Organizers said hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and parents were expected to participate in the nationwide demonstrations. "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. 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. 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.  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 they may be the first generation who can't afford their education, much less receive it." 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. They ripped state officials, who have cut millions of dollars from education budgets at all levels during the recession.
– 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.