A national day of protests against education funding cuts began Thursday with generally peaceful rallies, walkouts and teach-ins at universities and high schools. But an incident in which demonstrators smashed the windshield of a car trying to enter UC Santa Cruz brought a warning against any other violence. 
 
 At Cal State Dominguez Hills in the Carson area, about 50 students gathered in front of the student union with some shouting "Give My Education Back!" and carrying signs that proclaimed: "From Pre-K to Ph.D., Let Me Go to School." They played a mock “Wheel of Fortune” game with stops that included "graduating in four years with a good education" and "getting a 30% fee increase." 
 
 One of the organizers, Kevin Orantes, 23, a junior majoring in public administration and communications, said he became involved because he was upset about the effects of budget cuts on access to education and wanted to leave a better legacy for his own children. "Today’s generation is reaping the benefits of sacrifice that generations before had to accomplish, like civil rights and women’s rights," Orantes said. "If we don’t do anything for the next generation, it will all be in vain." ||||| (03-05) 12:12 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Gathering for a series of feisty rallies on college campuses, in civic plazas and in the streets, thousands of protesters lashed out Thursday against the budget cuts and neglect that they say are breaking down the state's public education system. 
 
 The historic day of demonstrations in the Bay Area and beyond was largely peaceful, with students and others carrying signs like "Chop from the top," a reference to what they see as puffed-up executive salaries. They chanted, recited poetry and shared personal stories. 
 
 But amid an often festive atmosphere, there were also efforts to make more forceful statements during the protests, called the Day of Action to Defend Public Education. 
 
 More than 150 protesters were arrested on Interstate 880 in Oakland after using an exit ramp to walk onto the freeway and shut it down for nearly an hour. Many wore black, identified themselves as anarchists and carried a banner that read, "Occupy everything." 
 
 The action just before 5 p.m., which backed up rush-hour traffic for miles, came after a peaceful rally at Oakland City Hall. Police in riot gear chased and tackled some demonstrators. One was taken away in an ambulance after falling from the freeway onto a road below, witnesses said. Police said the man was expected to survive. 
 
 Schools of all kinds 
 
 The I-880 closure came near the end of a day that saw protests organized by students, labor unions, activist groups and others on campuses of all kinds, from elementary schools to UC Berkeley. They ripped state officials, who have cut millions of dollars from education budgets at all levels during the recession. 
 
 Hundreds rallied at the state Capitol in Sacramento, where speeches included calls to lower the two-thirds requirement in the Legislature to pass a state budget and to tax oil production and tobacco to fund higher education. 
 
 Some students at Oceana High School in Pacifica formed an "SOS" on a beach, while in San Francisco more than 50 Commodore Sloat Elementary fifth-graders boarded a Muni bus to the State Building. Each wore a handmade sandwich board sign protesting budget cuts to schools. 
 
 Students also rallied in Texas - where a day earlier regents had approved a tuition hike at state universities - as well as in Illinois and Alabama. 
 
 Many elected officials, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, responded with statements of support for the protesters. A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said he wanted a constitutional amendment guaranteeing that higher education received more funding than the state's prison system. 
 
 Many of the day's protesters, including Jennie Lew, said the issue was personal. Wearing a "Pissed-off parent" T-shirt at San Francisco State University, the mother of three college students - one at San Francisco State, another at UC Riverside and a third at De Anza College in Cupertino - said she and her husband were struggling to keep up with rising tuition. 
 
 Seeking return on dollar 
 
 The couple are graduates of UC Berkeley and were educated on federal aid and scholarships, Lew said, becoming members of what she described as the "educated middle class." Now, she said, her sons' graduation dates have been delayed because classes have been trimmed and teachers laid off. 
 
 "I'm not getting what I'm paying for," Lew said. "My husband and I were educated by the system, and now we're able to provide for our sons - just as it is supposed to work in society. But they may be the first generation who can't afford their education, much less receive it." 
 
 California's $20 billion budget gap this year, on top of $60 billion last year, has resulted in soaring tuition at the University of California and California State University. Courses are jammed, and many students can't get in at all. Lecturers have been laid off and employees furloughed. CSU wouldn't let new students enroll at all this semester. 
 
 Students turned away ||||| Students staged raucous rallies on nationwide college campuses Thursday in protests against deep education cuts that turned violent as demonstrators threw punches and ice chunks in Wisconsin and blocked university gates and smashed car windows in California. 
 
 Students block Sather Gate on the University of California at Berkeley campus Thursday, March 4, 2010, in Berkeley, Calif. Demonstrations, marches, teach-ins and walkouts are planned nationwide Thursday... (Associated Press) 
 
 Demonstrators march past Royce Hall on the campus at UCLA in Los Angeles Thursday, March 4, 2010. Students, teachers, parents and others rallied throughout California and many other states to protest... (Associated Press) 
 
 Demonstrators attend a rally on the campus at UCLA in Los Angeles Thursday, March 4, 2010. Students, teachers, parents and others rallied throughout California and many other states to protest deep cuts... (Associated Press) 
 
 University of California, Berkeley, students Griffin Cassara, 19, left, and Katherine Cole, 18, walk past the state Capitol after a participating in a ralley against funding cut to higher education in... (Associated Press) 
 
 Student protestors march on the University of California at Berkeley campus Thursday, March 4, 2010, in Berkeley, Calif. Demonstrations, marches, teach-ins and walkouts are planned nationwide Thursday... (Associated Press) 
 
 At least 15 protesters were arrested by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee police after as many as 150 students gathered at the student union then moved to an administrative building to deliver petitions to the school chancellor. 
 
