California once had the best public schools in the country. Families moved west in search of better opportunity and quality education for their children. Unfortunately, California now ranks 47th out of 50th in standard of living for children. One in four children go hungry every day. We rank 41st in the nation on spending per child. More troubling, access to quality schools all too often is determined by where a child lives. Thus, there are glaring racial and socioeconomic inequities.

We are failing many our children; especially children of color. It is unconscionable. We urgently need a “kids-first” agenda, one that prepares our students for the changing workforce of the future. An educated workforce is not only critical to our economic growth, but essential in our ability to combat the growing wealth inequalities that are so pervasive in California.

Here’s what I will fight for:

More Funding For Schools

We must invest in our children by investing in our schools. California has only recently dug out of the deep hole created by the recession, and we remain woefully behind other states when it comes to ensuring our public schools have the resources they need to prepare our children for college and careers.

The quality of a school depends on the teachers in the classrooms, and therefore we must ensure teaching is a profession that is desirable and viable. We should provide more professional development, coaching, mentoring, and resources for continued education. We should pay our teachers more. In areas with a high cost of living, like Assembly District 15, we need to provide housing assistance so our educators can live within the communities in which they work.

We have a significant teacher shortage, particularly for science and math, and have the highest teacher to student ratio in the country. We should reinstate recruitment and incentives programs to attract and retain racially and culturally diverse teachers.

Address the Needs of the Whole Child

We know learning in the classroom is significantly impacted by circumstances outside of the classroom. It’s critical we look at the whole child and address their social, emotional, and behavioral growth to provide each child the opportunity to thrive. Children living in pervasive poverty and experiencing trauma need schools with more resources to address their social and emotional needs. These resources should include school psychologists, nurses, librarians and an investment in restorative justice programs where it makes sense.

Children who are socially and emotionally developed handle challenging difficult situations better; they create positive relationships, learn to check their emotions, and can calm themselves when upset. The ability to hone these skills enable children to learn and achieve at higher levels.

Learning Starts on Day One

Since children begin to learn from the day they are born, we should think of early child care as education and as an entitlement, like elementary school, social security, unemployment benefits or Medicare.

To this end, we should subsidize quality child care on a sliding scale and fund universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds. We should professionalize the care industry by unionizing the workforce, providing professional development and apprenticeship programs and increase their educational requirements so early caregivers can receive the same pay as elementary school teachers.

Early childhood educators should have access to free community college as well as housing assistance as a way to live where they work. The more affordable and quality early education our children get, the better a society we are.

High Expectations and Accountability for All of Our Schools

Every school should be great. We should expect the best from all of our public schools, both traditional public schools as well as charter public schools. Along with increased funding and support for our public schools, we should set high standards informed by multiple measures for accountability — academic achievement, dropout rates, rates of suspension, graduation rates, etc — and clear transparency in how resources are spent.

We should support and model the successful elements of high performing public schools so other students can benefit. For consistently low performing public schools, increased funding should be coupled with clear accountability and a focus on supporting and developing strong school leaders.

Charter public schools can serve a need in our community, but we need more transparency and accountability in how they are run. Charter public schools must be subject to the Brown Act, the Political Reform Act and the Public Records Act, as this would enable parents and the community at large more insight into how taxpayer dollars are being spent.

We need to make it easier to identify poor performing charter public schools and to take action to quickly fix or shut those schools down. We need to find ways for charter public schools to work with district schools. Collaboration requires both the district as well as the charter to both come to the table in partnership. Lastly, we need to outlaw for-profit charter schools and under no circumstance should we consider vouchers for private schools.

Preparing Students for Life

We should be preparing students with tangible skills for life. I believe we need more project-based learning opportunities, where students learn by completing inter-disciplinary projects that solve complex real-world questions. Kids learn through doing and collaborating, and hands on projects are a vehicle for gaining skills traditionally taught through lectures and worksheets.

Project based learning emphasizes higher-order learning skills — critical thinking, synthesis, and evaluation — over comprehension or memorization skills. For instance, we should start financial literacy at a young age, and teach our kids the basics, like how to save, how to spend within their means and how the stock market works.

Research has shown that students who engage in regular project-based learning demonstrate better problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and do better on standardized tests than their peers. In order to successfully implement this model, teachers need training, coaching and high-quality planning materials. Partnerships between secondary schools and higher education should be strengthened to leverage resources and provide additional opportunities for students through mentorship programs, professional development for teachers, curriculum materials, and early college preparation instruction.

Reinvent Higher Education

The California Master Plan of 1960 established significant public investments in our higher education system — laying the framework for University of California, California State University, and California Community College schools. This set California on the path to becoming the 6th largest economy in the world.

Over the course of time, most notably since the early 2000s, we have significantly reduced public funding to our higher education institutions. We are transferring that cost to students, many of whom now face significant student debt. I believe we need to return to the spirit of the California Master Plan and prioritize our higher education system, making higher education accessible to all.

