Politics & Culture

The Sum of Us

How is it that the richest and most powerful country in the world can’t provide even the most basic of human needs for its citizens? What has been holding America back when much poorer countries are able to provide a more stable social safety net? Heather McGhee joins Michael to discuss the idea of how a “solidarity dividend” can unite a multi-racial, cross-class coalition to take on concentrated wealth and power and build a better country.

Amanda Gorman
​Inauguration Poem

America, This is Your Chance

Our democracy hangs in the balance. This is not an overstatement. As protests, riots, and police violence roiled the nation last week, the president vowed to send the military to quell persistent rebellions and looting, whether governors wanted a military occupation or not. John Allen, a retired four-star Marine general, wrote that we may be witnessing the “beginning of the end of the American experiment” because of President Trump’s catastrophic failures. Please click here or below to read Michelle Alexander's recent piece in the NY Times.

Great Article on Coronaviruses

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COVID-19 and the virus that causes it, SARS-CoV-2, have focused the public’s attention on coronaviruses like never before. But medical researchers have more than half a century of experience with this family of viruses — by the time they identified the first human version in 1965, multiple animal coronaviruses were already known to exist. Since then, dozens of additional coronaviruses have been discovered in wildlife, livestock and humans.

The 1619 Project

The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.

Race & America's Long War

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Historian Nikhil Singh and Journalist Jeremy Scahill discuss why it's risky to erase the line between the horrible things Trump does and the horrible things the U.S. has done for a long time. It’s a complicated conversation. It means exploring the roots of white supremacy in the U.S., the way American wars are constantly put through a laundering process to make them seem noble and brave, the way “real American” has been defined and continues to be defined in our society.

Congresswoman Ihan Omar Models Change

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Mehdi Hasan: A lot of people aren’t aware of the kind of crazy racist, Islamophobic abuse that you and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan have received since arriving here in Congress.
Ilhan Omar: It sort of feels like it comes with the territory. I mean, we’re shifting the idea of who should have a seat at the table. These systems really weren’t built for people like Rashida and myself. I think we can focus on the doors that we have to open and keep open or let this deter us...

Angélique Kidjo sings
"A Change is Gonna Come"at the
Women's March on Washington

California Community Colleges

2021-22 State Budget

The Legislature voted to approve the 2021-22 state budget. The historic $262.2 billion budget includes:
  • $100 million ongoing to increase the number of full-time faculty.
  • $10 million ongoing and $90 million one-time to increase part-time faculty office hours.
  • $371.2 million ongoing Proposition 98 to provide a 5% cost-of-living adjustment to CCC apportionments.
  • Extends the hold harmless provision of the Student Centered Funding Formula by one year to 2024-25.
  • $30 million ongoing Proposition 98 to support basic needs centers and coordinators, $30 million ongoing Proposition 98 to support student mental health programs, $100 million one-time Proposition 98 to support student basic needs, and $250 million one-time in emergency financial aid.
  • $4.9 million ongoing for Umoja, $8 million ongoing for MESA, $7 million ongoing for Puente Program, and $20 million ongoing for EOPS.

Resisting Decades of "Reform" Movement Disruption in the California Community Colleges

California community college practitioners, students, and stakeholders must make an effort to engage in honest discussion about the billionaire-funded “reform” policies that have steered the California Community Colleges off course for decades. Committed to the California Community Colleges as a public good that belongs to every student who can benefit from the education we offer, let us work together to stop the “reform”-influenced advocacy groups from defunding and derailing our community colleges.

Support Part-time Faculty &
​Defund Calbright College

Just as the coronavirus crisis magnifies systemic inequities in societies across the globe, it also magnifies systemic absurdities. Now the absurdity of pouring taxpayer dollars into Calbright, a project that is fiscally wasteful, is impossible to ignore. As taxpayers who love and benefit from the community colleges, we have an opportunity to address such absurd spending. When people’s lives are in jeopardy, this kind of spending should be called out and redirected into educationally and ethically sound investments. Please click below for more...

Please sign this letter to Governor Newsom to take action!

Why Faculty Matter:
​The Role of Faculty in the Success of Community College Students

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Across the United States over the past 50 years, there has been a coordinated movement to divest in public education, faculty, and labor unions. Until fairly recently, the California Community College system has resisted pressure to change its funding structure to a performance-based funding model that has proven to harm students. Until fairly recently, the California Community College system has honored and benefited from a democratic model of decision-making and recognized the need to invest in its faculty. This paper argues the following:
  • Faculty/student interaction is the key ingredient for student success.
  • Investment in faculty correlates with increases in student success rates. Divestment from faculty correlates with decreases in student success rates.
  • The importance of investment in faculty was embraced in AB 1725 (Vasconcellos, 1988), which included the adoption of the goal that 75% of all credit instruction should be taught by full-time faculty. The current percentage of credit instruction taught by full-time faculty is around 56% and has been declining over the past two decades. The full-time faculty headcount is around 30% and has not changed in the past two decades. 
  • Along with investing in full-time faculty, the system must empower and compensate part-time faculty to perform all faculty duties. Full support for part-time faculty would include pay parity, medical benefits, paid office hours, and compensation for out-of-classroom duties.
  • An ethnically and racially diverse faculty leads to increased rates of student success.

© 2021 Debbie Klein