State of California secondary Archives: on Education

Alex Padilla: Voted to better protect student athletes

Barbara Boxer: $1.2 billion to save the jobs of 16,500 California teachers

Boxer accused Fiorina of opposing every recent job-creation effort in the Senate, including an education bill that provided California with $1.2 billion to save the jobs of 16,500 teachers, and a bill that would increase access to credit and extended tax breaks for small businesses. "Every time you really get past the surface, you see my opponent fighting for billionaires, for millionaires, for companies that shipped jobs overseas," Boxer said.

Fiorina said that the key to economic recovery was less government, taxation and regulation. "To create jobs, we need to make sure in particular our small businesses are freed from strangling regulation and freed from taxation," Fiorina said.

Bill Simon: Don’t allow children to be trapped in failing schools

A: We cannot continue to allow our children - a disproportionate amount of which are minorities - to be trapped in failing schools. I have outlined a plan that encouraged flexibility for teachers and parents, so that no child is stuck in a classroom that does not teach. The current system allows failing schools to opt out of accountability programs. That is not acceptable.

David Hadley: Let military families choose any public school district

Delaine Eastin: In 1965, California led American education; we can do better

I know California can do better. There is a saying "as goes California, so goes the country," but we have dramatically increased our funding of prisons while our investment in schools continues to drop compared to the rest of the nation, and we have neglected to plan for new colleges and universities, while raising tuition and fees, which is certainly not the direction I think any of us would consciously support. When I hear about the increasing number of students at all education levels who are homeless, for example, I know we must do better.

Delaine Eastin: Combined higher education and K-12 schools into one bond

She ran for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1994 and overcame the Republican wave to become the first--and to date only--woman to serve in that position. She served two terms from 1995-2003 under two different Governors--one Republican and one Democrat. Eastin oversaw a staff of over 3,000 and a budget that incorporated over 40% of the state budget.

Delaine Eastin: Oppose Prop 187 targeting immigrant students in classrooms

Doug Ose: More emphasis on standardized tests to ensure proficiency

Doug Ose: College shouldn't be free; it undermines its intrinsic value

"What I'm more concerned about is getting away from a merit-based admissions policy into something that is a more 'politically correct' substitute," he said. "I don't think that's what the UC system was designed to do. The UC system, in my mind, was to provide a place where our best and our brightest, regardless of ethnic or racial background, just simply our best and our brightest could go to get add-on skills that would drive the economy for the next generation."

Doug Ose: COVID: Newsom sided with unions to close public schools

Gail Lightfoot: STEM education is important for science advancement

Lightfoot selected, "Very important."

Lightfoot added, "Rapid advancement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics mean a greater understanding of the same will be needed by individuals in the future. Keeping up will be a challenge that our young people will embrace naturally, given the opportunity."

Gray Davis: CA schools are bad, but headed in the right direction

A: Education affects all people, but obviously, because of the disproportionate number of Latinos in public schools, what we do overwhelmingly affects Latinos. Something happened in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. There was busing, there was Prop 13; and by the time I became governor, California schools ranked 50th, or 48th at best.

We've invested 34% more money in the schools. We have money for low performing schools, and for schools that do well. The good news is that test scores are up, not once, but four years in a row. English language learners in Los Angeles are doing disproportionately better than their counterparts. That means we've got this thing headed in the right direction.

Jimmy Gomez: Public college education should be debt free

Jimmy Gomez: Vouchers take resources out of public education

Jimmy Panetta: Focus on expanding pre-K and early education

He will also focus on expanding pre-K and early education options for families and improving the Migrant Education Program to help immigrant children meet the challenges of enrolling in American schools. Jimmy's goal is to establish national service programs that provide educational benefits to those willing to serve the nation.

Jimmy Panetta: Make higher education both accessible and affordable

John Cox: I am a school choice advocate; I will push to end tenure

John Melendez: Lower college tuition, equal access

Kevin Faulconer: Better teacher salaries, give them tools they need

Kevin Faulconer: COVID: School closings not based on science

Kevin Faulconer: Take a firm stance with teachers unions over COVID closures

Faulconer: I don't think it would be necessary if we had a governor with stronger leadership skills. Newsom never engaged and took a firm stance with the unions, at a time the state was crying out for that type of strong approach. But he kept deferring and not providing the leadership people needed.

Kevin Paffrath: Racial disparities in education due to a despair mindset

Larry Elder: Schools need to purge bad teachers, they inflict damage

Schools need to purge bad teachers, he urged, arguing that the "worst teachers are inflicting damage on the kids that need good teachers the most."

Laura Smith: Stop stealing for super-inflated administrative salaries

When I went to Pre--K through 6th grade, my teachers always had the finances for the necessary basic supplies and special projects. Never were my parents required to shell out money during those years to pay for paper, pencils, erasers, staplers, staples, art supplies, etc. Today, corrupt politicians of California have stolen the money to pay "administrative" costs, better known as unjustified, super--inflated salaries for top education administrative officials.

Laura Smith: Investigate universities for fraud, misappropriation

Lily Zhou: Give parents more choices, merit-based tenure for teachers

Nanette Barragan: Free-to-low-cost education for college or trade school

Nanette's educational priorities include making college more affordable. Nanette herself came out of college then law school with a lot of debt that impacted her ability to choose what type of jobs she could afford or not afford to take. Every child deserves the opportunity to attain a college degree; in the future, we should provide free-to-low-cost education to students who want an education. For those prefer trade schools and skills, we need to make sure they have access and affordable training.

Nanette Barragan: Public education is a right--not a privilege for the wealthy

Education is the one of Nanette's top priorities because she firmly believes it is the number one equalizer. Nanette is a product of public schools. Her story of beating the odds and success today is something she credits because of her opportunity to get an education.

Nanette's educational priorities include making sure early childhood education is funded and available to communities of all backgrounds, especially low-income communities of color that have the biggest disadvantage in our educational system.

Newt Gingrich: I liked charter school programs in Obama's Race to the Top

GINGRICH: I liked very much the fact that it talked about charter schools. It's the one place I found to agree with President Obama. If every parent in America had a choice of the school their child went to, if that school had to report its scores, if there was a real opportunity, you'd have a dramatic improvement. My personal preference would be to have a Pell Grant for K-12 so that every parent could pick, with their child, any school they wanted to send them to, public or private, and enable them to have the choice. I don't think you're ever going to reform the current bureaucracies. And the president, I thought, was showing some courage in taking on the teacher's union to some extent and offering charter schools, and I wanted, frankly, to encourage more development towards choice.

Peter Camejo: Pay teachers more than prison guards

A: The educational system really can turn into institutionalized racism because of the heavy concentration of African Americans and Latinos. The solution is to reclaim a place to have equal funding. One thing is that teachers should get increase pay. They should get more than what prison guards get. I would try to shift the money out of the education bureaucracy and to the front lines.

Rick Perry: We reduced school spending in TX and raised graduation rates

PERRY: Well, I think the reductions that we made were thoughtful reductions, and the fact of the matter is, Texas has made great progress in the 10 years that I've been governor, from the standpoint of our graduation rates now are up to 84%, higher than they've been during any period of time before that. We're making progress. When you share the border with Mexico, and when you have as many individuals that we have coming into the state of Texas, we have a unique situation in our state. But the fact is, I stand by a record from what we've done with the resources that we've had, and I think that the reductions that we put in place were absorbed by our schools.