California Education Update
California State Senator Joe Simitian represents the 11th Senate District in our state (which is where I live and work), and a couple of times each year, he hosts education town hall meetings. These meetings provide a useful opportunity for various stakeholders in the community to hear from the Senator, and for him to hear from all of us. Senator Simitian is a particularly good person to hear from on education issues, as he entered state politics by way of our local school board, and has been on the education committees in both houses of our legislature. His most recent meeting was Saturday, January 28, with a crowd was slightly larger than I’ve previously seen at one of these events, probably in the range of 200-300 people.
What follows is my attempt to capture his comments and the information he provided, with occasional interjections of my own thoughts or questions in parentheses and italics.
The big theme for 2012 education funding is uncertainty, as so much depends on the fate of tax-increases going
