Reinvesting in #PublicEducationForAllCalifornians 

April 30, 2021
|In Uncategorized
|By adriel

After decades of defunding, privatization & neglect, our public education systems remain hollow shells of their true potential.

Our schools are not giving all our students and people a full knowledge of self, or of our worth.  It’s been said that “If you do not have knowledge of yourself and your position in the society and in the world, then you will have little chance to know anything else.”  Our educational system is outdated and furthers harm and structural inequities endured by the Poor.   These failures are a reflection of our State, and politicians who have not prioritized our communities or our futures.

How can the 6th largest economy in the world not directly benefit students, families & communities with a quality public education system for all in #OurCalifornia? Why doesn’t the 6th largest economy in the world have higher education available and accessible to all students?  As a Library Socialist I have asked myself why are our public libraries, allegedly beacons of knowledge, consistently defunded?

How can we meet the needs of all students, instead of advocating for solutions that serve only a minority while neglecting others? What type of transformation is necessary to make the 6th largest economy in the world to make our public education system rank in the top 20? Top 10? Top 6th in the world?” The successes of our children, our communities, and our futures directly correlate to the support we extend to every Californian.  This is #OurCalifornia.  Governor Newsom’s Failed Promises and the #OurCalifornia Way must still be addressed and adopted immediately.  His failure to do so only compounds the harm done to Workers, families, and communities across the State during this pandemic.  I believe that in a pandemic and long-after, we must invest in ourselves for resilient and sustainable communities.  What better way to do this than invest in our children, our selves, our communities and our futures? When #OurCalifornia’s most marginalized are protected and succeed, we all win.

We can no longer afford the economic inequalities of the past or present.  We need bold vision and immediate action. #OurCalifornia expects it. #OurCalifornia demands it.  When workers, labor leaders, unions and communities are given seats at the table, when they’re involved from the beginning to end – there’s smarter, safer, healthier & more equitable outcomes for all Californians.  This is #OurCalifornia and this is the framework that would be used for our schools re-opening.  

I believe we need an entire transformation of our school systems, financial structure & educational experiences in them.  We should recognize the need to attend school is relative to the conditions of students’ lives — both inside and outside of classrooms—and my goal is for children and their families to not just survive, but thrive in society.  We need new and innovative learning models that focus on small student to instructor ratios, expansion of community-based locations, fully funded support staff and defunding policing structures – it’s long overdue.

As your gubernatorial candidate for 2022, I proudly call for our government to finally commit to reinvesting in the public education systems we all deserve throughout this State.  I intend to End Poverty in California, and these are the policies and the vision for Pre-K and Childcare, K-12  & postsecondary education I believe will achieve it:

Pre-K and Childcare

  • TFC-funded #ChildCareForAll
  • Expand the California State Preschool Program
  • Expand State funding for our 58 Local Child Care and Development Planning Councils in order to successfully coordinate the expanded TFC-funded #ChildcareForAll services in each county for #OurCalifornia
    • Ensure a maximum of 12:1 student to instructor ratios;
    • Ensure expansion of community-based locations;
  • Ensure the framework for our preschool curriculum builds on both the California Preschool Learning Foundations and Project Learning Based Model, with new additions including but not limited to:
    • Pre-K Introduction to American Sign Language; 
    • Introduction to Emotional Intelligence;
  • Salary restructuring: 
    • Part-Time Instructional Aide/Teaching Assistant/Support Staff Minimum: $40,000
    • Teacher Minimum: $75,000
  • Increase State government funding for our pre-K students with disabilities and special needs:
    • Increase State funding by 40% specifically for serving students with disabilities and special needs;
    • Increase State funding by 40% of the additional costs of serving students with disabilities in the general education classroom above the cost of average per pupil expenditures;
  • Collaborate with grassroots education & youth activists, advocates and impactful organizations on the forefront of movements for safe, affirming and bias-free schools to ensure our youth, in all their intersectionalities, are welcome and able to thrive. Create the State’s and locality new framework that affirms Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action within all educational environments and the Project Based Learning settings;
    • Any additional initiatives that activists, advocates, and marginalized youth need/would like to see in their educational settings to encourage their pre-K holistic growth and success;
  • In Solidarity with students, families, and communities across this country, I support the following federal legislation:
  • Ensure that the needs of rural public schools, educators and students are met – as they are extremely unique to their specific localities through TFC-funded, Impacted Parties Council, State and Federal Budgets;
    • The federal government has not fulfilled its pledged promises with the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) and Community Self-Determination Act, which helps support public education and community services in more than 4,400 schools throughout 770 rural counties located near National Forests. And as a result, the federal government’s failure and inability to value the public education of individual rural communities, State’s have assumed almost all of the costs which have often resulted in cutting critical services. In Solidarity with rural youth & individuals across this country, I call for our federal government to make the Secure Rural Schools program permanent by creating an endowment fund to provide stable, increasing, and reliable funding; to fully fund the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP); to fully fund grants to eligible partnerships for “grow your own” programs that recruit and support diverse teacher candidates from rural communities; and, to extend the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act.  And as such, I support the following federal legislation:

K thru 12

  • Revamping K-12 outdated public educational environment for physical spaces and structures that ensure a maximum of 15:1 student to teacher ratios – not including classroom support staff;  
    • Ensure expansion of community-based locations that can meet the needs of smaller classrooms, educational structure, public safety and community wellness;
    • Call for the federal restoration of Qualified Zone Academy Bonds (QZABs), which allow schools to finance renovations, repairs and investments in technology at below-market rates and without interest;
    • Mandate school modernization in any packaged effort to address current infrastructure to address structural inequities, environmental health hazards & improve energy efficiency and use renewable sources of energy in public schools;
  • Complete curriculum restructuring with Project Learning Based model, that incorporate Emotional Intelligence, critical thinking & provide relevance for current development and market needs.   Applied Project Learning Based models will transform classroom settings to expand and encourage physical movement, physical and tactile activity times, critical thinking and emotional intelligence – especially in classroom settings with K-6.  With new additions including, but not limited to:
    • Introduction to and/or development of Emotional Intelligence K-12;
    • Introduction to Second Language & Language Development/Proficiency K-12 (American Sign Language, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Arabic, Norwegian, Finnish, Celtic, Swedish, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil or Portugal), Latin, etc.)
    • Computer, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering can begin in elementary and middle school;
    • Urban Development, Sustainable gardening practices, Conservation projects can begin in elementary and middle school;
    • Fully funding the Arts;
    • Abolishing biased standardized testing mechanisms that are often not indicative of knowledge gained but on how well a student can take a test, specifically but not limited to:
      • STAR
      • PSAT & SAT
        • Though the SATs were originally presented as a way to challenge elitism in college admissions, they have only upheld it.  As SAT scores are not valid, bias-free, objective or accurate measurements for many college students’ presumptive first year academic successes – I believe our State should move past this standardized test and support the full removal of the PSAT & SAT requirements for admissions in all public California Universities and Colleges;
  • Increase State government funding for our K-12 students with disabilities and special needs:
    • Increase State funding by 40% specifically for serving students with disabilities and special needs;
    • Increase State funding by 40% of the additional costs of serving students with disabilities in the general education classroom above the cost of average per pupil expenditures;
  • Collaborate with grassroots education & youth activists, advocates and impactful organizations on the forefront of movements for safe, affirming and bias-free schools to ensure our youth, in all their intersectionalities, are welcome and able to thrive. Create the State’s and locality new framework that affirms Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action within all educational environments and the Project Based Learning settings;
    • State Legislation which implements, expands and fully funds targeted interventions that have shown effectiveness within our schools:
      • K-12 Literacy-based anti-bias curriculum & critical practices into a comprehensive anti-bias strategy tied to explicit outcomes instead of placing the emphasis and expectation that broad implicit-bias can be trained out of teachers (which is a disservice to our teachers and our students);
      • Diverse staff recruitment and retention;
      • Staff trainings that increase teacher empathy for students both in academic and discipline settings;
      • Mental health specialists (counselors & psychologists) trained in culturally responsive de-escalation, working with individuals with disabilities, restorative justice, and more – responding to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis;
      • Evidence-based and culturally responsive learning programs including anti-bullying and emotional intelligence series that annually build on students self-awareness, mindfulness, and healing;
      • Peer-mentor networks;
      • Peer-led justice committees to address and resolve disputes and conflict;
      • Student-Led Sexuality and Gender Acceptance Clubs;
      • School climate specialists—trained in culturally responsive de-escalation, working with students with disabilities, restorative justice, and more—who can intervene in emotionally or physically volatile situations and act with the best interests for all students involved;
      • Education Support Professionals (ESPs) promote student achievement, ensure student safety, and help establish a healthier school climate;
      • Programs that ensure racially and ability-proportionate student discipline referrals and  eliminate discretion in systems at times when it might increase bias;
      • Any additional initiatives that activists, advocates, and marginalized youth need/would like to see in their educational settings to encourage their holistic growth and success;
    • In Solidarity with students, families, and communities across this country, I support the following federal legislation:
  • Ensure that the needs of rural public schools, educators and students are met – as they are extremely unique to their specific localities through TFC-funded, Impacted Parties Council, State and Federal Budgets;