Students today deserve to have the same opportunities as past generations. Specifically, we need to make college debt-free for low-to-middle income students, not only covering the cost of tuition but housing, food and books. This means generating stable, predictable revenue as well as prioritizing higher education in our state budget process.

Since 1980, we have built one new UC campus, while at the same time adding 22 new prisons. University of California, Berkeley currently receives only 11% of its total budget from the State, but it continues to be a major economic engine for the state and one of the top universities for upward mobility. The state investment in our colleges and universities more than pays for itself through their contributions to innovation, job creation and increased incomes for graduates. At UC, within five years of graduation, the majority of Pell grant recipient students will earn more than their family. As the state grapples with the growing income inequality, investments in education can advance social and economic mobility while supporting state workforce needs. But we must invest more public dollars.

Our community colleges should be free to all, and we should support programs that aim to help students graduate or transfer. We need to create incentives for students to attend under-utilized campuses, which would help alleviate overcrowded campuses.

We should also promote concurrent enrollment across campuses to create flexibility for our students as well as leverage online learning. Lastly, we should create a higher education system that promotes lifelong learning and seeks to help non-traditional students gain the educational credentials necessary to compete in the modern workforce.

Feeding our Children to Create Lifelong Nutritional Habits

We have tragic paradox — a quarter of our kids go hungry every day, and yet 33% are obese. We add to the problem by not feeding our children appetizing, nutritious food nor are we giving them enough time during lunch to eat in our crowded urban schools. No school should be serving chips, pizza, soda and candy for lunch.

We need to prepare our kids to make good nutritional habits starting at a young age in order to combat our obesity, heart disease and other weight-related illnesses. Studies show that nutritional school lunches raise student achievement. We should be incentivizing and bringing to scale ideas like the Edible Schoolyard Project, born right here in AD15, which interweaves student-led urban gardening with nutritional lunches to serve healthy meals to our students. We should increase public funding for Farm to School programs. As it does on many issues, California should be leading the way nationally on providing the most nutritious school lunches available.

So how are we going to fund these principles I believe in so strongly? One way to provide more revenue, is to close the Proposition 13 commercial property loophole. By doing so, we will add $9–11.4 billion into our state budget every year. This would mean that big corporations like Chevron, Transamerica, and Disney would be required to pay their market-rate fair share of property tax. This would infuse the critical resources our state needs to ensure our children have the quality education they deserve, and these corporations would benefit from a better educated workforce.

California once had the best public schools in the country. Families moved west in search of better opportunity and quality education for their children. Unfortunately, California now ranks 47th out of 50th in standard of living for children. One in four children go hungry every day. We rank 41st in the nation on spending per child. More troubling, access to quality schools all too often is determined by where a child lives. Thus, there are glaring racial and socioeconomic inequities.

We are failing many our children; especially children of color. It is unconscionable. We urgently need a “kids-first” agenda, one that prepares our students for the changing workforce of the future. An educated workforce is not only critical to our economic growth, but essential in our ability to combat the growing wealth inequalities that are so pervasive in California.

Here’s what I will fight for:

More Funding For Schools

We must invest in our children by investing in our schools. California has only recently dug out of the deep hole created by the recession, and we remain woefully behind other states when it comes to ensuring our public schools have the resources they need to prepare our children for college and careers.

The quality of a school depends on the teachers in the classrooms, and therefore we must ensure teaching is a profession that is desirable and viable. We should provide more professional development, coaching, mentoring, and resources for continued education. We should pay our teachers more. In areas with a high cost of living, like Assembly District 15, we need to provide housing assistance so our educators can live within the communities in which they work.

We have a significant teacher shortage, particularly for science and math, and have the highest teacher to student ratio in the country. We should reinstate recruitment and incentives programs to attract and retain racially and culturally diverse teachers.

Address the Needs of the Whole Child

We know learning in the classroom is significantly impacted by circumstances outside of the classroom. It’s critical we look at the whole child and address their social, emotional, and behavioral growth to provide each child the opportunity to thrive. Children living in pervasive poverty and experiencing trauma need schools with more resources to address their social and emotional needs. These resources should include school psychologists, nurses, librarians and an investment in restorative justice programs where it makes sense.

Children who are socially and emotionally developed handle challenging difficult situations better; they create positive relationships, learn to check their emotions, and can calm themselves when upset. The ability to hone these skills enable children to learn and achieve at higher levels.

Learning Starts on Day One

Since children begin to learn from the day they are born, we should think of early child care as education and as an entitlement, like elementary school, social security, unemployment benefits or Medicare.

To this end, we should subsidize quality child care on a sliding scale and fund universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds. We should professionalize the care industry by unionizing the workforce, providing professional development and apprenticeship programs and increase their educational requirements so early caregivers can receive the same pay as elementary school teachers.

