Questions

1. California ranks among the top states in per capita expenditures on a number of government programs (i.e. corrections, law enforcement, general government), but just near or below the national average on expenditures for kids’ programs, including education and Medi-Cal. What are your thoughts on this prioritization of expenditures and what, if any, changes would you make in this regard?

As a Rialto USD school Board member I am aware of the need to focus on educating our youth. Mandate schools focus on reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Currently medical, mental, social, behavioral, before and after school and food service all fall upon schools. The largest issue is student lack of desire to learn. Along with the tech change every three days. Teachers need Micro-credentials or they learn to teach old tech. Esports has students attention but currently requires only requires one teacher.

Data is skewed due to English language learners. Remove these students data so we get a true view of learning, Weighted vs unweighted data.

Not a problem, as I love to care for my 24K educational grand kids. You want improvement? Mandate the other agencies do their own work. We also support charters and the agencies mentioned.

None of these changes will ever occur while the Dems hold Gov, Assembly and Senate. No Republican vote currently counts. Hold the Dem Platform responsible for the educational gridlock.

2. California assumes responsibility for abused and neglected children when we remove them from their homes. Therefore, the State is legally obligated to ensure that children and youth in foster care receive vital services and supports to meet their unique needs and find safety, stability and success. How would you strengthen the child welfare system?

Every agency is understaffed. Have interns work for on the job training in return for College tuition. After four years they have experience in the field. Hire the good ones- by merit.

3. California ranks poorly in national reports for supporting families with infants and toddlers. The state does invest in programs like evidence-based home visiting – which provide guidance, offer coaching, and connect parents and caregivers to health and social services – but those only reach about 2% of families with young children. What strategies, if any, do you support to aid new and expectant parents and young children during this critical phase of life?

Turn the empty malls into multi-service facilities. Offering all of these services. Apply to question #9.

4. More than 2.75 million young children live in California, with the majority being income-eligible for child care assistance. Yet just a fraction of eligible children have access to subsidized child care spaces, due to insufficient funding for child care capacity. This gap is most pronounced for infants and toddlers, where child care subsidies served only 14% of eligible families (pre-pandemic). What is your position on this issue, and what, if anything, should be done to ensure that all families have access to high-quality child care?

The problem existed before open boarders but has gotten worse. Early child care college students could help supervise while learning in exchange for free college. Paying a teen mother enough to set up their own household exacerbates the problem. Pay families to stay together; Grands, parents, adult children, through grand children. The selfish idea of let someone else care for the babies, children and aged perpetuate crime as teens have excess time. Rather than attend school they have options to NOT learn or help their family.

5. The average salary of a California public employee is nearly $87,000, while the average salary of a California child care provider is $35,400, and most other professionals who work with kids are also below the public employee average. What are your ideas, if any, about responding to this disparity?   

66% to 80% of any business are attributable to wages. There is no appetite to correct political issues like this. Economists have warned of this. Either everyone is poor, the current economic trend, is toward socialism. Revolt against the rich bosses. “”make the rich pay more””, sound familiar?

Free everything to anyone is costly. Eventually taxpayers will rise up and demand that Citizenship means something. Politicians, in-power, may feel enough pressure with that as a cry from the public. It is already too late to fix the budgets of 2024 and 2025. Washington won’t be able to help and will tell us, you created it, it’s on you.

6. The latest available data shows California ranks 49th among the 50 states in teacher-to-student ratio, 47th in school counselors, and 46th in school administrators. We also rank near the bottom in terms of school nurses, with approximately one nurse for every 2,400 students and no nurses at all in some smaller counties. What are your thoughts on these rankings, and what, if anything, should be done in response?

The ONLY way to close the wage gap is to give flat raises. Get away from % increases as they only perpetuate increasing the wage gap. The new and lower paid workers will like it until they realize they are not keeping up with inflation. The tenured workers will hate it from the start. They want 10% instead get what a new employee gets. Fix the immediate problem but crash the economy.

Tenured, mature, workers may have lost the fire to produce, hard work. Merit pay for hard work. Workers want the possibility to earn more; commission or piece work does that. Seem like the only option. a two tiered system new ideas for new motivated staff may even motivate the tenured staff. It answers the question; why work harder when I’m guaranteed the same as the least motivated person that I work with.

7. California has the highest percentage of kids who are dual language learners, ages 0-5, (60%) and school-age English Learners (21%) in the country. How should the State support these students’ bilingual/multilingual potential? What are your thoughts on how educators in early education and TK-12 can be prepared to assist these students to meet their language development needs?

Rialto USD has 83%-95% ELL, Hispanic. The Seal of Biliteracy has helped. Stipends for teachers have helped; both merit based. It may motivate the teachers by watching the motivated teachers earn a stipend, bonus or merit raise or promotion.

8. Over the past 40 years, state spending on higher education has dropped from 18% to 12% of the state budget. What is your position on funding for public higher education?

After one year in their program have students work off the college debt by volunteering as mentioned earlier.

9. Over 55% of California’s kids are enrolled in Medi-Cal, but California performs near the bottom amongst all state Medicaid programs when it comes to children’s access to primary care physicians and important childhood screenings, especially for children of color. In addition, many California children lack access to oral health care, vision services, hearing aids, and mental health and substance abuse supports and services. What would you do, if anything, to increase access to these services?  

A multi-use facility with all of these mentioned including school or care for students and elders. After addressing the excuse of I can’t find anyone to watch… You’ve addressed that. Transportation is already available. Since schools already have to, we offer, health clinics on a calendar basis. Instead of ONLY afterschool homework or care for students; really offer all of the above before and after school. Rotate campus if necessary for coverage. Offer more home visits. AGAIN key is by interns/volunteer teams. What’s wrong with Doctor’s Within Borders? See answer #3.

10. The suicide rate among Black youth has dramatically increased in recent years. In addition, Major Depressive Episodes (MDE) among youth have grown, but only about one third of youth with an MDE received treatment. What should be done to ensure that more children receive needed mental health supports and services?

The answer is faith based. Nowadays God has been evicted from many peoples lives. Homes, schools, everywhere rebellion is in the street. It is an ingrained lifestyle.
The stigma of mental health is real and brutal for youth. Bullying, online or in person. A young person needs a same gender role model when the family is broken. I previously espoused the merits of the whole family under one roof. Dad, mom, Bro’s/Sis, the Grands. America has set a bad example of family. Look at first generation immigrants; family under one roof. By third generation the youth have broken out of the family.

“Too many people telling me what to do”. The new American Dream has changed. No wonder illegal drugs are being used to kill the pain.