    • The federal government has not fulfilled its pledged promises with the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) and Community Self-Determination Act, which helps support public education and community services in more than 4,400 schools throughout 770 rural counties located near National Forests. And as a result, the federal government’s failure and inability to value the public education of individual rural communities, State’s have assumed almost all of the costs which have often resulted in cutting critical services. In Solidarity with rural youth & individuals across this country, I call for our federal government to make the Secure Rural Schools program permanent by creating an endowment fund to provide stable, increasing, and reliable funding; to fully fund the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP); to fully fund grants to eligible partnerships for “grow your own” programs that recruit and support diverse teacher candidates from rural communities; and, to extend the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act.  And as such, I support the following federal legislation:
  • Ensure that public schools previously defunded or shuttered over redlining, exclusionary and racist locality policies including defunding/shuttering schools to expand police departments are reopened with new and up to date facilities and available to all in #OurCalifornia;
  • Completely defund police from our public schools and budgets within the State of California to reinvest that funding back into critical programs our students, families & communities can immediately benefit from within public education;
    • Nurses, counselors & psychologists combined are still outnumbered in California schools by law enforcement officers 5:1.  It’s time we invest in our children and in mental health. The benefits of investing in mental health services are clear: Schools with such services see improved attendance rates, better academic achievement, and higher graduation rates as well as lower rates of suspension, expulsion, and other disciplinary incidents. By contrast, there is no evidence or historical data that increased police presence in schools improves school safety.
    • Fully fund School Climate Specialists (adults, peer mentor networks & peer led-justice committees) —trained in culturally responsive de-escalation, working with students with disabilities, restorative justice, and more—who can intervene in emotionally or physically volatile situations and act with the best interests for all students involved;
    • Tens of thousands of students in California are annually referred to law enforcement for struggling in school, tardiness, an inability to sit for extended periods of time, parents changing residences too often in the school year, not listening to and/or talking back to teachers.  These minor behavior or conduct issues result in school arrests and “voluntary probation/volunteers in probation” with school-based supervision that is not provided by a counselor, in-class instructional aide, at-home tutor, psychologist or social worker – but a juvenile probation officer.  Whether by willful choice or school/public policy, responses from K-12 personnel and law enforcement escalate harm, reduce opportunities for academic success and graduation, and drastically increase the school to prison pipeline by placing children who have never been in the justice system into a program that is eerily similar to court-ordered probation.  Overwhelming data shows that these law enforcement referrals most often penalize students who have disabilities, students who are of color, and/or students who are Poor without ever addressing or attempting to resolve any of the root causes of the child’s alleged misbehavior.  Allowing these predatory policies and similar “community accountability” programs rooted in the overpolicing of our communities to continue is an abject policy failure.  #OurCalifornia deserves better.
      • Abolish locality and State programs which refer our students to voluntary probation and all other similarly predatory and ineffective behavior modification programs implemented by and involving law enforcement, courts, and our carceral state;
      • Elevate and fully fund programs which reverse the school-to-prison pipeline by addressing the holistic needs of students, parents/guardians, teachers and the community;
    • Call for and support federal legislation that divests federal funding provided to law enforcement agencies to remain in our schools.
      • Police should not have a routine presence in our schools and #OurCalifornia’s school districts should not receive federal funds for law enforcement;
    • Call for and support federal legislation that defines the role of police entering in schools which ends their involvement in behavior modification, community accountability that are best conducted by school-based and community-based health professionals;  
    • Annually evaluate the strengths, areas of improvement, opportunities & threats to the program within each school, locality & the State for transparency & accountability;
  • Public School Salary Restructuring:
    • Administrator Maximum: $_________/Cap future executive administrator salaries
    • Increase ALL Workers pay within our State Public School System and work directly with unions and labor leaders to ensure these needs are met from the State level. Specifically:
      • Part-Time Teaching Assistant/Support Staff Minimum: $40,000
      • Teacher Minimums: $75,000
  • Multiple national reports indicate concussion rates among high schoolers are significantly underreported. As every Californian’s health is at the forefront of my campaign – I intend to protect student athletes through the following legislation:
    • All public and private high schools in the State will place brain injury and concussion warning labels and relevant rankings on all CIA athletics.
    • All public and private high schools in the State will be mandated to:
      • Ensure athletic coaches and trainers complete a State brain injury certification course and recertification course every 3 years; 
      • All coaches and trainers will be expected to recognize and properly respond to brain injuries as a result of this certification course and any additional training schools provide;  
      • All Schools will be expected to monitor and discipline all staff who fail to act in alignment with State and any additional school brain injury training or receive substantial sanctions including but not limited to athlete redress, state restitution, and season suspensions;