Early childhood educators should have access to free community college as well as housing assistance as a way to live where they work. The more affordable and quality early education our children get, the better a society we are.

High Expectations and Accountability for All of Our Schools

Every school should be great. We should expect the best from all of our public schools, both traditional public schools as well as charter public schools. Along with increased funding and support for our public schools, we should set high standards informed by multiple measures for accountability — academic achievement, dropout rates, rates of suspension, graduation rates, etc — and clear transparency in how resources are spent.

We should support and model the successful elements of high performing public schools so other students can benefit. For consistently low performing public schools, increased funding should be coupled with clear accountability and a focus on supporting and developing strong school leaders.

Charter public schools can serve a need in our community, but we need more transparency and accountability in how they are run. Charter public schools must be subject to the Brown Act, the Political Reform Act and the Public Records Act, as this would enable parents and the community at large more insight into how taxpayer dollars are being spent.

We need to make it easier to identify poor performing charter public schools and to take action to quickly fix or shut those schools down. We need to find ways for charter public schools to work with district schools. Collaboration requires both the district as well as the charter to both come to the table in partnership. Lastly, we need to outlaw for-profit charter schools and under no circumstance should we consider vouchers for private schools.

Preparing Students for Life

We should be preparing students with tangible skills for life. I believe we need more project-based learning opportunities, where students learn by completing inter-disciplinary projects that solve complex real-world questions. Kids learn through doing and collaborating, and hands on projects are a vehicle for gaining skills traditionally taught through lectures and worksheets.

Project based learning emphasizes higher-order learning skills — critical thinking, synthesis, and evaluation — over comprehension or memorization skills. For instance, we should start financial literacy at a young age, and teach our kids the basics, like how to save, how to spend within their means and how the stock market works.

Research has shown that students who engage in regular project-based learning demonstrate better problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and do better on standardized tests than their peers. In order to successfully implement this model, teachers need training, coaching and high-quality planning materials. Partnerships between secondary schools and higher education should be strengthened to leverage resources and provide additional opportunities for students through mentorship programs, professional development for teachers, curriculum materials, and early college preparation instruction.

Reinvent Higher Education

The California Master Plan of 1960 established significant public investments in our higher education system — laying the framework for University of California, California State University, and California Community College schools. This set California on the path to becoming the 6th largest economy in the world.

Over the course of time, most notably since the early 2000s, we have significantly reduced public funding to our higher education institutions. We are transferring that cost to students, many of whom now face significant student debt. I believe we need to return to the spirit of the California Master Plan and prioritize our higher education system, making higher education accessible to all.

Students today deserve to have the same opportunities as past generations. Specifically, we need to make college debt-free for low-to-middle income students, not only covering the cost of tuition but housing, food and books. This means generating stable, predictable revenue as well as prioritizing higher education in our state budget process.

Since 1980, we have built one new UC campus, while at the same time adding 22 new prisons. University of California, Berkeley currently receives only 11% of its total budget from the State, but it continues to be a major economic engine for the state and one of the top universities for upward mobility. The state investment in our colleges and universities more than pays for itself through their contributions to innovation, job creation and increased incomes for graduates. At UC, within five years of graduation, the majority of Pell grant recipient students will earn more than their family. As the state grapples with the growing income inequality, investments in education can advance social and economic mobility while supporting state workforce needs. But we must invest more public dollars.

Our community colleges should be free to all, and we should support programs that aim to help students graduate or transfer. We need to create incentives for students to attend under-utilized campuses, which would help alleviate overcrowded campuses.

We should also promote concurrent enrollment across campuses to create flexibility for our students as well as leverage online learning. Lastly, we should create a higher education system that promotes lifelong learning and seeks to help non-traditional students gain the educational credentials necessary to compete in the modern workforce.

Feeding our Children to Create Lifelong Nutritional Habits

We have tragic paradox — a quarter of our kids go hungry every day, and yet 33% are obese. We add to the problem by not feeding our children appetizing, nutritious food nor are we giving them enough time during lunch to eat in our crowded urban schools. No school should be serving chips, pizza, soda and candy for lunch.

We need to prepare our kids to make good nutritional habits starting at a young age in order to combat our obesity, heart disease and other weight-related illnesses. Studies show that nutritional school lunches raise student achievement. We should be incentivizing and bringing to scale ideas like the Edible Schoolyard Project, born right here in AD15, which interweaves student-led urban gardening with nutritional lunches to serve healthy meals to our students. We should increase public funding for Farm to School programs. As it does on many issues, California should be leading the way nationally on providing the most nutritious school lunches available.

