Building a Movement for Kids

i

went to high school at aragon high

school in san mateo county

a number of years ago and i was very

active in trying to give

students a voice back then as part of

our city’s

youth advisory council pushing for a

student member on our school board and

through those and other activities

folks would always and patronizingly say

oh this is so wonderful you’re preparing

yourself to be a leader for tomorrow

and i was thinking aren’t i trying to

lead today

you are all today’s leaders and we need

you to step up

because the state of california children

and youth

is not good it’s not good when compared

to your peers

around the country and even in many

other countries

around the world i want to just give you

a few

rather depressing stats before i talk

about

how we together can change this and

really make

california the best place to live for

young people and to prepare for our

future

so here’s just a few stats from children

now’s report card

where we basically grade the state on

key indicators of child well-being so

first chronic sadness

and suicide ideation among high school

students

it was reported in terms of chronic

sadness

30 percent of straight high schoolers 58

percent of gay lesbian

and 68 percent of bisexual high school

students reported feeling chronic

sadness

and in terms of suicide ideation 13 of

straight students 39 of gay lesbian

and 47 of bisexual students according to

this study

this was before the pandemic

these are from 2019 statistics

in terms of academic achievement believe

it or not california ranks near

the bottom of the 50 states huge gaps

among races although none of our kids

are achieving as as well compared to

peers

in other states but we have over

two-thirds of our

black and brown kids not meeting grade

levels in terms

of math and science in the third eighth

grade

in high school measurements there’s gaps

in terms of income

also gaps in terms of race even putting

aside

income which shows something about the

systemic racism in our education system

another stat we

in those in government make decisions

about how much we

pay public servants people working for

our government

the average public employee in

california

makes over eighty one thousand dollars a

year

the average preschool educator makes

thirty four thousand and the average

child care provider

twenty six thousand these are decisions

we collectively make

in some people who work with kids in

california

are paid less people that don’t and many

of our many of these

public employee jobs don’t even require

a college degree

where jobs like being a teacher

which is slightly below even the average

for a public employee

requires a bachelor’s degree plus

additional education

and one other stat is that we rank

near the bottom in education funding we

straight up 39th of the 50 states but

when you factor in for cost of living

we rank even further compare that when i

was going through the public school

system way back when

when we ranked fourth per capita in

spending for education

so we have a lot of work to do and i can

give you so many more

statistics but let’s just delve into a

sec for a minute

you know why aren’t kids more of a

priority why

don’t we turn these statistics around

not just here in our state

but throughout the country i hear a lot

of excuses for why kids aren’t the

priority

one kids don’t vote well first of all

we try just recently california to

ensure that 17 years olds can vote and

we’re continuing to

work towards that but when you think

about that

that quote excuse think of lots of other

interests that do so

well in our in our public policy

decisions whether in sacramento

or washington dc there aren’t that many

people

in the major financial services or

different business

enterprises that that vote and yet they

have a lot of lot of power

so then people say yeah but those have

money well there’s a lot of money behind

kids i think you’re

familiar with the fact that there’s lots

of philanthropic efforts and

people donating for different kids

causes and in fact if you aggregate that

there’s as much spent behind doing right

by kids

as many of these other interests so

another

argument you hear is well voters don’t

care it’s not true

now there are there’s a percent of the

population

in california nationally that has not

been very supportive of

kids issues and especially needed

equitable education and other reforms

but

for the most part the vast majority of

californians do

strongly support um putting kids at the

top and all kids i mean there’s

lots of polling that shows for example

californians would raise their taxes

to ensure that undocumented kids in

california got the support they need

but i would argue oftentimes the

majority of the public is ahead of the

political

elite so what’s going on here why aren’t

kids

more of the priority in terms of our of

public policy making

well i would argue that it’s because the

advocacy that

when in terms of advocacy efforts to put

kids at the top

agenda is far too disconnected think for

example of

advocacy for seniors one group aarp

think of advocacy efforts for

labor for business for uh gun rights

very

consolidated efforts uh to push their

effort um in in terms of reform even

when you look at uh

this desperately needed uh reforms for

police forces last summer even during

these

so powerful protests one entity the

police unions was able to block

major reforms in sacramento last summer

so we see successful interests being

very connected

very coordinated when it comes to the

kids world we have

thousands and thousands and thousands

amazing organizations

including youth-led groups but when it

comes to advocacy

that many groups if they’re all

disconnected makes it very hard to come

together and push for the needed

uh changes it’s particularly a problem

in california

where i in addition to running children

now teach california politics

at uc berkeley what i highlight to my

students there

is that california legislative districts

are huge

a million people in a state senate

district half a million an assembly

district

in many states there is only three or

