UNC-system students to protest budget cuts in Raleigh

Students from across the state are preparing to show N.C. legislators the faces of those who will be affected by budget cuts to education.

UNC-system students will be meeting at N.C. State University’s bell tower at 3 p.m. on May 3 to march from the university to the Bicentennial Mall, across from the General Assembly in Raleigh, said Bryan Perlmutter, a sophomore at NCSU and a member of the N.C. Defend Education Coalition.

“We are hoping to bring attention to legislators that these cuts really do affect people and convince them to not make cuts in education in the public sector,” he said.

Earlier this month, the N.C. House appropriations subcommittee on education proposed a 17.4 percent budget cut to state funding for UNC-system schools and a 8.8 percent cut to K-12 public education.

At the Bicentennial Mall, the students will participate in the “One Voice Rally” held by the North Carolina Association of Educators, an organization that advocates for public education and children. State cuts to education will be the focus of the rally.

“We are hoping to stop the budget cuts,” said Ana Maria Reichenbach, a junior at UNC-Chapel Hill and a member of the coalition.

“A lot of us are starting to see that these budget cuts are unacceptable,” she said.

Members of the coalition are recruiting students to participate in the march.

Louisa Ford, a junior at Appalachian State University and a member of the coalition, said there are already 12 students from the university planning to march and they are trying to recruit more.

“We are going because of the budget proposal,” Ford said.

“And connecting with students across the state that are concerned about these issues as well and how professors will be affected.”

Reichenbach said students will give speeches at the NCSU bell tower and that students from high schools in the state will participate in the march.

“It affects us the same, even if it is at a high school or college,” Reichenbach said. “It is really important to show the unity between all education levels.”

The purpose of the rally was to put a face to the budget cuts, she said.

“There are students, teachers, worker, families and children that are affected by these cuts and will suffer from these cuts,” Reichenbach said.

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