Rallies To Cap Week Of California Teacher Protests

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- California teachers are ending a week of protests over education funding with rallies planned for major cities throughout the state.

A week of lobbying, demonstrations and even the arrests Thursday night of 27 teachers is expected to culminate with about 3,000 people in a rally outside the state Capitol Friday evening.

Other mass gatherings are planned for San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles.

Teachers are trying to pressure Republican lawmakers to support Gov. Jerry Brown's attempt to extend a series of recent tax hikes. Without those, the governor has warned of cuts to public schools that could force thousands of teacher layoffs, larger class sizes and a shorter school year.

Republican lawmakers this week released their own proposed budget that they said could fund education without the tax hikes.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)