So how are we going to fund these principles I believe in so strongly? One way to provide more revenue, is to close the Proposition 13 commercial property loophole. By doing so, we will add $9–11.4 billion into our state budget every year. This would mean that big corporations like Chevron, Transamerica, and Disney would be required to pay their market-rate fair share of property tax. This would infuse the critical resources our state needs to ensure our children have the quality education they deserve, and these corporations would benefit from a better educated workforce.

The greatest threat to our prosperity, diversity and equity in the Bay Area is the skyrocketing cost of housing. Neighborhoods with access to good schools and public transportation are now out of reach even for middle-income families. Our housing crisis is part and parcel of our broader struggle with growing wealth inequality — California has the highest concentration of billionaires and millionaires, while at the same time 40% of population is living at or near the poverty line. Housing is a fundamental human need and our current status quo is simply not meeting that need.

Forcing people from all walks of life to move further and further away from their jobs and spend hours on the road commuting is not a Bay Area or progressive value. Our severe housing shortage is pushing away the very people that give our communities their strength, vitality, and character. Teachers, first responders, restaurant workers, seniors, artists, and activists find themselves increasingly excluded from the Bay Area’s thriving urban centers, disproportionately impacting communities of color.

Bay Area cities that refuse to build enough housing for the people who work there do real harm to individual and public health, to our environment, and most of all, to the people who are left homeless by the housing shortage. As I work to address California’s housing crisis, I will never forget there are people for whom our decisions can mean the difference between being housed and being on street.

As the next Assemblymember for District 15, I would fight for progressive and practical solutions that focus on creating homes for everyone who wants to be a part of our community. I firmly believe that we can achieve sensible policies that create housing, strengthen our neighborhoods, and help the Bay Area live up to its values of welcoming newcomers and sharing prosperity.

The California legislature — with leadership by the Bay Area’s very own Senators Skinner and Weiner, and Assembly Members Thurmond, Bonta, and Chiu — took a significant step in the right direction last fall by passing a set of bills called the “Housing Package.” The Housing Package provides funding to house the homeless, helps communities better plan for new residents, and speeds up homebuilding in places that aren’t building their fair share of homes. But we have to do more.

Here’s what I will fight for as your next Assemblymember:

Build more homes for folks at all income levels — and build them quickly.

We need more housing across the board. We need affordable housing for families and folks threatened by homelessness. Our homelessness crisis is squarely a result of our housing shortage. To fix this, we need to expand upon the affordable housing funding measures passed in the legislature last year to increase the production of subsidized housing for low income people. This means we need to pass the $4 billion dollar statewide housing bond. In addition, we should consider creating the California Public Infrastructure Bank, devoted to financing more affordable housing. We also need more homes for our teachers, nurses, non-profit workers and other middle-income folks. To this end, we should create workforce housing and reclaim public lands like parking lots for housing. We should also support alternative ways to promote more housing like incentivizing limited equity housing cooperatives and accessory dwelling units. Building more homes at all income levels — low income and market rate — will ease the pressure cooker nature of our market and get Bay Area people into the homes they need.

Protect existing tenants from displacement, especially seniors and people with disabilities.

We have to guard aggressively against displacement and create a safety net for low income families, who are our most vulnerable residents on the brink of instability. Two out of five Californians live in or around the poverty line. Three out of four Californians can’t weather an emergency expense of $700 or more. Nearly half of renters spend 35% of of their income on rent. We can create policy and provide relief in a few potential ways.

One, we should fix Costa-Hawkins, the state law which outlaws rent stabilization for any unit built after 1995. One potential fix could include a rolling date for buildings to come under local rent stabilization laws, as opposed to the 1995 fixed date. This would ensure new housing can be financed and built to support community needs while still empowering local municipalities to implement appropriate rent stabilization measures.

Secondly, we should significantly increase and expand the Renters Tax Credit (RTC) and set rates based on metro area. The RTC is currently only $60 per person or $120 for a family. Homeowners get the financial benefit of deducting their mortgage interest. Renters need relief too. Putting real money into the pockets of our renters can go along way to helping those out who are $700 away from falling over a precipice and spiraling into poverty.

Lastly, to prevent unscrupulous landlords from wrongly kicking tenants out of their homes, I would also push for legal services for folks facing unfair eviction. We know this works. We’ve seen success in the Sargent Shriver Civil Counsel Act pilot program designed to help low-income Californians facing high-stakes civil cases. The results were a drastic increase in the likelihood of settlement, the majority of which reduced back-owed rent or helped protect tenants’ credit by keeping eviction notices off the public record. Among Shriver program clients, 67% of cases settled, as compared to 34% of people who represented themselves. While all Shriver clients received eviction notices, only 6% were ultimately evicted from their homes. Let’s bring this to scale and really help those that need it.

Grow in a sustainable way by building more homes in walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods.

