East Bay politicians rallied CSU East Bay students to promote and support the Middle Class Scholarship last Thursday, hoping to garner publicity and votes for a bill promising to help students afford attending an ever-expensive university system.

Created by Democratic Assembly Speaker John Perez, the Middle Class Scholarship, or Assembly Bill 1500, is meant to create monetary relief for California’s public university students whose families make less than $150,000 a year. According to the bill, the scholarship plan would cut tuition at by two-thirds by closing a corporate tax loophole.

In order to pay for this billion-dollar program, Democrats in support of the bill want to revoke a tax break given to corporations as part of a 2009 agreement to temporarily raise taxes.

If instated, the bill estimates about 150,000 CSU students and 42,000 UC students would qualify, as proponents of the bill said families could save anywhere between $16,000 and $30,000 during a four year period.

According to the bill, it could save at least $4,000 annually for students at the 23 California State University campuses like CSU East Bay, where tuition and fees will be expected to reach $7,000 next year.

Assembly member Bob Wieckowski, Democrat, who represents the 20th Assembly District, and Senate Majority Leader Ellen M. Corbett (D-San Leandro), who is also a CSUEB alumnus, spoke to the campus community to hopefully garner attention and excitement about the bill they have both co-authored.

Republicans have met the bill with strong opposition, promising to block the bill. In addition, five out-of-state corporations: Chrysler, General Motors, International Paper, Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble, have formed a coalition called California Employers Against Higher Taxes, contributing to the list of opponents.

“This is the first step, and there hasn’t been any first step,” Wieckowski told The Pioneer. “All we’ve seen is prices go up, accessibilities go down, and there’s a challenge and its trying to turn the wheels and say wait a minute, we care about the students, we care about your fees.”

Yet, many students said they weren’t clear about the bill or how it would work, adding they simply wanted to support anything that has to do with education.

“When you build political support, you want students to say, ‘I’m going to vote in November, and if you don’t vote for this Middle Class bill, Mr. or Ms. assembly member, I’m going to have everybody I know vote against you, I’m going to campaign against you, because it’s that important, it’s that important,’” said Wieckowski.

“If we don’t make it this year, then we are going to be all in next year, we’re going to come in and make sure the message is delivered that we are going to continue the work until this becomes a reality because it’s that important to the future of California,” he continued.

The beginning of the rally began with a small group of students meeting in front of Agora Stage.

During the rally, members of Wieckowski’s office were seen asking students to help them make the rally look “bigger” by joining other students on the lawn, as one campaign worker told The Pioneer they had cameras documenting the protest and said they were “promised” more students would be rallying.

Members of Students for Quality Education (SQE) were also seen passing out flyers about the Middle Class Scholarship and CSU Chancellor Reed.

Directly after the rally, a two-hour presentation was held in the Old University Union where students crowded room 102, lured by free pizza and drinks and a raffle for iPods upon filling out petition forms in support of the bill.

In addition to Wieckowski and Corbett, other presentations were given by Political Science professor Dr. Craig Collins, Associated Students Inc. Director of Legislative Affairs Courtney Symonds, CSUEB student Pablo Benavente, who aided Wieckowski in proliferating attention for the event on Facebook, and a 25-minute screening of a documentary about student loan debt.

Each speaker emphasized the need for a tax break in order to allocate more funds to students attending public higher education in the state and attempting to convince students why it is not only effective, but also a bill in need of their legislative support. Wieckowski said more presentations of this nature were planned for the future.

Following the end of speeches, the Q-and-A session did not comprise of any questions from students, rather students sharing their personal experiences with loans and debt. Students were also asked by members of Wieckowski and Corbett’s parties to pose in photographs.

Wieckowski and Corbett affirmed the potential the rally at CSUEB has on impacting the entire CSU system and education in California in general is a testament to their goals to serve their constituents.

Yet, skepticism remained constant, as the constant push by politicians and other influential partieis for the bill made some students question intentions.

“I see a lot of this stuff where they try to use us to believe in their cause by trying to sell it to us like it would benefit us,” said History major George Richt. “Hopefully it does do something good for us, but until then to me it still looks like a political ploy.”

“Anybody who is a skeptic about trying to make college more acceptable is just unenlightened and uninformed,” said Corbett, addressing skeptics who do not want to see the corporate loophole being closed.

“The timing is extremely important, it’s needed right now, it’s very needed in order to make sure people can go to college.”