Newsom signs ‘monumental’ education budget. How it helps Central Valley’s Latino families
For Latino families – many of them immigrants, mixed status, low-income, and farmworkers – living in the Central Valley, the state’s new education plan is a ‘monumental’ investment that could make a huge difference in their lives of their children, lawmakers, educators and advocates said this week.
For some families, it would help provide seed money to establish college savings accounts for their children regardless of legal status. For others, access to free universal preschool would be a reality. And those with children in dual-language immersion programs would see improvements that would help those students to be more successful in school.
“These announcements, this budget overwhelmingly and disproportionately benefits the Latino community, overwhelmingly and disproportionate benefits mixed status families regardless of their immigration status, overwhelmingly and disproportionately benefits people here in the Central Valley and farmworker families as well,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom, who on Tuesday (Oct. 5) visited students and teachers at Sunset Elementary School in Fresno County, part of the Fresno Unified School District School.
During the visit, Newsom signed a package of early childhood legislation and highlighted his California Comeback Plan’s unprecedented investments to expand opportunities for every child across the state.
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“I want all members of the Latino community, all members of this community to have the same opportunities as folks down in Beverly Hills, I mean it, because if they do, there’s nothing to hold back this region,” Newsom said after he signed a trio of bill at the school’s library.
Plan provides ‘monumental’ investments in California education
As part of the governor’s $123.9 billion Pre-K and K-12 education package, California will provide free, high-quality, inclusive pre-kindergarten for all four-year-old kids, beginning in the 2022-23 school year. The state anticipates it will fully implement universal transitional kindergarten by the 2025-26 school year. About $2.7 billion is being allocated to create universal preschool.
The plan also reduces class sizes, cutting adult-to-child ratios in half with at least an average of one adult for every 12 children, down from one for every 24 children.
“It’s monumental. it’s really monumental to be able to see these types of investments that are going to make a huge difference in the lives of our families, real, real differences,” said Genoveva Islas, founder and CEO of Cultiva La Salud and a Fresno Unified trustee. “Our children live in poverty, our parents struggle trying to make ends meet. So, I know just like my parents who worked in the fields, their dream was to have their children have a better opportunity, so these investments are going to make that a reality for many families here in the valley.”
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The plan also invests $10 million to expand dual-language immersion programs like the one at Sunset Elementary School in Fresno, where TK teacher Alma Renteria welcomed Newsom to her classroom to see the work of her students.
“It is very important, because they are not only developing their language, their social skills, how they deal with other children, skills that they will need for life,” said Rentería, who has been a teacher for more than 24 years. “They develop leadership, they develop academics, from letters, sounds, initials, and some also begin to read and write.”
“I know that I am planting a little seed and that it will bear fruit, to know that they will have a better life in the future, that is what inspires me to keep going every day,” Rentería said.
Sunset Elementary School principal Natanska Valtierra said it is essential that children have the skills ready to start kindergarten.
Valtierra, who has been in the education field since 1996, said her school only offers one TK class, for those students who are born between September and December.
Investments could change ‘destiny’ of Central Valley students
Newsom was joined by local and state officials and educators including State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, Assembly members Joaquín Arambula (D-Fresno) and Luz Rivas (D-San Fernando Valley), as well as state Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger.)
“I said over and over again that talent out here in the valley, the talent of the Central Valley is equal to the folks out there and in Silicon Valley. it’s just opportunity,” Newsom said. “That’s why we’re here to highlight our responsibility to more than rhetoric, to deliver that opportunity in an equitable manner.”
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Claudia Cazares, Fresno Unified Trustee for Area 6, said she has three children and only one of them went to pre-kindergarten. She has witnessed first-hand the difference in preparations.
“Having this available for all of our students, particularly here in the valley, where we start a couple of steps behind other students around the state or the nation, it’s a game changer for our kids,” Cazares said.
The plan also invests $1.9 billion to seed college savings accounts of up to $1,500 for low-income students, English learners and foster and homeless youth. It would create college savings accounts for 3.7 million kids.
“I’m talking about starting the college savings plan for all of our students at birth, that travels with them as they grow older and as they go to college. It is another game changer where we’re not just telling them, ‘studying, you’ll get to college,’ but to study and we’ll actually help you pay for your college from that day you were born,” Cazares said.
“So, I think that this investment by our legislature and our governor is crucial to changing the destiny of our children here in Fresno and I’m so thankful for it,” Cazares continued.
Arambula said that investing in communities like in ZIP code 93706 “will help to move our state forward.”
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“Ensuring access to early education and care, especially for our children and families who are marginalized and excluded, can help them mitigate systemic racism and address and narrow the disparities that we see,” Arambula said. “Today we’re talking about how we can provide opportunities for English language learners, how we can provide a better foundational support to our community who needs the help. We can also talk about the support we can provide to our homeless and foster kids, as well as how we can make sure that all of our children have the access to universal TK now.”
Arambula said many children have learning disabilities that currently are going undiagnosed.
“We can start with early education to make sure that we are identifying and mitigating, providing early interventions to our students who need the help the most,” Arambula said.
“It’s with equity in mind that I appreciate the governor and the attention we have gotten from the state and the focus,” he said.
Esta historia fue publicada originalmente el 5 de octubre de 2021, 8:56 p. m..