 A woman who was allowed to go inside encouraged protesters to rush the building after she emerged, university spokesman Tom Luljak said. 
 
 No serious injuries were reported in the melee that followed. 
 
 "We have no problem with a protest," Luljak said. "We do have a serious problem when individuals decide to become violent." 
 
 Kas Schwerdtfeger, a national organizer for Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society, said demonstrators were peaceful but persistent in approaching the hall. 
 
 "What we did was try to assert ourselves peacefully and nonviolently," Schwerdtfeger said. "Police started pushing, shoving, using mace on somewhere around 20 to 25 people." 
 
 The school was among dozens of nationwide campuses hit with marches, strikes, teach-ins and walkouts in what was billed as the March 4th National Day of Action for Public Education. 
 
 Organizers said hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and parents were expected to participate in the nationwide demonstrations. 
 
 The steep economic downturn has forced states to slash funding to K-12 schools, community colleges and universities to cope with plummeting tax revenue. 
 
 Experts said schools and colleges could face more severe financial trouble over the next few years as they drain federal stimulus money that temporarily prevented widespread layoffs and classroom cuts. 
 
 Some university officials said they supported the protests as long as they remained peaceful. 
 
 "My heart and my support are with everybody and anybody who wants to stand up for public education," University of California President Mark Yudof said in a statement. "Public education drives a society's ability to progress and to prosper." 
 
 In Wisconsin, more than 25,000 students have been put on a waiting list after the state's premier financial aid program ran out of money because of increased demand. 
 
 At the University of Illinois, about 200 professors, instructors and graduate faculty marched through campus carrying signs that read "Furlough Legislators" _ a reference to recent furloughs and 4 percent pay cuts imposed on thousands of university employees. 
 
 The state is $487 million behind on payments to the University of Illinois. State government has a budget deficit of $13 billion. 
 
 In Olympia, Wash., a group of about 75 protesters arrived at the Capitol bearing a faux coffin emblazoned with the slogan "R.I.P. Education." 
 
 They were later ejected from the state Senate gallery after interrupting a debate with a protest song that followed the tune of "Amazing Grace." 
 
 "I once could eat, but now I find, I can't afford the food," they sang. 
 
 Several Democratic senators applauded the performance, as security guards escorted the protesters from the building. 
 
 In Northern California, rowdy protesters blocked major gates at two universities and smashed the windows of a car. 
 
 Protesters at the University of California, Santa Cruz surrounded the car while its uninjured driver was inside. Earlier, demonstrators blocked campus gates. 
 
 University provost David Kliger said there were reports of protesters carrying clubs and knives, but Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve Clark could not confirm those reports. No arrests had been made. 
 
 An advisory posted on the school Web site urged people to avoid the campus because of safety concerns. 
 
 At the University of California, Berkeley, a small group of protesters formed a human chain blocking a main gate to the campus. Later in the day, hundreds gathered for a peaceful rally. 
 
 "We're one of the largest economies in the world, and we can't fund the basics," said Mike Scullin, 29, a graduate student in education who plans to become a high school teacher. "We're throwing away a generation of students by defunding education." 
 
 At the University of Texas at Austin, about 100 students and staff rallied on campus to protest a 5.4 percent hike in tuition and fees approved by regents a day earlier. Protesters complained the quality of education was taking a backseat to the university's bottom line. 
 
 Officials said the tuition hikes, which include another 3.89 percent jump for the fall of 2011, were necessary to avoid cuts in the face of declining endowment payouts and an anticipated cut in state aid. 
 
 In Alabama, Broderick Thomas, a 23-year-old Auburn senior, attended an annual higher education rally in Montgomery and said he feels "it's the moral duty of the state to give back what they promised." 
 
 However, the chairman of the state Senate education budget committee, Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, curbed the enthusiasm, saying it would be hard to find additional funds for higher education this year. 
 
 "I wish we could give all the money higher education needs," Sanders said, as some in the crowd groaned. "We're having to cut up to $460 million out of the budget the governor recommended." 
 
 Students, teachers, parents and school employees from across California gathered in Sacramento for a midday rally at the Capitol to urge lawmakers to restore funding to public schools. 
 
 Linda Wall, a state Department of Mental Health employee, said she had two children attending Sacramento State University. Hikes in student fees and mandatory furloughs for state workers have strained her budget. 
 
 "Their tuition has taken a big chunk of my paycheck and my paycheck is shrinking, so it's a double whammy," Wall said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press Writers Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco, Robin Hindery in Sacramento, Calif., David Mercer in Urbana, Ill., April Castro in Austin, Texas, Bob Johnson in Montgomery, Ala., Curt Woodward in Olympia, Wash., and Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
– Thousands of students, from university down to elementary-school level, are rallying today across the US to protest the ever-more-dismal state of education funding. California demonstrators, who also included faculty and parents, have been most visible, and mainly peaceful, though a car windshield was smashed during the gathering at the University of California-Santa Cruz, authorities tell the San Francisco Chronicle, and punches were thrown at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the AP adds. Students from UC-Davis tried to march from that campus to the state capitol in Sacramento, 15 miles away, using Interstate 80, but were turned away by police using pepper spray. At the Cal State-Dominguez Hills campus, protestors played a mock Wheel of Fortune game, where spins could yield “graduating in 4 years with a good education” and “a 30% fee increase,” the Los Angeles Times adds.