June 3 Voter Guide

Sacramento Progressive Alliance Voter Guide

SAC PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE ENDORSEMENTS: June 2014

Superintendent of Public Instruction. 
Tom Torlakson

Senate District 6.  No endorsement

Assembly District 8   Ken Cooley

Sacramento County District Attorney  
Todd  Leras

Sacramento City Council.  District 3 
 Efren Gutierrez

Sacramento City Council,  District 5  
Ali Cooper

Congressional District 7    Ami  Bera

State Ballot Measures

Proposition 41    Yes

Proposition 42    Yes

Sacramento Ballot Measure

Measure B  Libraries   Yes

Local Control | Tom Torlakson

To view a debate between the candidates for Superintendent go here.
http://www.capta.org/sections/basics/whatsnew.cfm?WhatsNewID=2631

Vote for Torlakson - Important to vote on Tues.

Choosing Democracy: Vote for Torlakson - Important to vote on Tues.: From the LA Times. In the June 3  contest to lead the state's public schools, the two front-runners represent opposing forces withi...

Wealth Inequality In America

Memorial Day - Remembrance and Resolve

"As we approach Memorial Day, we need to think not only of remembering our fallen sons and daughters, but also to resolve to protect future generations from such occasions."  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Memorial Day is upon us. Neighbors are hanging flags in front of their homes. Parades are planned for Main Street. Veterans are searching the back of closets for worn uniforms. And arrangements are being made to bring bouquets of flowers to cemeteries across the nation. We are preoccupied with thinking about heroes and the sacrifices they made to keep our country safe.

Drop Student Debt

By  Thom Hartman,

Never in the history of the developed world has an entire generation had to go into debt just to get an education and a job. Until now.

Back in January, 31-year-old Tony Muzzatti, who at the time owed around $60,000 in student loan debt to Sallie Mae and always made on-time payments, was told that he had to immediately make a payment of $10,000, or face asset seizures.

That's because his grandmother, who also happened to be his cosigner on the student loans, had just died.

Christopher Kibler was also told by Sallie Mae that he had to immediately pay back nearly $22,000 in student loan debts after his father, the cosigner on his loans, had passed away.

Energy Officials Downgrade California Shale Reserves by 95.6 %

Energy officials downgrade Monterey Shale oil reserves by 95.6%

by Dan Bacher

Oil industry representatives have continually claimed that the expansion of fracking for oil in California will lead to the creation of many thousands of jobs and the influx of billions of dollars to the economy, but these claims were exposed as false when federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) officials downgraded Monterey Shale reserves by 95.6 percent on May 20.

In her recent blog, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association and former Chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create so-called "marine protected areas" in Southern California, touted the jobs bonanza that would supposedly be created by expanded fracking. (http://www.wspa.org/blog/post/moratorium-legislation-does-not-make-sense-california)
Editors note: Update. Santa Cruz County in California triumphed Tuesday to become the state’s first county to ban fracking. The county’s board of supervisors voted to prohibit fracking, as well as gas and oil development within its boundaries.

"Senate Bill 4 created a pathway to transparent environmental protections while balancing the need to meet California’s energy demands and create valuable, much-needed jobs in the San Joaquin Valley," said Reheis-Boyd.

"A study produced by the California State University, Fresno found that hydraulic fracturing in the San Joaquin Valley’s Monterey Shale Formation could grow personal income by as much as $4 billion while creating more than 195,000 new jobs. In addition to these localized opportunities, the entire state will benefit from increased domestic energy production," gushed Reheis-Boyd.

The Crisis in Our Democracy and Education

Dr. Duane Campbell

The Crisis in Democracy and Education,

Director of  Democracy and Education Institute.  Speaking to United Nations Association.  Thursday. May 22,  Arden-Dimick Library,  891 Watt Aven. , Sacramento.  1:30 – 3:30 PM.  No charge.

Public education has been one of the most important  contributors  to the development of  prosperity and democracy in the U.S.  Yet, today, both democracy and public education are in crisis. The CSU and UC have suffered devastating budget cuts, reducing access and the quality of education and forcing students to rely upon student loans.  37 million Americans now owe a combined $1 Trillion in student loans, while CSU students now graduate with an average of $16, 648 in debt.

K-12 education is being  “reformed” to be more unequal. Public schooling for students in California is underfunded and for many students it is  failing.