As progressives, we know that welcoming new people to our country and our communities does not mean sacrificing our quality of life. Our cities are far too dependent on cars, roadways, and interstates. As we build new housing, we need to do so in forward thinking ways that makes walking possible and incentivizes use of public transportation and bike commuting. Consequently, we should be linking our housing goals with transportation funding so we can create incentives for cities to build. Creating walkable neighborhoods along transit corridors is critical to meet our climate action goals and support safe and healthy communities.

Tackle Our Homelessness Crisis Head On

We can’t talk about housing without addressing our growing homelessness crisis. We see it everyday and it’s time to act. We need to do three things: one, we should provide a safety net to prevent homelessness before it starts. Those most vulnerable are folks who are exiting from criminal justice, health care, child welfare system and military institutions. They should be discharged into stable housing, rather than onto the street. We should provide mental health services, substance abuse counseling, education and employment assistance. Secondly, we need to prevent chronic homelessness by responding quickly to those newly on the streets. Folks need access to shelters with low barriers of entry and rapid rehousing with short term rental assistance. Lastly, we need to invest significant resources for the chronically homeless and those with severe disabilities. This means permanent supportive housing without any preconditions, which is a necessary foundation to begin treating health issues. This should be housing with no time limit and wraparound supportive services that promote residents’ recovery and maximize their independence.

I believe in — and am committed to fighting for — an East Bay that is sustainable and accessible to all. This is why Assemblymember David Chiu, chair of the Housing Committee, and State Senator Scott Wiener, a member of the Housing and Transportation Committee, have endorsed my candidacy. We need practical, pragmatic policies to get us there. I know from talking to you and your family, friends, and neighbors that you expect a representative who not only cares about your issues, but who is dedicated to achieving workable solutions that can win statewide support. I believe that I am the candidate who can meet those expectations, and I hope you’ll join with me as I work to bring California home.

Aside from my service on the Richmond City Council, I work as a full-time children’s wrap-around mental health specialist for Contra Costa County. Every day I see the effects of poor health and rediscover the needs of our children and families in my day-to-day work. I will bring my ground-level experience to discussions and legislation in Sacramento aimed at improving Californians’ physical, mental, and economic health. I believe California needs to focus on five aspects of the healthcare problem right away: (1) working for a single-payer healthcare system, (2) retaining access and affordability even while working on single-payer, (3) preserving and enhancing healthcare access and delivery for all California residents, (4) promoting provider coordination, and (5) emphasizing preventive and community healthcare approaches.

1. Single Payer Healthcare

In April 2011, long before introduction of the current single-payer bill (SB 562 and its analogue in the Assembly), I co-authored a resolution adopted by the Richmond City Council supporting Senate Bill 810, the California Universal Health Care Act of 2011. In the intervening years, as single-payer has moved to the center of national debate and become supported by a majority of Americans, its urgency for California has only increased.

As a State Assembly member, I will do everything in my power to enact single-payer health coverage for all Californians as would happen with adoption and implementation of SB562. The Assembly should move ahead with its own hearings and draft legislation to implement a single-payer system. Few if any policy changes could do more to protect the health of our communities, lower costs and boost our economy than universal, single-payer healthcare.

If we instituted single-payer Health insurance coverage, we would not only reduce the costs of medical care, we would absolutely improve the health status of our communities. We could also begin to redirect money to prevent illnesses, rather than just waiting to treat people when they become chronically ill.  We not only have a moral obligation to heal the sick, we also owe it to ourselves to improve the health of all of our residents. As somebody who works with the mentally ill, I see every day the consequences of the Health disparities in our communities that could be dramatically improved with equitable health insurance coverage for everyone.  As the opioid epidemic claims and victims every day, we do not provide adequate funding for treating those with drug addiction disorders. Instead of criminalizing these victims, we could be providing appropriate and necessary treatment to help them overcome their addiction.

Physicians for a National Health Care Program (PNHCP), a physician-led organization, states, “We already pay enough for health care for all – we just don’t get it. Americans already have the highest health spending in the world, but we get less care (doctor, hospital, etc.) than people in many other industrialized countries. Because we pay for health care through a patchwork of private insurance companies, about one-third (31 percent) of our health spending goes to administration.”

PNHCP explains that single-payer

. . .is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health care financing, but the delivery of care remains largely in private hands. Under a single-payer system, all residents . . . would be covered for all medically necessary services, including doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs. The program would be funded by the savings obtained from replacing today’s inefficient, profit-oriented, multiple insurance payers with a single streamlined, nonprofit, public payer, and by modest new taxes based on ability to pay. Premiums would disappear; 95 percent of all households would save money. Patients would no longer face financial barriers to care such as copays and deductibles, and would regain free choice of doctor and hospital. Doctors would regain autonomy over patient care. [http://www.pnhp.org/sites/default/files/faq_2018.pdf]

While I favor a national health-care system, California is certainly a large enough economic unit that we could embark on such a system even before the federal government does so. As in so many other areas, California could lead the country to better health. As the PNHCP says about the US as a whole, in a state system, “Replacing private insurers. . . would recover money currently squandered on billing, marketing, underwriting and other activities that sustain insurers’ profits but divert resources from care. . . .  Combined with what we’re already spending, this is more than enough to provide comprehensive coverage for everyone.” 

