Low Expectations In Education Must End

It all began with the elimination of the California High School Exit Examination where former Senator Carol Liu suspended the high school exit examination until the end of this current school year in 2015 in SB 172. How will we know how students are doing and did our students learn during their time as high school students was the big concern of many Californians. The 2018-2019 school year is approaching, and it seems there is no replacement for the CAHSEE for our students that are based on the new Common Core standards that California utilizes.

It is perceived that suspending the exit examination was simply just a way to mask low graduation rates in our schools. We should figure out why our students are not learning, we are spending a big chunk of our state budgets on K-12 education and we should make sure that our students are doing their reading, writing and mathematics up to a reasonable level. One of my policy suggestions is to pilot reading programs in the high schools so we can improve reading skills of our students as an elective or required class depending on one’s skill level. If students can comprehend the material that they are learning they should be successful.

Recently this year the California State University is joining the low expectations parade. The leader of the CSU Timothy White wants to eliminate placement exams and remedial classes to help students get to standards in the university. Placement exams have been used in the Community College system to help students take the right classes for their needs, so they do not take classes that are not too advanced or too basic which helps save students and taxpayers money. Timothy White may feel that waiving the requirements may accelerate graduation of our students where they may not linger in the system longer, but maybe we should give students better class registration if they comply with placement exams and make sure they go through advising each quarter or semester. The action against placement exams seems very irrational. Continue reading “Low Expectations In Education Must End”

FEBRUARY UPDATE

I have all my signatures and I am almost ready to go to the county office to be a declared candidate for State Senate for the 20th District again.

I will be your Republican candidate to offer you a choice from the former city councilman and the incumbent from the Democratic Party.

If you do not like Propositions 47, 57 and AB 109 which have made our neighborhoods dangerous.

If you do not like how our governor and legislators could care less that we do not build new water storage to help us keep the water we receive instead of us flushing it down to the ocean.

If you do not like how gasoline can rise another 70 cents plus in 2021 thanks to our incumbent assemblyman and state senator voting for AB 398.

There are plenty more issues to discuss in this campaign and I hope we have spirited discussions about them.

I also was interviewed by a Bay Area newspaper about my race as well.

Our Incumbent The Obstacle to Small Business

I recently learned that my incumbent state senator who I desire to challenge for a rematch has a very lousy 8% score with the National Federation for Independent Business.

Small business owners are the lifeblood of our economy. These are the people who help make our communities and our state successful. If our incumbent and the district wants stuff like single payer health care then platitudes are not going to cash the checks.

We can not afford for more businesses to fold or move to states such as Nevada and Texas. We need the jobs and tax revenue as a whole. With automation due to the unsustainable minimum wage increase we need more places where people can find opportunity. Not all of us could work for government or the tech industry to find the great wage of success.

Many of the bills that NFIB opposed led to increased liabilities financially and legally that were displayed on the 2017 scorecard which could be found from the link above.  She voted against the organization 11 times, abstained once and voted with them on one bill.  Some of the bills mentioned were to expand paid family leave which increases costs on businesses who may be running on tight margins, bills to ban counties from using private labor to do contracts and lastly cap and trade 2.0 which will make operating in California a more costly obligation.

I would like to see companies such as Toyota and Mazda to pick California instead of Alabama. I would like to see companies like Nestle and Toyota remain instead of having migrated out.

Where is the leadership from our feminist state senator?

The #metoo movement is going forwards where the men who have sexually harassed/abused women in politics and in Hollywood have taken consequences where they either lost gigs as actors or lost their seats as legislators as examples. However it seems even when it comes to sexual harassment and abuse if it affects their political party they could care less when it comes to Senator Tony Mendoza of Artesia.

Our incumbent has the union label stamped on her just as much as the leader Kevin De Leon and the new leader Toni Atkins where she is absolutely an insider with some pull in the chamber. They asked Tony to exit the chamber for a month while an investigation will be conducted, but the alleged offender is still in Sacramento conducting business when he was told to lay low where he was working on bills in Sacramento while on leave. Hopefully Kevin Le Leon will tell him to stay away until his suspension is over.

If you are not happy with the lack of leadership from the California State Senate Democratic Caucus, feel free to call Connie and or Kevin De Leon. Our incumbent says she was going to be a strong leader for women in her first few campaign mailers in 2014, but she needs to be consistent in what she is preaching. Those interns who work for politicians such as Tony Mendoza are approaching the age of her older daughter and she should want respect for all interns who work for the chamber no matter what political party the host legislator comes from.

Its not about protecting women it seems, it seems the incumbent and her friends want to protect the ability to raise taxes by not booting him for his transgressions.

Postscript: To be fair, she did vote for Melissa Melendez’s whistleblower bill AB 403 recently. However it seems on the Mendoza issue she is running the clock.