"Believe in ESU": Students, Professors & Union Activists Rally Against Education Cuts [FULL VIDEO]

These are videos from the latest edition of my show, Counterpoint PA, the only grassroots progressive newscast exclusively about Pennsylvania politics. In this very special edition of the show, I present footage I took of the October 29 “Believe in ESU” rally, where students, professors, union activists, and others protested against education funding cuts and the resulting planned faculty and programs cuts at East Stroudsburg University right in my hometown.

PA Headlines for this special edition of the show consists of a series of speeches given at the rally culminating with the protesters' march.

The show starts with the two speeches from professors that launched the rally:

This next video features several students speaking about the importance of quality education in their lives and the importance of activism in fighting for a quality education:



Two student poets wrote poems about the budget battle to read at the rally that really riled up the crowd:



An ESU professor and union activist shared her convictions about quality public higher education with the crowd at the rally and encouraged the students to continue raising awareness about the ESU budget battle among their as-yet-uninformed peers:



Next, these students shared extremely personal stories, but were no less fierce in their defense of quality education. One asks, "Has ESU now become a welfare program for administrators at the expense of students and faculty?":



And this is the protesters' march from the site of the rally to an administration building, chanting "no more cuts":



This special edition of The Breakdown features two interviews I did while at the rally with people who organized it. We talked about how the event was organized, the reasons so many people showed up, ESU's place in the community, and the state of public education in Pennsylvania:



And finally, fear not fellow Keith Olbermann loyalists, there is even a special "Believe in ESU" edition of the Worst Pennsylvanians of the Week. First I show the speech of a local Democratic state representative candidate who informed the crowd that their local Republican state representatives voted for the education cuts, followed by the speeches of spokespeople of said local Republican state representatives who claimed to champion education funding but carefully avoided countering the Democrat’s claims. Then there’s a short interview I did with another Democratic state representative candidate who was there about the discrepancy between the Republicans’ words and actions, and I end with some of my own commentary.



Tell me what you think about this edition of Counterpoint PA on Twitter @CounterpointPA or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/counterpointpa and for those keeping track that interview with Sean Kitchen of Raging Chicken Press about the PA bill that would gut the state's endangered species list is still on its way soon as a bonus video.