Thousands Urge Higher Taxes for Education : Budget: Constituents rally at state legislators’ offices to protest $2 billion in proposed school cuts.

An estimated 2,500 people or more descended on the San Fernando Valley offices of state legislators Tuesday as part of a statewide effort to encourage lawmakers to raise taxes to pay for education.

Most were members of a group known as the Unusual Coalition, which included teachers, union leaders, students, administrators, support personnel and parents. They held rallies, carried protest signs and met with legislative aides to argue for higher taxes to offset more than $2 billion in proposed education cuts in the state budget.

About 400 people representing some 50 schools crowded into a courtyard at the Panorama City office of Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar). Their actions included signing petitions demanding that state funding for schools not be cut.

A large sign saying, “Thank You, Assemblyman Katz. We Know You Support Education” was draped over a second-story balcony. Many people carried colorful handmade signs. Others wore pink ribbons to show solidarity with teachers who have received their pink slips.

“As a parent and as a teacher, I’m damned mad,” Al Silver, United Teachers of Los Angeles representative at Pacoima Junior High School, told the cheering crowd. He said that even the nurse at his school received a layoff notice.

James Franklin, a special education teacher at Charles LeRoy Lowman Elementary School in North Hollywood, said a handicapped child stopped breathing during a seizure at his school last month, but one of the nurses administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation and saved the student’s life.

“When we lose our nurses, we will lose our children,” he said.

Monica Ramos, a student at John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, told the crowd that the funding cuts threaten her plans to be a teacher.

Although Katz was not at the rally, his aide, Laura Reynolds, welcomed the participants. She handed out a statement from Katz promising to explore various solutions to the budget crisis.

More than 300 people visited the small Northridge office of state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita). They packed the reception area and spilled down a narrow corridor.

School board member Julie Korenstein, who represents the West Valley area, said schools will be especially hard hit this year.

“We’re going down for the third time, and we’re concerned that we’re not going to come up again,” said Korenstein, who is seeking the City Council seat now occupied by Hal Bernson.

Davis was in Sacramento. Small delegations met with Hunt Braly, his chief of staff, who stood behind the senator’s desk as the delegation filed into the office.

“We’ve got a Yugo educational system, and we’re demanding Mercedes performance,” John Perez, a UTLA vice president, told him. “We’re not going to get Mercedes performance out of a Yugo. It’s just not going to happen.”

But Braly replied that education was not being singled out in the budget cuts. And simply raising taxes is not the answer either, he said.

“What you need to work on is getting the decision-making out of Sacramento . . . so that the local school boards have the ability to raise revenue and the ability to spend it,” he said.

Unusual Coalition members also went to the offices of state Sens. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) and Newton Russell (R-Glendale) and Assembly members Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), Terry Friedman (D-Los Angeles), Pat Nolan (R-Glendale), Tom Bane (D-Tarzana) and Paula Boland (R-Northridge).

Cecelia Mansfield, president of the 31st District PTA, which includes the Valley, estimated that a total of 2,500 people attended the Valley-area rallies. Helen Bernstein, UTLA president, estimated the turnout of protesters at Valley lawmakers’ offices at 4,000 to 5,000.