A dozen-plus bills would reduce barriers to success for boys of color

The chairman of the Assembly Select Committee on Boys and Men of Color is confident that the bulk of legislation supported past the console this session will get law. Oakland Democrat Sandré Swanson wrapped up the committee's first two years yesterday, presiding over a hearing in the Capitol that laid out current and future proposals for creating a path to success for African American, Latino, and Native American boys.

Percent of California's population under 25 by race. Source: Select Committee report. (Click to enlarge).

Of about 19 bills supported by or introduced past members of the Select Committee , Swanson told EdSource Today he expects as many as 14 will make it to Gov. Brown'southward desk-bound (click here for bill info). More half of those address the disproportionately harsh discipline meted out to black and Latino boys. Recent studies plant that although African American boys make up just viii percent of the state'southward public school students, they account for xix percent of all suspensions. Nearly of the offenses have aught to do with violence or bringing weapons to campus; co-ordinate to the committee's draft action plan, the transgressions are more than likely to fall into the "willful defiance" category, which includes rude beliefs such as talking dorsum to a teacher.

Several other bills, including two by Swanson, are aimed at removing some of the barriers that keep young men who've served time in prison from getting the bones support they demand to stay out of trouble. 1 of those, AB 828 , would eliminate the ban that prevents some people convicted of drug felonies from applying for food stamps. He's been trying to become it passed for six years and it's been slow going this time effectually.

"If I could go information technology out of Appropriations and get that beak approved by the Senate and on the governor's desk, that would be one that would make me very happy because those nutrient stamp services can be added to other community services then, I think, would lower recidivism," explained Swanson.

Midweek'due south hearing also raised ideas for legislation that the assemblyman would like to see introduced side by side year. He was particularly moved by testimony from a immature man named Michael, who told the commission that as an ex-con he couldn't get hired anywhere because in that location'southward a box on job applications request if you lot've even been convicted of a felony. Once, in desperation, he left information technology bare and got the job, just was fired when the truth came out.

"You lot would have to recollect that a solution for this young man who, he said, has not re-offended in three years, could be the simple removal of that annunciation," Swanson said. "Nosotros have to examine those questions, and nosotros accept to determine if he served his time and paid his ante for the fault he made, should he have the opportunity to be a productive citizen?"

Disarming Colleagues

Of form, Swanson is well aware that nothing is ever as simple as it seems or ought to be. A typhoon policy report from the committee describes well-nigh 60 recommendations for improving opportunities for these young men and boys in the areas of education, health, employment and wealth, juvenile justice and safety, and youth development and policy.  Many of the proposals take been circulating for several years:

• Boost efforts to recruit and retain experienced and constructive teachers in the country's highest poverty schools;
• Back up innovative programs that link career-themed programs with the new Common Cadre standards;
• Replace California'southward byzantine school funding method with a weighted student funding formula that provides additional funds to schools with large numbers of English learners and students living in poverty; and
• Go along developing CALPADS, California'due south longitudinal student data system, which when fully operational will provide a trove of information on what teaching methods and programs improve learning for different students.

That the recommendations have widespread support was clear from the testimony of country officials at yesterday's hearing, said Jorge Ruiz de Velasco, managing director of education at Berkeley Schoolhouse of Law's Chief Justice Earl Warren Constitute on Law and Social Policy. From State Attorney General Kamala Harris, who made an unexpected visit to the hearing, to representatives from the Land Departments of Education, Labor, and Human Services, no one criticized or quibbled over the policy recommendations.

"Not a unmarried 1 of them came and said, "Oh, yous're on the wrong track, or, this is not important, or we disagree with recommendation 5.half-dozen.' All of them pretty much fully embraced it and would add together to it," said Ruiz de Velasco, who co-wrote the written report.

Getting legislators to show the same enthusiasm is a harder sell, but Swanson argues that  investing money will salvage coin.  According to the

Educational disparities for boys past race. Source: RAND Corp. (Click to overstate.)

California Dropout Research Project at UC Santa Barbara, funding programs that increment the state's graduation charge per unit for African American and Latino boys by ten percent would generate more than than $7 billion in boosted income, tax revenue, and economical productivity for the state over their lifetimes.

Doing nothing is expensive. The condition quo, co-ordinate to the draft policy written report, is a prison system where the cost of sending young men and boys of color to juvenile hall, jail, and prison "far exceeds the costs of sending them to the near expensive private universities in the world."

Over the next 30 days, the draft recommendations will be open for comment and the Select Committee will vote on the terminal report and send it to the Legislature. Past then, it will be the end of September, the current session will be over, and Assemblyman Swanson volition be termed out of office. Before leaving, he has i last recommendation to Assembly Speaker John Pérez: appoint a new leader and go along the Select Committee on the Condition of Boys and Men of Color.

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Source: https://edsource.org/2012/a-dozen-plus-bills-would-reduce-barriers-to-success-for-boys-of-color/18844