Wiredprofiles

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Jon Ossoff For Congress

"I’m running for Congress because I believe we all have to stand up, right now, and fight for progress — for our prosperity and health, our civil rights and civil liberties, and our security." - Jon Ossoff


Don't wait until 2018 -- or 2020 -- to fight back against Donald Trump.

Jon Ossoff’s special election this spring is the FIRST competitive Congressional
Luis Valentino
Jon Ossoff for Congress
race of the Trump era.
Winning would send shockwaves through Congress and hand Donald Trump his first defeat.

This race is going to be tough -- and Donald Trump isn’t going to go down without a fight.

But here’s the good news: Trump only won Georgia’s 6th district by 1 percentage point. That’s the slimmest margin of victory for a Republican in years!!

The tide is shifting in our favor. And if we get to work right now, we can flip this seat from red to blue.

Civil rights icon John Lewis has already endorsed Jon’s historic campaign. Now, we need you to join us too.




Friday, March 24, 2017

Obama Care Opposition and Women's Healthcare

Katie Hogan,  Executive Director of Organizing for Action is sharing her comments on the Obama Care repeal and replace efforts, and women's healthcare.   There is still time to take action by calling your Representatives.


This is the group that is deciding the future of women's health care.

In this room, top opponents of Obamacare met yesterday to try to hammer out last-minute changes to their disastrous repeal bill.

The first version of the bill already had plenty of unnerving provisions. It would hike costs for families who need help the most. It would cut off all federal funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides crucial health services to millions of women every year. And of course, it would leave 24 million fewer people insured, in large part by pushing millions of low-income Americans off of Medicaid. That means that on top of everything else, many poor women would lose their access to free contraception that was guaranteed under Obamacare to everyone with insurance.

Repealing Obamacare would be a disaster for women's health, but there is still time to call your representative and make your support of this law known. Use OFA's online tool to call your representative before they vote on repeal today.

Apparently, all of the provisions above still didn't go far enough for some members of the House, so they gathered in this room to make some additional changes. In an effort to win a few more votes, the congressmen in the room urged the White House to scrap the "Essential Health Benefits" provision, which requires all insurance plans to cover certain critical services.

So what exactly would scrapping these benefits mean? Well, among other things:
  • Insurers would no longer be required to cover pregnancy, maternity, or newborn care, making it much more costly and more difficult to obtain.
  • Preventative care, like mammograms, Pap smears, and birth control would no longer be free and guaranteed.
  • A return to the days where insurers can impose lifetime limits on patients with expensive illnesses.
Taken together, there's no way around it -- these changes would once again make being a woman a pre-existing condition. These members of Congress took a bill that would already wreak havoc on the lives of millions of Americans and worked to gut its most important remaining protections, with women set to disproportionately pay the price.

The policies they pushed might make sense to the people in that room, but America doesn't look a whole lot like that room. Some of us don't want our essential health benefits ripped away from us.

Call your representative:

Connect Me


Thank you,

Katie

Moving Forward in Education


Sunday, March 12, 2017

Podcast: This Week in California Education

Education across the country is going through some incredible changes, and California is at the front lines of many of these changes.  The education, as well as the public, benefit from having current and accessible information available to them to make the best decisions possible.

In a new podcast from EdSource,  John Fensterwald and Louis Freedberg discuss key issue on the California and national education landscape that came up this week:  

John and Louis talk about: 
  • The pending release of the long awaited California School Dashboard 
  • The impact on California of the congressional vote to rescind  regulations governing the Every Student Succeeds Act
  • How Trump and DeVos are framing "school choice" as a civil rights issue
  • The multiple non-academic challenges "first generation" college students faces
Click here to listen to the podcast.


Saturday, March 11, 2017

Sin Fronteras - Education Beyond Borders


LEAD VIII Summit
Thursday, March 30, 2017
8:30am - 5:00pm



CLEAR is partnering with Latino Education and Advocacy Days (LEAD) and California State University, San Bernardino to live stream the LEAD VIII Summit. We invite you to join us for this cost free one-day summit as we convene key stakeholders: teaching professionals and educators, researchers, academics, scholars, administrators, independent writers and artists, policy and program specialists, students, parents, families, civic leaders, activists, and advocates. In short, those sharing a common interest and commitment to educational issues that impact Latinos.

