$900 million for teachers + The book on CA lobbying + Paying student athletes

Good morning, California, and happy Monday to all. Still recovering from last week’s chaos? Me, too.

Look out — Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, is hosting a presser at 10:45 a.m. to introduce his plan to turn PG&E into a public utility. Watch Twitter for some updates.

A $900 MILLION PROPOSAL

Luis Guerrero didn’t abandon a career in electrical engineering to become a McClatchy High School math teacher for the money.

Guerrero, 28, instead committed to the classroom believing his story as a South Sacramento, first-generation college graduate with immigrant parents would create a ripple effect through his own community and former high school.

“I have a lot of similarities with my students, from colloquialism, to the urban swagger, the ethnic background, the cultural experiences,” Guerrero said. “All those things manifest in the classroom for students to connect to a role model that they need.”

Guerrero’s path to the classroom is one California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to make easier. He pledged $900 million in his 2020-2021 budget to recruit and retain high-quality teachers in struggling California schools where achievement gaps persist.

His plan includes money for professional development, teacher stipends and $20,000 bonuses for educators who commit to high-needs schools.

The money — a sliver of the governor’s proposed $84 billion education budget — attempts to help stock districts with qualified educators and close achievement gaps for California’s most vulnerable students, Newsom said.

“We believe the biggest achievement boost,” Newsom said during a Jan. 10 budget press conference, “is fully prepared teachers.”

You can read more about Newsom’s $900 million proposal here.

CALIFORNIA LOBBYING

Need a book recommendation?

Well-known Sacramento lobbyists Chris Micheli and Ray Lebov have got you covered.

The two announced last week their book titled “A Practitioner’s Guide to Lobbying and Advocacy in California.”

The $75 book, written for college courses, covers everything from FPPC compliance, to legislative work to finding a lobbying gig.

It was written by a slew of Sacramento vets, including Mark Smith, Diane Fishburn, Thomas Hiltachk, Mike Madrid, Caitlin Vega, John Latimer and Lacey Keys.

There are a lot more, specifically 45 chapters worth of lobbyist authors.

Micheli said all proceeds support scholarships for graduate political science students.

“What we do in California leads the nation, for good and bad, and how that policy is made is important. I wanted to put together a textbook from leading practitioners on the ground that I knew would be an engaging read for students while also providing in-depth knowledge of why advocacy is important and how it works,” Micheli said. “Who better to help me write it than my friends and colleagues in the Capitol community who could share their experiences?”

AS CALIFORNIA GOES...

So does half the nation.

Sen. Nancy Skinner’s idea to allow college athletes to earn money off their “name, image or likeness” splashed across national headlines last year after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 206 into law.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association opposed the legislation, arguing that it would reduce competition and “make unattainable the goal of providing a fair and level playing field.” The association later said it would work with states who promised their own form of the “Fair Pay to Play Act.”

Good timing. Twenty-three states are working on SB 206-like proposals.

Skinner’s office said it’s spoken with a list of both red and blue states that have introduced or have bills pending in their own capitals.

The consultations aren’t just friendly favors. Skinner is being very strategic about the advice.

“When I saw more and more states starting with introductions, I asked my staff to reach out and to encourage them to look at our bill and do legislation as close as possible,” Skinner told The Bee. “Mostly because there were already voices like NCAA saying we don’t want to have to operate around too many rules. And I din’t want to see a situation where state action resulted in national legislation that was far weaker.”

You can see California’s footprint everywhere — New York’s S6722B mirrors SB 206, as does Missouri’s HB 1564.

Skinner’s team has also worked with: Nevada, Kentucky, New Mexico, Maryland, Minnesota, Colorado, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Arizona, New Hampshire, Virginia, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Illinois and Washington.

“People could logically argue, if every state had varying rules and yet your intercollegiate program is across states, I can appreciate that it makes it a little harder. It creates an argument, ‘hey we can’t deal with all these laws across states,’” Skinner explained.

So the team’s been busy trying to replicate the most important aspect of SB 206 — the “name, image or likeness” — to avoid that situation and help guide potential federal legislation.

“I just don’t trust the NCAA backing a uniform policy that is really fair to student athletes,” Skinner said. “Whatever policy ends up (needs to be), in fact, fair to student athletes.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The first question I was asked by a reporter when I ran for Assembly was ‘What are you going to do with your kids?’ I answered ‘Well, lock them in the closet with some food, of course. They’ll be ok.’ The absurdity of the answer was to highlight the absurdity of the question.”

- Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, via Twitter.

Best of The Bee:

• Impeachment isn’t the big topic on constituents’ minds in a lot of Sacramento and Central Valley area congressional districts, their congressional representatives say, via David Lightman.

• Mayor Darrell Steinberg says he wants to create a “Silicon Valley moment” in Sacramento, using city money to help developers mass-produce new types of “efficiency” housing that cost less to build than traditional housing, via Tony Bizjak and Theresa Clift.

• Michael Bloomberg will visit Sacramento and Fresno during his fourth California trip since declaring his candidacy in late-November. According to his campaign, the former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential candidate will hold public “organizing events” at three campaign stops on Monda, via Brian Anderson.

• Advocates complain that the federal definition of homelessness is far too narrow — it excludes people who are doubled-up or couch surfing with relatives or friends or paying for a cheap motel room. Even those living outdoors can be easily missed, especially if law enforcement has recently cleared encampments. Amid all the uncertainties about the accuracy of the count, one thing seems certain: California’s numbers will be big — and weaponized, politically, via Manuela Tobias and Matt Levin.