Early childhood education report + Sac State hunger tour + Holocaust Remembrance Day
Hey there alerters! A great day is ahead.
Assembly gavels in at 1 p.m., Senate’s in session an hour later.
EARLY ED
The Assembly Blue Ribbon Commission on Early Childhood Education is scheduled to release its final report today, full of recommendations for California leaders to consider in their policy and budget decisions.
The report follows two years of hearings and focus groups, held between lawmakers, families and community members.
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, a longtime early childhood education advocate and former nonprofit executive director, launched the commission in 2017 to evaluate the state’s early childhood education system. Gov. Gavin Newsom also sparked a statewide focus on early childhood care and education when he bumped funding for the system in his proposed January budget.
The commission’s key recommendations —
- Expand access to the most needy families and children, while simultaneously working toward universal access to early ed.
- Parents are the experts on their children. They should be treated as such, and they should have a say about program development.
- Value the early childhood education workforce; Workers should have development and compensation opportunities akin to their K-12 employee counterparts.
- The state should establish an Early Childhood Policy Council, to serve as the primary advisory board for members of the Legislature, the governor and the superintendent of public instruction.
Rendon recruited fellow Assembly members Kevin McCarty, Blanca Rubio, Brian Maienschein, Eloise Gomez Reyes, Phil Ting and Republican Leader Marie Waldron to work with executives, senior directors, education policy experts, academics, organizers, parents and child care providers to develop the report.
Lawmakers are organizing a press conference this morning at 9:30 a.m. at the Glendale Community College Child Development Center. You can watch the live stream of the event here, and read more about the commission here.
HUNGRY GRADS
Two Sacramento Democrats, Assemblyman McCarty and Sen. Richard Pan are joining fellow Democratic Sens. Steve Glazer of Orinda and Ben Allen of Santa Monica on a tour of Sacramento State University today. The lawmakers are scheduled to visit students, faculty and staff at the school to “explore a growing crisis facing students as they juggle classroom challenges with hunger, mental health issues and homelessness.”
The tour will begin on campus at 9 a.m. Stops include discussing hunger issues at The Crisis Assistance and Resource Education Support and the Associated Students, Inc. food pantry, as well as talking health issues and student success initiatives at different locations throughout campus.
Sac State President Robert Nelsen and Dean Beth Lesen will join the crew for the tour, which will end at the Basic Needs Fair scheduled for 11:30 a.m. at Serna Plaza.
HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
To honor Senate Concurrent Resolution 41, which marks April 29 as Holocaust Remembrance Day in the Legislature, Sen. Allen — principal author and chair of the Legislative Jewish Caucus — is joining vice-chair Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, and other lawmakers to highlight the daylong “Dimensions in Testimony” exhibit in the Capitol.
The exhibit is an interactive opportunity for participants to have what seem like actual conversations with Holocaust survivors. The USC Shoah Foundation collected pre-recorded video images and interactive biographies so that viewers had the chance to witness the effects of the Holocaust and hear personal testimony from 15 survivors of the genocide.
The exhibit runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in room 115, but the lawmakers will be speaking about the exhibit at 11 a.m.
TWEET OF THE DAY
Best of The Bee:
- Cost of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first international trip still unknown 2 weeks later by Sophia Bollag
- Can California get any more liberal? It will if these laws pass by Hannah Wiley
- Joe Biden lacks big-name California allies as he launches presidential bid by Emily Cadei