April 28, 2026 · Select Status Boys And Men Color · 14,601 words · 17 speakers · 50 segments
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to the Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color. Today we're going to be talking about from the cradle to college and career pipelines, the education of our boys and men of color. This is the second hearing of the Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color. You might remember the first hearing took place in Los Angeles at Chucos Justice Center. In addition to having a tour of Los Padrino's juvenile hall, I want to thank my colleague, Assemblymember Mike Fong, who has attended both hearings, and my colleague Jeff Gonzalez from the Imperial Valley, who's here with us today and a member of this committee. Also should be noted from our first hearing, two bills were derived from community, from incarcerated youth. We introduced those pieces of legislation, and they are making their way through the legislative process, one with bipartisan unanimous support and one that has robust majority support. With that, I want to respect the time of my colleagues who have made an effort to be with us today and open the floor for opening remarks from Mr. Fong or Mr. Gonzalez, if you have any. Mr. Fong.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, and good afternoon, everyone. And thank you so much to our Chair, Senator Isaac Bryan, for your tremendous leadership and efforts on the Select Committee and for holding this hearing focused on educational issues. And thank you for hosting a robust meeting a few months back at Chico Justice Center. That was a powerful, powerful meeting. And we know that across California, there's an opportunity gap amongst boys and young men of color. While we celebrate the progress that has been made over the last 15 years, we know there's still so much more work ahead of us. And this includes repairing the harms caused by systems of mass incarceration, reversing historic underinvestment in communities of color, and reshaping the economic and social structures that were built with others in mind. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be part of this work with you and the committee. And thank you for many of you for supporting Assembly Bill 805, which increases apprenticeship opportunities for those ages between 16 and 24 years of age, many of whom are individuals who have been involved with foster care or the justice system, experiences homelessness, or individuals with disabilities. We know there's more work to be done in these areas. And we know that in order to strengthen California, we must ensure that everyone has the opportunity to meet their full potential and look forward to today's conversation around education. And thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Assemblymember Fong. And as the chair of our standing committee on higher education, I think on behalf of everyone who's here today, we're grateful for your leadership and for your willingness to join us and cross with the select committee. Thank you. Assemblymember Gonzalez.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank you for inviting me to this bipartisan group. And that's important for people to understand that these topics are not a partisan topic. These topics are for all Californians. These topics are important for all Californians because, you know, I get the opportunity to sit with the chairman of the higher education committee, Mike Fong. And, you know, we look through the lens of of it for all of California and what's right for all of California. Not because what's right for one party or the other, but what's right for our community. and I've had the opportunity to sit on many committees and sign on to many bills as a co-author, especially with both of my colleagues, on topics that the partisan community would say, what are you doing? And my response is, the right thing, because that's what we have to look at. The world wants to divide, and it's our job as leaders is to unite, not only as a pastor and a Shepard, as a Marine veteran, and as a legislator, my job is to know my words and use my words for unity and to uplift. And I'm thankful that I can be here today. One of the things that I talk about a lot in Higher Education Committee and in other committees is how we rethink higher education in California, from rural communities to urban communities to suburban communities to communities of color to financial communities across the board. Not everyone can get up and pick their stuff up and go. Some folks have to be right where they're at to help their family or whatever that situation is. So I'm thankful to be here and part of this conversation because it's important that if we don't start looking at higher education from cradle to college in a different lens than what we've had, then we're just going to keep on doing the same thing over and over and over again. So I welcome this conversation. I welcome the experts here to give their testimony. But most importantly, I'm thankful for the unifying conversation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Gonzalez. A point of personal privilege, one of the most powerful moments I had on the assembly floor last year was two-part. we brought incarcerated youth from the Pine Grove Conservation Camp to the assembly floor. It was the first time incarcerated youth, while still incarcerated, were respected and honored on the assembly floor. And Assemblymember Gonzalez was one of the first people to go up and shake their hands And when we passed legislation to increase their hourly rate 700 percent for the first time in 30 years Assemblymember Gonzalez was one of the first people to go up and shake their hands And when we passed legislation to increase their hourly rate 700 for the first time in 30 years Senator Gonzales was one of the people who not only voted for it but spoke in support on the floor And I think your commitment to this being bipartisan work is felt, and I'm appreciative. Today we're going to have three panels and then public comment so that everybody who's made the trip up here gets an opportunity to be heard for a minute. I think that's important. Our committee consultant, Mr. Adams, thinks that's very, very important. Our first panel is going to be on keeping our kids in school, thinking about what school safety and discipline looks like in the 21st century. And so I'd like to welcome our first four panelists up to the microphones. That's Dr. David C. Turner, professor from UCLA, Department of Social Work. Devonna Robertson from COPE Brandy Bowen Bremond Coleman Advocates Laquan Muhammad from the Brother Son Sales Coalition and you each have two minutes a piece in whatever order you prefer maybe we'll go in the order that i called you up so you can tee us off doc
All right. Setting my timer. First of all, thank you and good afternoon. My name is Dr. David C. Tanner III, and I'm senior advisor for the Alliance of Boys and Men of Color and the faculty director of the Million Dollar Hoods Project at UCLA, where we work to map the fiscal and human costs of incarceration. I'm grateful to Assemblymember Isaac Bryan and the continued work of the Select Committee, which continues to uplift issues impacting boys and young men of color. The education of boys and men of color has come a long way in California. In 2012, over 500,000 male youth were suspended from school. In the 2024-2025 year, that number has fallen by over 63%, with just over 200,000, with defiant suspensions being virtually eliminated, right? While suspensions are only one marker of progress, it is indicative of where we are as a state. At this time, California is at a crossroads. We can either stand and fight for the type of education that we need for our young people, or we can allow our state to fall to the will of bigotry, violence, and fascism.