Postsecondary Education

  • Though the SATs were originally presented as a way to challenge elitism in college admissions, they have only upheld it.  As SAT scores are not valid, bias-free, objective or accurate measurements for many college students’ presumptive first year academic successes – I believe our State should move past this standardized test and support the full removal of the PSAT & SAT requirements for admissions in all public California Universities and Colleges;
  • UC, Cal State & California Community College Economic Restructuring:
    • Exorbitant UC executive administrator compensation and investment chiefs management & fees – surrounding Institutional Endowment Funds.  I believe that the Chancellors should operate at the same ratio I expect private corporations to be at 30:1;
      • Exorbitant CEO, or in this case – Chancellor, pay is a major contributor to rising inequality that we could safely do away with. Chancellors are getting more and it isn’t specifically due to their increased productivity or possession of specific, high-demand skills. The escalation of Chancellor compensation, and of executive compensation more generally, has fueled the growth of top 1.0% and top 0.1% incomes, leaving less of the fruits of economic growth for most workers in the UC System and widening the gap between very high earners and the bottom 90%. The economy would suffer no harm if CEOs were paid less (or taxed more).
    • Redistribute Institutional Endowment Funds to:
      • Subsidize student tuition, room, board & other fee  costs to return to the original 1868 UC, Cal State & Community College decrees that “admission and tuition shall be free to all residents of the State.” 
      • Increase ALL Workers pay within our State Public School System and work directly with unions and labor leaders to ensure these needs are met from the State level. Specifically:
        • Expand tenureship opportunities; expand the academic freedom of librarians & lecturers; increase  wages, benefits, improve material working conditions and meet the bargaining demands of UC-AFT members – UC-AFT Unit 17 & UC-AFT Unit 18;
        • Fully fund graduate teaching assistantships increase  wages, benefits, improve material working conditions and meet the bargaining demands of striking teaching assistants and other academic student employees of United Auto Workers 2865 in UCSC & all other State public institutions;
        • End all outsourced and contracted service and patient care labor; increase wages, benefits, improve material working conditions and meet the bargaining demands of AFSCME Local 3299
        • Expand tenureship opportunities; expand the academic freedom of librarians & lecturers; Increase wages, benefits, improve material working conditions and meet the bargaining demands of California Faculty Association;
        • Increase wages, benefits, improve material working conditions and meet the bargaining demands of  the California State University Employees Union (CSUEU) Unit 2, Unit 5, Unit 7 and Unit 9
        • Increase wages, benefits, improve material working conditions and meet the bargaining demands of SEIU Local 1000
        • Expand tenureship opportunities; expand the academic freedom of librarians & lecturers; Increase wages, benefits, improve material working conditions and meet the bargaining demands of CSEA, CFT & SEIU Local 99 (not sure if CCA is considered a union)
    • Cap all future executive administrator salaries 30:1;
  • UC’s must pay reparations to First Nations for damage caused by their settler-colonial policies, expansion and explicit harm
  • I recognize there are phenomenal people working throughout our collegiate system and the NCAA, but our system currently lacks accountability for binding brain injury and concussion care or management rules for member schools.  As our great State was the first to address the economic exploitation of student athletes – we must also be the first to protect student athletes’ brain health and bodily function within our State.
    • All postsecondary colleges operating in the State will place brain injury and concussion warning labels and relevant rankings on all NCAA Athletics.
    • All postsecondary colleges and universities operating in the State will be mandated to:
      • Ensure all athletic coaches and trainers at their institution complete a State brain injury certification course and recertification course every 3 years;
      • Train college coaches and athletic trainers to recognize and properly respond to brain injuries as a result of this course and any additional training Institutions provide; 
      • Monitor and discipline all staff who fail to act in alignment with State and any additional school brain injury training or receive substantial sanctions including but not limited to:
        • Athlete redress;
        • State restitution; and 
        • Season suspensions;
        • State Health restitution;

California Department of Education

  • All State Departments and Offices must meet the 30:1 pay cap and compensation standards applied to private corporations;
    • Cap all future State administrator salaries 30:1;
    • Cap all future district administrator salaries 30:1;