USC School of Social Work students are using social media – posting tweets, blogging and creating video diaries – and other creative ways to bring awareness to how California's budget cuts are affecting teachers, students and the role of mental health care providers.

California's public schools, colleges and universities are facing more than $11 billion in state budget cuts. Cuts that have the potential to impact an entire generation of kids and alter public education for years to come. March 13 was the deadline for school districts to issue pink slips, or possible reduction in force notices, to California's teachers, and according to the California Teachers Association, more than 27,000 educators received them. Even though many of those teachers may keep their jobs, of the more than 10,000 teachers who received pink slips last year, nearly 5,000 resulted in layoffs. This year could be much worse, officials say.

"There are social workers and counselors assigned to all schools in California," said Ronda Serigstad, one of the organizing students. "They work together with teachers, parents and administrators every day to help children who have special needs and guide them through the educational process. As a group, we felt that it was logical to work with educators."

Serigstad and five other students – Kristin Bain, Melanie McCook, Melissa Manzanarez, Jenny Nguyen and Gabriela Villegas – from the Orange County Academic Center collaborated with numerous Orange County teacher associations and parent teacher associations to coordinate events to speak out against the pending cuts. They made phone calls, attended council meetings and sent flyers to schools. And while one student was in charge of setting up an email account and creating pages on social media websites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, others spent hours creating and updating their Social Workers for Education blog.

"We are in a generation of multi-media. We felt we had to hit as many media locations, as well as different generations to get the word out," Serigstad said, adding that using the social media outlets proved to be a good way to do that. News stories about their efforts have been featured in the Orange County Register and the local NBC-TV affiliate.

The students took on the issue as part of an advocacy project for their social welfare class. Serigstad said they chose education because the state's budget cuts will have a negative impact on teachers and children. The cuts will hamper schools and social workers' ability to help students in need, she said.

Another group of Orange County social work students are also advocating for education. Estera Borcsa, Bertha Reyna, Demetrio Nava, Yvette Jaramillo, Sali Guirguis, Stephanie Sullivan, Michael Lee and Erika Guerrero have focused their efforts on getting propositions 1A and 1B passed.

If voters pass Proposition 1B on May 19, the $9.3 billion cut from education funding this year and last will be repaid to schools and community colleges. If passed, Proposition 1A would earmark 1.5 percent of state revenues annually for education starting in 2011 until the entire $9.3 billion is paid. Proposition 1B is nullified unless voters also pass Proposition 1A.

In addition to making presentations to various universities and colleges about the effects of the budget cuts and how the propositions could help, the group has made flyers, stickers and created a video diary showing individuals' personal accounts of how they are affected by the cuts.

The video diary was shared with school districts and posted on social networking websites like YouTube, as well as inserted into blast e-mails to community stakeholders.

"It is very empowering to reach new heights in our advocacy efforts," Guerrero said.

Both groups are proud of their advocacy efforts and so was Scott Darrell, the adjunct clinical field lecturer in Orange County who sponsored the projects.

"The students have done an amazing job of both working in coalition with teachers, as well as connecting with local media," Darrell said.

Although there were many issues for the students to choose from, they believe the cause was worthy considering how many children are directly impacted by these teachers.

"We are working hard to make a difference for the future of our communities and the well-being of our future generations," Borcsa said. "The effects are tremendous. A district in Orange County does not even have money for toilet paper and printing paper for everyday use. We must expose these truths."