2. Retaining Access in Advance of Single-Payer

The Assembly and Senate will likely take some time to hone a single-payer system, and if experience with the current governor is any indicator, even passage would not guarantee rapid implementation. There are tremendously important things we need to do to retain broad access to healthcare for all Californians as we fight for, devise, and transition into a single-payer system (whether this takes place at the federal or state level).

Even as we seek improvements, our citizens are threatened by US Congress H.R. 1628, the American Health Care Act, which seeks to repeal and replace President Obama’s effort to improve health coverage for Americans, the Affordable Care Act.

California can protect its citizens from these federal misdeeds. Rather than destroying Medi-Cal by underfunding it, as the federal government is attempting to do, we must preserve Medi-Cal. Legislators need to establish protections and continue to expand services regardless of federal proposals as we continue our statewide mobilization for a single-payer system.

While working for single-payer, I will fight to ensure that workers’ wages cannot be continually cut to make up for rising healthcare costs. Employers’ cuts to employee healthcare benefits highlight the need for single payer healthcare.

California healthcare workers are facing understaffed departments and are forced to work overtime, putting patients and employees at risk. We must make sure healthcare employers commit to providing safe staffing levels and paying competitive wages to prevent a healthcare provider crisis. Sacramento needs to pay more attention to conditions of and compensation for our healthcare workers, including helping healthcare workers to find and afford housing within reasonable distances from their workplaces.

Nurse/patient ratios are established for patient and nurse health and safety; they must be followed or people will die. Nurses put their lives on the line to save other’s lives, and they have every right to refuse unsafe assignments. I would initiate or support legislation that upholds and strengthens these standards by increasing the number of inspectors and mandating stiff penalties for facilities that violate them.

3. Preserve and enhance healthcare access for all California residents

Throughout California there are healthcare deserts, communities that lack access to vital healthcare professionals and institutions. We must establish and preserve clinics, hospitals and transportation options to make sure that all Californians have the healthcare access they need.

The consolidation and centralization of healthcare providers – one of the consequences of corporatized health systems – is part of the reason hospitals and clinics have closed down in rural and outlying communities and even in locations in major cities that, for some reason, the big health companies find undesirable. California needs to develop compensatory financing systems so that all its citizens are close to needed healthcare services including clinics, urgent care and hospital facilities. In my own district, I’ll fight to preserve Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley.

4. provider coordination

Especially because healthcare has become a profession of usually dispersed specialties that individuals have to figure out how to navigate just at the worst time – when they need help – I believe it’s vital to improve coordination between the institutions that come most closely into contact especially with our neediest citizens in helping to determine individuals’ healthcare needs and ways to serve them. Community colleges, school districts, cities, counties and other agencies need to develop coordination and cooperation routines for the delivery of social, health, and mental health services.

5. Prevention and community health

Beyond trying to fix our very flawed sickness care delivery system, we must think about individual and community health in a very different way. Let’s think about preventing illness and keeping communities healthy in the first place. Even then-Senator Barack Obama voiced concern in 2008 with these very stark words: "Simply put, in the absence of a radical shift toward prevention and public health, we will not be successful in containing medical costs, and improving the health of the American people."

So what would preventing illness actually look like? Here are two examples that California could easily implement if the political will was present:

First, a state-funded public health media and nutrition campaign to counter the obesity epidemic, much as HIV has been addressed in the past. The obesity epidemic is causing catastrophic premature illness and mortality but it is entirely preventable!

The elements of nutritional health are well known. Whatever the fad diets of the day, the vast preponderance of scientific evidence shows that diets rich in fresh vegetables and fruit, with substantial protein (whether meat or vegetable) and whole grains and nuts, consumed in moderate portions and without significant amounts of added sugar or refined carbohydrates reduces obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. But on a day-to-day basis, many of California’s citizens don’t follow the experts’ advice. Advertising, ready and cheap availability of processed foods and sugar-laden treats are levying huge healthcare costs and individual suffering on our citizens. What can we do? Our schools can help with nutrition education; our state can adopt taxes that raise the prices of unhealthy foods just as they did with cigarettes; our healthcare providers can be urged to address their clients holistically and preventively, not just therapeutically. The state can help make Californians healthier!

