resources they need for success.

They need all the support we can give them and their hard work deserves no less. 

Earning a college degree has never been an easy task, so on behalf California Democratic legislators, congratulations to the class of 2008. 

This has been Assemblymember Anthony Portantino, Chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Higher Education.