In this, the 60^th. anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, we find schools are more segregated than in the 1970’s, and California schools are most segregated of all for Latino Students,

School reform- when the people vote

As Newark voters just reminded us, educational sovereignty is not an abstraction–but a concrete necessity.  Parents know when their children are being denied, neglected, and abused. Teachers know when they are being used and discarded: their jobs are reduced to rote mouthpieces for profiteering edu-speak.  Children feel their futures being stolen from them.  They feel more alienated from schools, teachers, lesson plans, and standardized tests.  Baraka’s victory is about creating the educational climate–supported by larger goals of racial/ economic justice–that are required for thriving students.

There are many possibilities for Newark, as people now grapple with how to dismantle the state’s long term educolonial apparatus and return education decisions to Newark’s mayor, school board, parents, teachers, school employees and students.  (New Jersey was the first state to conduct school district takeover, and Newark has been state occupied since 1995.)  An assessment of the state’s vast bureaucratic obstacles begs the question: “How will Newark’s people regain control of their schools?”

Read more: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/19/indicting-education-crimes/#.U3oaEAM4Qn5.gmail

Seth Sandronsky  and Michelle Renee Matison.

Still Separate- Still Unequal

	Still Separate and Unequal Jamelle Bouie May 15, 2014 Slate School segregation doesn’t happen by accident; it flows inexorably from housing segregation. If most black Americans live near other blacks and in a level of neighborhood poverty unseen by the vast majority of white Americans, then in the same way, their children attend schools that are poorer and more segregated than anything experienced by their white peers.
	Minority students across the country are more likely to attend majority-minority schools than they were a generation ago.,michaeljung/Shutterstock,
	Saturday is the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case where a unanimous Supreme Court held that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” The following year the justices ordered that states end school segregation with “all deliberate speed.” In the popular narrative, this is the beginning of American integration, a process that goes from Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King to the Civil Rights Act and eventually to President Obama.

Agribusiness Welfare Makes Water "Scarce" In California | California Progress Report

Agribusiness Welfare Makes Water "Scarce" In California | California Progress Report

Free Screening of Robert Reich's "Inequality for All" @ Sac State!

Campus Progressive Alliance Presents

The Friday Night Film Series

“Inequality for All”

“A MUST SEE MOVIE!”

                                       -- Huffington Post

            

92% Certified Fresh

                                     -- Rotten Tomatoes

"Enlightening, entertaining and 

seriously alarming." - Detroit News

Free Admission! Everyone Welcome!

Friday, May 16, 2014

Shorts - 6pm     Feature - 6:30pm

 Mariposa Hall 1000

Sacramento State University

 Info: paub1221@sbcglobal.net

New Racial Justice Film Series Premiers @ Sac State with "12 Years a Slave"

Campus Progressive Alliance Presents

The Racial Justice Film Series

"12 Years A Slave"

Free Admission! Everyone Welcome!

Thursday, May 15, 2014, 4:30pm

 Folsom Hall 1063

(Across from main campus at 7667 Folsom Blvd.)

Sacramento State University 

Info: paulb1221@sbcglobal.net

End this Depression Now !

POINT OF VIEW LECTURE SERIES
Thursday, May 15, 2014, 7pm
Sierra 2 Center, 2791 24th Street, Classroom 9, Sacramento, CA (between Castro Way and 4th Ave.)

Duane Campbell, professor emeritus of bilingual multicultural education, California State University, Sacramento.

End this Depression Now!

The nation, including California, suffered a severe economic crisis. Twenty six million were unemployed and under employed. This crisis was created by fraud and deception mostly in finance capital and banking and Wall Street. The rich and Wall Street have now recovered, but the 90% have not.

Duane Campbell is also a union activist, chair of Sacramento Democratic Socialists of America and on the editorial board of Democratic Left. He has worked on labor and immigration reform issues for over 30 years. His most recent book is Choosing Democracy: a practical guide to multicultural education. 4th. edition. 2010. Allyn and Bacon.

Duane blogs at www.dsausa.org and www.choosingdemocracy.blogspot.org, among other places.

View all Point of View Lectures.

And DON'T FORGET THE TUESDAYS!

Here is the discussion schedule for May:

Costs of Students Loans

Protecting Public Education