Michelle Knueppel and Gina Tenorio: Hundreds Protest Governor at SB Visit
While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger got a mostly warm reception from students, parents and faculty during an address at Chaffey High School on Wednesday, his appearance later in the day at a fund-raising function in San Bernardino drew hundreds of angry protesters.
The Chaffey visit was followed by a fund-raising dinner at the National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino. Nearly 300 protesters gathered along Arrowhead Avenue waving signs and shouting, compared to the 30 to 50 that protested his stop in Ontario.
"These are the working people,' said Andy Doyle, a member of the California Professional Firefighters." That man is not going to come and address the people.'
The group also included members of the California Teachers Association, California School Employees Association and California Nurses Association.
Most of the protesters insist Schwarzenegger failed on a promise to fully fund Proposition 98, a voter-approved amendment to California's Constitution that protects K-12 education from cuts that have struck some of the other services supported through the state's budget.
"When he first came in, we thought he was the people's governor,' said Sandra Santilli, a nurse at St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley." We were wrong.'
The group was also angry over the governor's proposal of Proposition 74, a state spending and school budgets limits initiative to allow the governor, under specific circumstances, to reduce the minimum school funding requirements that Proposition 98 mandated.
"We're public employees,' said Mikki Cichocki, who works in the San Bernardino City Unified School District in youth services. “We're not at the top of the food chain. Why us?”