The first week of school is always crazy. You have to get to school before 8 just to get a decent parking spot, there is a line out of the door of the Sip and good luck if you’re trying to add classes.

Speaking of trying to add classes, I was talking to a friend about her classes and she had an interesting story. She is enrolled in a speech class, where there is a 40 person maximum per class. Now usually, 5 or 10 people wander into all the GE classes on the first day looking to add. I remember seeing them in my political science and math classes.

But in this particular speech class, there were 60 PEOPLE trying to add. That means that today, somewhere on our campus, there were 100 people in one classroom.

What the heck is going on here?

We’ve been hearing about budget cuts for a year now, and while the numbers and dollar signs might not mean much to us, we’re starting to see exactly what they mean.

As Sacramento continues to spend more money then they are bringing in, it seems like education has become an easy target for budget cuts because corporate interests, unions or federal laws protect everything else. In a state that has always valued their educational institutes, they are continuing to cut funding.

And for what? So they can put more money into the prisons? Invest in people who messed up their lives instead of the people who are trying to better theirs? 11 percent of the general fund of the state budget was alloted to prisons, according to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s State of the State speech on Jan. 6. Eduction recieved 7.5 percent.

The governor is seeking to change this by approving an amendment that would keep money for education from going towards corretions. Which sounds awesome besides the fact that it won’t be effective until 2014.

So while the state continues to cut funding, raise tuition to cover the cut funding and causes general chaos in our school system for the next four years, at least we have that to look forward to.

In the meantime, let us enjoy our full to the brim classes and think about how inmates are getting their degrees before we do.