Second, much as California has decriminalized marijuana, it should consider decriminalization of the use of illegal drugs. Drug addiction and use must be addressed as public health issues, not matters of criminal justice. This would improve outcomes and hugely reduce pressure on our justice and incarceration systems. Think of all the lives that could be saved, the needless victimization of addicts that could be avoided, and the billions of dollars that could be saved by dramatically reducing the prison industrial complex. With drug addiction considered a health problem within a framework of preventive healthcare built upon principles of benefit for patients rather than benefits for insurance companies and huge healthcare companies, drug treatment facilities could replace prisons for many people whose prospects now are being crushed by inappropriate punitive, rather than curative or maintenance approaches.

Corporate-free politics and California’s Health

Right now, legislation and legislative initiatives in California are dominated by lobbyists. These people have the expertise, the funding, the longevity in Sacramento and the dedication to delve deeply into their policy areas and to craft legislation that serves their employers. Unfortunately, their employers are mostly large corporations that have interests in legislation that protects their profits.

I’m running for Assembly District 15 as a corporate-free candidate. Having worked steadily in my day job as a mental health wrap-around specialist for children, spending much of my remaining time engaged in Richmond politics seeking to improve life in my community on the basis of grassroots, ground-level upward mobilization of people’s talents, I’m convinced that California as a whole could vastly improve its residents’ health by pursuing a single-payer, state-defended, highly accessible, coordinated and significantly preventive healthcare system.

These aren’t the innovations that the big corporations view as important to them. They aren’t necessarily profit centers. But for California’s people, they are vital and they are attainable. That’s what I plan to work on in Sacramento as a representative of Assembly District 15.

Dan has spent much of his career developing policy and leading advocacy campaigns to promote clean energy, implement effective climate solutions, reduce air pollution, fight for environmental health and justice strategies, defend the rights of animals, and protect our parks, waterways and open spaces. Dan also believes that by growing our green economy, we can create more good, green jobs for residents while protecting the environment for generations to come.

Sadly, the Trump administration is seeking to undo hard-fought environmental laws and regulation at the behest of polluters who have taken over the EPA. Now more than ever, we need a State Assemblymember with state-level experience who can hit the ground running and pass bold, progressive legislation to protect the health of our communities, help those who need assistance the most, and stand up strong to the anti-science and anti-environmental assaults from the Trump Administration.  

Dan is a board member and past president of Stop Waste—Alameda County’s Recycling and Waste authority—where he helped push through a substantial expansion of the county’s plastic bag ban. Dan is also the current Vice-chair of East Bay Community Energy, where he is advancing local efforts to increase our use of renewable energy. Dan is also a Commissioner on the Alameda County Transportation Commission. 

Prior to holding elected office, Dan: 

• Helped lead the effort to stop the SFO runway expansion out into San Francisco Bay

• Fought to protect sensitive Bay Area habitat and open spaces for future generations

• Worked as a grass-roots campaign organizer to help elect pro-environment candidates to public office

• Promoting the increased use of clean energy for electricity 

• Worked to enact public financing of campaigns in California

• Was a lead environmental advocate for the law that required at least one-third of electricity to come from clean, renewable sources. Worked in a broad environmental-labor-consumer coalition

• Wrote the state law to require that a certain alternative transportation fuel be made from clean sources 

• Created and wrote state law to require labels on new cars for sale with rankings of greenhouse gas emissions and smog emissions, which was so successful it was subsequently adopted by the federal government 

• Lobbied for passage of AB 32—California’s landmark Climate Protection and Clean Energy law—and worked on the first AB 32 scoping plan

• Lobbied in support or SB 1368 (Perata) that effectively phased out new coal contracts for electricity in California.   

• Lead sponsor and advocate for bill by then-Assemblymember De Leon to restrict the use of offsets for compliance with AB 32

• Student leader in the 1982 Stop the Canal campaign

• Campaigned for strong Bottle Bill laws

• Worked in coalition to reduce Air Pollution in impacted communities

(partial list)

On the City Council, Dan: 

• Banned coal in Oakland by stopping a coal export terminal which would’ve brought more than nine million tons of coal through East Bay each year

• In collaboration with the climate change group 350.org, passed the law to divest Oakland funds away from fossil fuel companies

• Diverted food waste from landfills by implementing mandatory compost bins in multi-family buildings

• Fought for animal protections by leading and passing legislation to ban bullhook torture on animals  

• Successfully pushed Oakland retirement funds to divest from fossil fuel companies

• Secured funding for further reducing stormwater trash as required to meet state Water Board mandates to keep trash out of the Bay

• Passed a resolution against shipments of crude oil and other fossil fuels by rail

• Immediate Past President of StopWaste—Alameda County Waste Management Authority. Lead successful effort on the board to expand the County’s Plastic Bag Ban

• Leader to create a County-wide Community Choice Energy Authority. Currently, vice-chair of the East Bay Community Energy authority

(partial list)

In the State Legislature, Dan will focus on:

• Maintaining and increasing California’s commitment to being a world-wide climate solutions leader

