CDC Platform

EDUCATION

1. CDC advocates effective financing of the CPEC by the legislature. The California Postsecondary Education Commission provides numerous important services to the legislature on aspects on educational studies, campuses, additional courses of study, and other important educational issues. Since the Commission is formed by trustees and regents from California’s public and private college and universities, the Commission is in an exceptional position to coordinate and to recommend to the legislature on all aspects of postsecondary education.
2. A student should be encouraged to maintain his/her graduation timeline. Therefore when transferring from a community college, it should be state mandatory that all General Education requirements meet the CSU and UC graduation requirements to avoid time loss and higher tuition payments.
3. A high school diploma from any public high school should meet minimum statewide quality standards. A diploma from any high school in California should signify that the student has mastered specific educational and/or job-related skills regardless of the county or school district in which the student resides.
4. California’s public colleges must ensure adequate teacher-preparation classroom space to respond to the state’s need for teachers. California will need 300,000 new teachers to reach the next generation. The practice of allowing “on the job training” teachers who are on emergency credentials to teach our children is unacceptable. We call on the legislature to fund adequate teacher education programs.
5. Establish a Joint Assembly and Senate subcommittee to investigate the health impacts of students transporting textbooks to and from campuses. If found to be of negative impact, develop potential solutions., i.e., more lockers, more textbooks, more online learning, etc.
6. CDC supports publicly-funded free pre-school for any student between three and five years old (optional attendance). In this day and age, our curriculum in elementary education have higher standards. Quite a number of those pre-schoolers are not prepared to meet these standards. So that all children can have equal opportunity to develop the pre-K skills. Emerging educational research states that much of a child’s learning curve is set before five years old.
7. CDC supports the continuance of a 20:1 class ratio for students in grades K-3. Our focus continues to be literacy (every child able to read by 3rd grade). We need to keep the class sizes small for the teacher to give the one-on-one support to meet this focus.
8. Establish mandatory minimum safety and security standards for all public and private schools, to be administered at the local level district-by-district. All students, teachers and staff have a right to be educated and to work in a safe campus environment
9. We continue to oppose vouchers. Further, we are in favor of quality and fiscal integrity assessments for home-school programs.
10. The CDC advocates the incremental extension of the K-12 school year from its present 180 days to 200 days. Educational research long ago identified “time on task” as the most important variable in learning. Other industrialized nations whose children outperform California students all have longer school years than in California. To facilitate smooth integration of a change of this sort, including meaningful curriculum revision, extending the school year by a week at a time (5 days) is recommended. Adoption of an extended school year will have significant fiscal implications which are acknowledged and supported by this proposal.
11. ASD programs should meet high standards for elementary, junior high and high school, especially for expelled or incarcerated students. All children have a right to the best education available. Students in alternative, community and court schools should be provided with education programs that best meet their learning styles, thereby helping students to be productive members of society.
12. All infrastructure-related tax increment, property tax or other public funding, regardless of source, should be pooled at each County Office of Education and redistributed by enrollment to schools within that County, with no commingling of funds allowed at the local levels. Schools that serve economically-strong families should not de facto have better facilities than schools that serve economically-challenged families. We believe in offering students a level playing field.
13. Support a default college-preparation curriculum for all high school students, with an opt-out option for teens who prefer a different curriculum. Many parents and students need to be aware that high school algebra and geometry are as essential for vocational preparation/apprenticeship programs as they are for admission to UC and CSU systems. So are writing and speaking skills. By making college-preparation the default curriculum, more students will have access to high paying jobs requiring these skills.
14. It is important that schools, districts and teachers meet state mandates. This can be accomplished through adequate funding by the legislature of all state mandates. ADA should not be available until State mandates have been met.
15. Expand teacher preparation programs at public universities to correlate to local teacher needs. Provide incentives to recruit HS seniors and college students into teacher prep programs.
16. School boards must ensure that all student facilities meet state-set standards for school facilities, curriculum-quality and textbook availability.
17. Aggressively pursue support of educational and training programs that facilitate welfare-to-work. Offer adequate education and training programs for non-degree seeking adults and/or retraining / job loss / layoffs. Provide state-funded or state-subsidized quality childcare support for students in job training and retraining programs.
18. Expand state-funded after-school programs to help keep kids busy and “off streets.”