four thousand people in the legislative

district

so the the general needs the needs of

what folks

are talking about every day get

communicated to their legislators

because the districts are so small

in california very few people actually

know their legislator

so what happens is interest groups big

interest groups dominate

what happens because you don’t know your

legislature so you base

your your vote or your opinion of your

legislator

on what an interest group says so what’s

really needed is essentially how do we

create an

interest group a powerful collective

voice for kids

by respecting these thousands and

thousands of diverse voices

at diverse organizations fighting for

kids in california

that’s where the children’s movement of

california comes in

it’s a unique effort that many around

the country are looking at modeling

where we’re saying let’s bring together

every group that wants to see kids

prioritized in public policy making

and bring them together as a network so

folks can speak at the same time at the

same strategic

time with one voice demanding the kids

be prioritized the children’s movement

of california now has over 4 100 diverse

organizations throughout the state and

growing

there’s actually 93 000 nonprofits

focused on kids in california imagine if

all of them were part of this network

so what does this network mean well one

it’s a way to connect folks and share

research and and the condition of kids

in california

but also very powerfully it allows for

collective action

hundreds and hundreds of groups to speak

at the same time so i just want to give

you a few

quick examples of how we’re changing

things in california and putting kids at

the top

last summer in terms of the state budget

there were proposals to cut services and

programs

throughout the government including

major cuts to k-12 education

child care and other key health programs

for children

those proposals we were able to block

by getting over a thousand groups to

send a joint letter to the governor and

legislature saying enough is enough

now is the time to prioritize children

and other

interests in the state were cut much

more severely

and than kids and kids programs were

finally protected

because of this huge combination of

folks coming together and speaking with

one voice

that’s very different than many past

years

in sacramento where was kids programs

that were cut

more than any others a few other uh

examples we’ve been with the movement

came together

putting the pressure on getting schools

reopened as quickly and safely as

possible

this year due to the pandemic school

discipline

an issue where we saw far too many kids

of color particularly

black kids being basically expelled from

school because of quote

misbehavior through the movement bring

hundreds of groups together really

pushing to get that changed

um so that that bad behavior in and of

itself wasn’t something that was going

to get a child

expelled from school and we’ve also used

it for

in the area of child welfare in our

foster youth

that the movement came together to help

push a 24 7 crisis hotline

where any foster youth parent guardian

can call it any time

for help and support before this hotline

came into existence

you know most of these youth had two

choices either a suicide hotline

or calling the cops now there’s a

ongoing support for these

young people and really something that

all students should have access to

these were the kinds of reforms that the

children’s movement can help push

through

more funding for kids needed services

needed supports and the final example

the children’s movement has been

pushing to ensure more transparency in

education funding

california actually has a unique law

that really provides more equitable

funding where english learners

foster youth students in poverty are

supposed to get

more dollars for their education

than the baseline of students but that

law has not been

implemented effectively and the

children’s movement has been pushing to

ensure that those dollars

really get to each kid intended so

things are changing and it really is an

exciting opportunity to bring

organizations together diverse groups

throughout the state each

pushing their own needs in their own

agenda but coming together

on the biggest issues facing youth and

when we have that kind of collective

action

it can make a huge difference basically

create a lot of

fear in a good way and really change

things in sacramento

uh to finally get our kids um at the at

the top

of the agenda so let me close with why

i’m

optimistic that we can really change the

dynamics for

young people in this state and truly put

kids at the top of the list i say that

because i actually think that’s where

most people

are when i was first elected to the

state legislature

i’m the first week in office i visited a

homeless shelter in my district and i

went around talking to the folks there

and i went up to one woman and

happened to say i’m going to be at a

meeting with the governor tomorrow

what do you want him to do for you what

should i ask the governor to do

this woman looked me straight in the eye

and said

you don’t need to talk about me please

tell the governor to make sure my kid

gets a

great education and gets the health care

that she needs

i think that sentiment expressed by that

woman expresses where

most of us are meaning we care so much

about the future generations we know

it’s our collective

future and when push comes to shove we

need to put our young people first

if there’s any silver lining out of this

horrendous year

we’ve all experienced to the pandemic is

i see

folks finally realizing that kids have

been disproportionately impacted

and why we need to put kids at the top

of the agenda so i think that’s where

much of the public is i think we need to

be very sophisticated and strategic

in how we come together but i’m hopeful

that those statistics i shared earlier

about how we even too many ways have

been failing our kids

can turn around and that we can make

california the model

of how a state treats its young people

and ensures a positive future thank you