Republican  Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, representative of the 32nd district of California, spoke to Bakersfield College students Sept. 17 about striving to meet their goals and her opposition to Proposition 30 in the Campus Center.

“Our state is burning,” said Grove, referring to the budgetary anxiety in California.

“Nowhere in Governor Brown’s initiative does it guarantee money to community colleges.”

Grove said that, most important was cutting frivolous spending in unnecessary areas and the reform of state deferral payments to education.

“We need to examine the policies that are holding education hostage,” she said.

Among the concerns, Grove feels the educational system in California is hampered by the high-speed rail project.

“We are sinking money into a project that is going nowhere,” she said. “Some of those funds should go to our ailing education system.”

Grove also said that the current system of deferred payments to California schools is misleading, in that it does not paint an accurate picture of state budget concerns.

Grove gave a laymen’s example of the situation.

“Let’s say you have a $200 car payment and you don’t pay it one month,” she said. “The next month you have to make a $400 payment. In our capitol, they don’t see it that way.