The 21st Century Education Summit took place at De Anza College May 15. Parents for Greater Education partnered with several on-campus organizations to plan the summit. Almost one hundred parents, teachers and students showed up to the event despite PG&E founder Hoi Yung Poon’s concerns that the event would not draw a large enough crowd.

Gov. Brown’s all-cuts budget that has left many concerned about the lasting effects that the cuts will have on public education.

“I attended the summit because I was one of the organizers of the summit. I was selected to be to be the MC of the event. More importantly I want to learn a lot more from the experts that attended the summit because they have been working on things having to do with taxes and the budget for over 30 years,” said De Anza Associated Student Body President Ze Kun Li.

“My favorite part was getting a chance to talk to Lindley Goldberg who is part of the California Tax Reform. He was able to help me answer whether an increase of corporate taxes would drive out corporations. He assured me that the taxes would only be a small percentage of corporate revenue,” Le said.

The event drew local legislative figures such as Congressman Mike Honda, Paul Fong and San Francisco Assessor Phil Ting. Ting focused his speech on taxing commercial properties to raise revenue rather than extending tax increases.

One proposition that was brought up by many was the idea of taxing the richest 1 percent of Californians by 1 percent. This would raise a proposed $2.3 billion in income taxes.