Education is an area where Senator Glazer has made a tremendous difference for California. We should be the national leader in education and our students should be performing among the best in the world. Our schools need more resources, and our students need more options for quality instruction.

Senator Glazer has a proven track record of support for local schools and expanding educational opportunities. Senator Glazer:

• Wrote the $15 billion 2020 Preschool, K-12 and College Bond (the largest in California history) to repair aging schools, remove lead from school drinking water, build new classrooms, expand classroom technology, and build affordable student housing at California’s colleges and universities. (AB 48)

• Voted to provide free tuition for first-year, full-time Community College students who carry at least 12 units and qualify for financial aid. (AB 19)

• Wrote The California Promise Act to help increase the 4-year graduation rate by requiring the California State University (CSU) system to provide priority enrollment, enhanced academic advising and other support for students who carry at least 30 units per year.

The State Senate plays a critical role in education. It goes beyond funding – which is vital – to creating educational reforms to ensure that each student who attends a public school has an equitable opportunity to succeed. Senator Glazer’s priorities include:

• Local empowerment. We need to empower local school boards to lead on educational issues. The centralization of educational decision-making in Sacramento is not healthy and should be reversed.

• Teacher Quality. Senator Glazer believes in accountability at all levels of government, including public schools. There are few jobs more important or difficult than being a public-school teacher. We need to support our teachers in every way and help them be successful.

• Allow families to select the best schools for their children. Senator Glazer supports the ability of families to select the best school environment for their children. Senator Glazer does not support FOR-PROFIT CHARTER SCHOOLS or private school vouchers as they siphon vital tax dollars from public schools.

• Greater educational resources. Senator Glazer promised to continue to work to strengthen California’s economy and bring greater resources to our education system. There can be no higher priority for improving K-12 education. 

Senator Glazer has been a strong supporter of strengthening the finances of local school districts, assisting disadvantaged students, providing consumer protections for students and families, keeping students safe in their schools, recruiting and training quality teachers and reforming California’s K-12 curriculum.  Senator Glazer:

• Wrote legislation to prevent the state from raiding local school district budgets. (SB 751)

• Voted for the Feed the Kids Act to automatically enroll 800,000 low-income students in the state’s free or reduced lunch program. (SB 138)

• Voted to license and strictly regulate student loan services to prevent students and their parents from being taken advantage of by unscrupulous lenders. (AB 2351)

• Voted to strengthen the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education and provide strict oversight and regulation of private, for-profit colleges that frequently fail to deliver on their promises.

• Voted to require classroom doors to lock from the inside to help keep students safe and to require all school buses to be equipped with passenger restraints. (AB 3205, AB 1798)

• Forbade school districts from withholding diplomas and transcripts from students with unpaid cafeteria debts and from reporting parents’ unpaid debts to credit agencies. (AB 1974)

• Required all public schools (Charter and Non-Charter) to provide “medically accurate: and “age-appropriate” reproductive health education at least once in middle school and once in high school. (AB 2601)

• Voted to forbid public schools, community colleges, the CSU system, and the UC system from collecting information about the immigration status of students, faculty and staff and their families. (AB 691, AB 21)

• Voted to reestablish Cal Teach to better recruit teacher candidates, help prospects navigate the credentialing process and enable districts to meet teacher shortages in key subject areas. (SB 915)

Higher Education

Senator Glazer served as a California State University Trustee, helping guide 23 campuses, 447,000 students and 45,000 faculty and staff — the largest, most diverse and one of the most affordable university systems in the country. As Trustee, he voted repeatedly against excessive executive pay.

Higher education is a gateway to lifelong learning and employment opportunities. We need to ensure our state universities and colleges remain catalysts for societal progress and individual opportunity, and that they remain accessible and affordable to all Californians.

There are a number of challenges facing our higher education systems that need attention; remedial educational needs of incoming students in English and math; achievement gap between student groups; faculty and staff diversity; and low four-year graduation rates in the CSU system.

“I am very proud of the fact that the Cal State System issued degrees to more than 100,000 Californians last year, Senator Glazer said. “About 60% of these graduates were the first in their family to graduate from college.  We need to make it a priority to support our public universities, as they are making a difference for so many.”

 Senator Glazer has consistently voted to protect the Affordable Care Act from President Trump’s attacks, expand access to care for all Californians, limit prescription drug costs, and hold insurance companies accountable (photos here). 

Strengthening California’s health care system.

• Voted to expand subsidies that help middle-class families buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (Obamacare). (SB 78)
• Voted to preserve Covered California’s 90-day annual open enrollment period, providing consumers with adequate time to shop, compare, and choose the best health plan option. (AB 156)
• Voted to extend “continuity of care” protections that guarantee patients sufficient time to complete treatment and/or find new doctors if they have to switch plans through no fault of their own.  (SB 133)
• Voted to banning “surprise medical bills” from health plans when patients utilize in-network facilities and that facility, unbeknownst to the patient, incurs higher outside expenses and seeks to bill the patient. (AB 72)
• Voted to expand the availability of hospice care. (SB 294).
• Voted to exclude money saved in College 529 Plans from assets counted against Medi-Cal eligibility. (AB 1785)
• Voted for the Mental Health School Services Act, which will dramatically expand the availability of mental health counseling and treatment through the schools in partnership with county mental health agencies. (SB 75)
• Voted to extend the voluntary tax check-off to fund breast cancer research. (SB 440)

Holding drug and insurance companies accountable.