• Ensuring that all California residents can participate in the green economy 

• Banning fracking for oil in California

• Investing in solar and other renewable energy sources to get us on a pathway to 100% renewables

• Promoting cleaner alternative fuels and the electrification of the bulk of our transportation infrastructure 

• Working to protect our old growth forests

• Protecting our sensitive habitats and wildlife

• Preserving our open spaces and farmland, and enhancing our state parks

• Ensuring disproportionately impacted communities get the relief they deserve from pollution

• Prioritizing the environmental health of people over industry profits

• Pushing CalPERS and CalSTRS to fully divest from fossil fuels

• Protecting our offshore waters from oil drilling

• Banning plastic packaging and food containers

• Increasing recycling and reducing the use of wasteful materials

• Supporting the scientists and engineers working for state government to address our environmental challenges

Dan is passionate about public education and has worked hard to make Oakland City Hall a better and more engaged partner with our public schools. Before his election, Dan served on the Youth Leadership and Community Safety Strategic Planning Task Force for the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth. A one-time administrator at a Bay Area community college, Dan has been a committed advocate for public education throughout his professional career. Previously, he worked to promote innovations in science and mathematics education.

Dan is proud of the partnership he created with the school district and administrators to reduce chronic absenteeism and improve grade-level literacy, thereby helping to improve outcomes and equity in our public schools.

The 15th District is home to U.C. Berkeley and the statewide University of California Office of the President as well as a few community college campuses. Dan is a steadfast supporter of moving toward tuition-free college education for all California residents. 

In the State Assembly, Dan will use his commitment and experience to fight for more funding and improved resources for East Bay schools and will advocate for better student outcomes for all children by investing inside, and outside, the classroom.

On the Oakland City Council, Dan:

• Created an innovative partnership with Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) to reduce chronic absenteeism and truancy in our public elementary schools

• Sponsored the adopted resolution at the Oakland City Council to endorse Assemblymember Susan Eggman’s bill to create tuition-free college for all eligible California residents (funded through a tax on millionaires)

• Was named California Public Library Advocates’ 2015 Outstanding Elected Official for advocacy on behalf of Public Libraries

• Supported the increased use of restorative justice and peer conflict mediation in the community and in our schools 

In the State Legislature, Dan will focus on:

• Combating chronic absenteeism at public schools in the East Bay and throughout our state

• Fighting for tuition-free college education for all college-bound California residents (UC, Cal State Univ., and Community Colleges)

• Advocating for expansion of funding and programs to help youth who have been subjected to domestic violence or abuse in the home

• Expanding state’s commitment to quality Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) instruction in our public schools

• Increasing and promoting Linked Learning opportunities for high school students

• Pushing to strengthen the state’s commitment to quality and accessible pre-school 

• Seeking to provide more funding for peer conflict mediation and restorative justice in our public middle and high schools

• Bringing back our commitment to Adult Education as a funding priority for school districts

Standing Up to Trump and His Ilk

Dan will continue to stand up to the Trump Administration and make sure California is an effective backstop to the regressive policies being touted in Washington, D.C. In the State Assembly, Dan will work to defend our civil liberties from Republican attacks.

Our First Amendment

Dan is a passionate defender of the First Amendment. Our freedoms of speech, peaceful assemble, and to petition government for action must be preserved and defended. Dan is committed to maintaining the separation of church and state and defending the freedom of the free press – especially from a White House that attacks the press on a daily basis.

Combatting Racism

Standing up to racism is nothing new for Dan. He knows racism can be blatant or subtle, with malice or unintentional, institutional or personal, and he believes all forms of racism must stop and that we must acknowledge inherent privilege and work toward evening the playing field. Too many people of color are being killed or harmed because of racism and police misconduct – Dan believes enough is enough. We must work to end this violence and hold those who inflict it accountable. Additionally, we must repeal Prop. 209 at the earliest possible election.

Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia

Dan will continue to stand up against hate and discrimination of his brothers and sisters in the Jewish Community and their cousins of the Muslim faith. Dan volunteered at the GRIP center in Richmond as part of a Jewish-Muslim interfaith working group and he believes that open communication and collaboration are essential to increasing awareness and finding solutions.

Protecting Our Immigrant Residents

Dan stood up to Fox’s Tucker Carlson and will always speak up for our immigrant residents. He believes that we should not be splitting up families and taking people away from their workplaces solely because of their documentation status. Dan will continue to work closely with, and support the efforts of, Mayor Libby Schaaf in standing up to the Trump Administration.

Homophobia and LGBTQ Equality

Dan has been a steadfast supporter of equal rights for LGBTQ residents, including when, as a college student, he spoke up against the Briggs Initiative. In the State Assembly, Dan will back initiatives and policies that support LQBTQ members and their families so that all Californians have the same opportunities to thrive.