Are you ready to make a difference in the Latino community?
  • Are you ready to connect with and be part of Latino educational leadership?
  • Are you ready to find cross-sector solutions to improve the education and lives of all students?
  • Raise Your Hand, Step In, and Get Involved!!
Featured Speakers:
Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley
The California Community Colleges Board of Governors appointed Eloy Ortiz Oakley as chancellor for the California Community Colleges beginning December 19, 2016. Eloy Ortiz Oakley was appointed as the Superintendent-President of the Long Beach Community College District (LBCCD) in 2007. Since his appointment, he has fostered strong relationships with members of the community, state and national policy leaders, his Board of Trustees and the faculty and staff of the college. He has provided statewide and national leadership on the issue of improving the education outcomes of historically underrepresented students.
Hon. Enrique Salomón Rosas Ramírez
Consul Rosas has held a number of positions in the Mexican federal government, serving as head of the federal anti-poverty program Solidaridad in Mexico City; head of the executive management and budget committee of Solidaridad; chief of staff to the Head of Delegations of the Ministry of Social Development; advisor to the Undersecretary of Regional Development in the Ministry of Management and Budget of Mexico; deputy delegate of government and legal affairs for the towns of Coyoacan and Milpa Alta in Mexico City; and advisor to the corporate management office of PEMEX, the Mexican state-owned petroleum company.
Hon. Enrique Salomón Rosas Rodríguez
Hon. John Chiang
John Chiang was elected on Nov. 4, 2014, as California's 33rd State Treasurer. As the state's banker, he oversees trillions of dollars in annual transactions, manages a $75 billion investment portfolio, and is the nation's largest issuer of municipal bonds. In addition, he chairs financing authorities that help provide good-paying jobs, better schools, improved transportation, quality health care, more affordable housing and a cleaner environment. He handles those duties while sitting on the governing boards of the nation's two largest public pension funds with combined assets exceeding $496 billion.

Schedule:
8:30am - Check-in and Continental Breakfast
9:00am - Conference Begins
12:00pm - Lunch on your own
1:15pm - Conference Resumes
5:00pm - Conference Concludes

Location:
Bitwise, Classroom #4
700 Van Ness, Fresno, CA 93721 

 CLEAR will be live streaming the program live at Bitwise. 
This conference will be held at CSUSB.

Friday, March 10, 2017

Kudos: Broward County School Board in True Service to Students


Across the United States, School District Boards are taking bold steps to protect their undocumented students, as well as students of undocumented parents.  These actions are in direct response to President Trump’s administration immigration policy changes.  More recently, a South Florida School Board took bold steps to protect the students of their undocumented parents, faced with deportation.

On Tuesday, the School Board, which serves ?? of Broward County’s students, adopted a resolution which would protect students from Custom Enforcement agents from entering a school, or school-sponsored event, without a warrant. Any requests for access will be directed to the district’s attorney.  The board has also taken on the responsibility of working with community organizations and families to develop a plan for students when their parents are deported.

What is your school district's policy regarding undocumented students, or students from undocumented parents?  If it is not serving all students, please encourage them to take a bold stand.  

Additional Stories: 
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article137051928.html 
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-reg-schools-student-deportations-20170306-story.html 

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Superintendents on the ACSA PAC: Educational Advocacy


     The Association of California School Administrators is the largest school leader organization in the United States which serves more than 17,000 educators. I was a member of ACSA during my career in California public education, and found it to be a great support.  And given today’s public education environment, there is no more important time to be a part of this organization.
     The first priority of ACSA is to advocate for students in our public schools, K – 12, and adult learners. Our mission is to serve as a driving force of education in California and beyond.  ACSA serves its members in seeking justice and excellence to meet the diverse needs of all students in California.
     The ACSA PAC ensures that the voices of its members are heard on a political level.  By providing a place at the table for education officials, their voices are heard on political issues affecting all 6.2 million students in California.  Donation to PAC is a great way to support the work done ACSA in California. Just go to www.acsa.org/donate and create your monthly donation.


Sunday, March 5, 2017

From, "What Biracial People Know"

Yesterday's New York Times had an article by Moises Velasquez-Manoff, entitled "What Biracial People Know."It is a great piece that attempts to cover a lot of territory that relates biracial individuals to a set of assets.

What caught my attention, however, is a short paragraph in the article that describes the biracial individual's experience at

"...the idea of having several selves, and of trying to forge them into something whole. That task of self-creation isn’t unique to biracial people; it’s a defining experience of modernity."

And while, this experience is not limited to biracial individuals, and indeed, is the experience of modernity, for biracial individuals the notion of co-existing and defining ourselves as part of something greater than our fragmented selves, in a context that defines us in a narrow way, contributes to framing a broader and deeper narrative of what it means to be  bi-racial in America.