• Voted to require health plans to spend at least 80 percent of the premiums they collect on health services rather than administration, marketing or profit. (AB 2499)
• Voted to make California the first state in the nation to ban “pay for delay” agreements where brand name drug manufacturers pay another company not to produce a generic version of a drug whose patent has just expired. (AB 824)
• Voted to forbid pharmaceutical companies from giving meals, gifts or entertainment to doctors and health care professionals. (SB 790)
• Voted to require every health plan in California comply with non-discrimination measures, strengthen consumer protections, and align language assistance standards, regardless of any federal changes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that may be made. (SB 223)
• Voted to preserve limits on co-pays for prescription drugs. (SB 1021)
• Voted for the Prescription Price Transparency & Public Disclosure Act requiring drug companies to give advance notice of large price hikes in a 2-year period. (SB 17) 

Expanding the availability of Health Care.

• Voting to study a ‘Public Option’ to provide universal health care in California. (AB 2472)
• Voted to restore Medi-Cal benefits that were cut during the recession, including audiology, optical, podiatry, speech therapy (SB 78) and dental benefits. (SB 97)
• Voted to expand Medi-Cal to cover assisted living and not just nursing home care. (AB 2233)
• Voted to permit undocumented Californians to purchase health insurance through Covered California. (SB 10)
• Voted to increase funding for supportive housing for the homeless or people at risk of homelessness, based on research showing that secure housing is one of the best things we can do to keep people healthy.  (AB 97)  

Curbing the use of tobacco by minors.

• Wrote legislation to ban the sale of flavored vaping products, which have been marketed to children. (SB 38)
• Wrote legislation to ban smoking in state parks and on state beaches. (SB 8)
• Voted to prohibit the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors and extend existing laws regulating tobacco products to electronic cigarettes. (SBX2-5)
• Voted to raise the minimum age to purchase or consume tobacco from 18 to 21. (SBX2-7) 

Imposing transparency and strict oversight on California’s health care system.

• Voted to increase disclosure and scrutiny of nursing home operators who own more than 5% of any business providing goods or services to that nursing home. (AB 1953).
• Voted to require disclosure by manufacturers of cleaning products of all chemicals and other ingredients and any known health risks. (SB 258)
• Voted to close loopholes in existing law by extending the Attorney General’s review and oversight of nonprofit health facility transactions to include a nonprofit hospital’s attempts to eliminate or reduce emergency medical services. (SB 687)
• Voted to strengthen  the authority of air pollution control officials to order an interim abatement of emissions in hazardous circumstances. (AB 1132)
• Voted to create a CALTRANS Environmental Justice Committee to monitor and make recommendations on how to reduce toxic pollution in disproportionately affected communities. (AB 179)
• Voted to create a stakeholder working group in the Dept. of Public Health to develop guidelines regarding opioid prescription addiction and abuse. (AB 715)

We are experiencing an affordable housing crisis in our state. At the heart of it is a lack of supply. Complicating the situation are problems at every level: labor availability and cost; building supply prices; government fees; the cost of capital; regulatory rules and barriers; and a builder’s willingness to take a risk that they will make a profit at the end of the entitlement and construction period (photos here).

There are over 550,000 approved housing units in California; about a three-year supply. There is a false drumbeat by urban legislators that suburban city councils are blocking housing construction and the state should step in to circumvent local control. But all of the cities in the 7th Senate district are in compliance with the State’s affordable housing requirements. So I reject the notion that the small towns of Contra Costa and Alameda counties are to blame. Still, everyone needs to work together to make the situation better.

The shortage of supply has given landlords the ability to raise rents dramatically in a tight market, in some cases the equivalent of gouging. In response, I supported legislation temporarily limiting rent increases to 5 percent a year plus the cost of living. This should allow landlords to recoup their investment without forcing tenants out of their apartments. But rent control is an imperfect solution given its potential to discourage the construction of new rental housing and lead landlords to convert apartments to owner-occupied condominiums. 

A better solution would be to provide aid directly to needy tenants. I have proposed that the existing renter’s tax credit of $60 for singles and $120 for couples be increased to $220 and $434 respectively. This would provide immediate relief to 2.4 million low-income renters.  California currently provides over $4 billion in tax relief for homeowners but only about $300 million in help to renters. The renters tax credit has not been increased since 1979 – 40 years. We can and must do better for our most vulnerable renters.

Additionally, I have authored legislation to limit some of the regulatory burdens on affordable housing projects. My bill passed the Senate 30-5 and is currently awaiting action in the State Assembly.

Finally, our state budget approved funds for a variety of housing programs this year. They were:

•       $1 billion for local and regional affordable housing support
•       $500 million for in-fill grants
•       $500 million for low-income grants
•       $500 million for affordable housing tax credits
•       $200 million for moderate-income housing credits
•       $25 million for rental assistance and legal aid