I want to highlight some data points for this committee in order for us to begin to ground the conversation. In the 2024-2025 year, black boys in particular were still three times as likely to be suspended compared to white students. And native boys were suspended at 2.7 times the rate of white students. And this is with the suspension drop. According to the Racial Identity and Profiling Act and the data report that came out in 2026, K-12 school police stops stopped black youth and community members at five times the rate of everybody else. equity-driven initiatives, right, that work to change school discipline policies like LAUSD's Black Student Achievement Plan or even academic achievement initiatives, right, that focus on race and justice like ethnic studies, right, in San Francisco State and other parts of the state are all under attack, right, even though these programs have been shown to be the most effective, right for academic achievement Take your time Right Oh no we good We good I almost done So with this being said right like we are definitely at a crossroads Even though we have made significant progress we also still currently face significant challenges right? And it is so important for the California state legislator to stand up, right, and continue supporting and uplifting boys and young men of color, continue supporting and uplifting the issues that impact our communities, and most importantly, right, to not capitulate to fascism. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, David. So the official decorum of the hearing rooms is that we don't clap or snap, but I actually don't care. So if somebody says something that touches you, feel free to express yourself however you'd like. Ms. Robertson. Devonna Robertson, parent organizer with congregations organized for a prophetic engagement in the Indian Empire and a proud member of the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color. I am a black mother of a black son that has a clear path to spending time in the yard and a prison in California than he has a path to walk in the halls as an assembly member or a Senate member in this Capitol. I am a black mother of a black son who wants to be seen as the joyful, anime-loving freshman at UCR College who is figuring out his path as a young adult instead of a threat to society who is not worthy of ongoing investment. I am a black mother of a black son who wants us to remember that black boys are misjudged too fast and too often, that his cousins, friends, and other young men of color all up and down the state of California deserve intentional investment, opportunities, support, guidance, and love. As a black mother of a black son, I am saying we all inherited a horrible, corrupt system here in America, in California. But this system in 2026 still benefits some, while others have 400-plus years of knee-on-your-neck energy. And that looks like boys named Kion, named Nubian, named Tyler, named Amaj, named Shama, named Kiki Kimani, my nephew, named Lil' Dave, named Daylin, named Lil' Keith, may he rest in peace. So what we're saying, what I'm saying as a black mother in the state of California, as a black sister to my brothers, as a black auntie, that we need the investment of resources and support from the state of California, from this here capital, to ensure that we reduce the amount of our young men who are spending their life in prison and instead have an opportunity to sit at these podiums as you all do. Thank you. Ms. Bowen-Bremont. All right. Good afternoon, members of the committee. My name is Brandy Bowen-Bremont. I'm policy director at Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth in San Francisco. And I really just want to take the time to really talk about how these tough-on-crime approaches are showing up in our schools as tough-on-behavior. behavior and we know that our boys of color are the main targets for that and we can see it, the disproportionality in the data that Dr. Turner shared. And we also have to be mindful of a lot of off-the-books underground suspensions, which is what I call them and how they're showing up. So this looks a lot like students being sent out of their classrooms into referral rooms for hours that can add up to suspension days And we also seeing that school sites are depending on police calls to handle a lot of the minor disruptions that come up during a day And so that pushes a lot of our boys of color into contact with the criminal justice system very early on. And we're seeing that this is impacting academic outcomes, long-term impacts on their college and career readiness. And so we just really have to be serious about preventing those loopholes to laws like SB 275 so that silent suspensions can be tracked. There can be a lot more widespread accountability and also investing in the support-centric models that exist today, like the community schools model, more culturally rooted restorative practices that involves full training of the whole staff, but also key staff and practitioners that can come together and carry out that vision. And then also creating solid frameworks for more multi-tiered support systems so that we are subverting that culture of punishment and really putting the systems in place to provide support. Thank you so much. Laquan. Hello, everybody. My name is Laquan Muhammad. I'm an organizer with the Brothers in Our Sales Coalition. I'm also a teaching artist. with the return on reentry. So we are able to go inside of like the juvenile halls and stuff like that on the weekends. What I'm seeing right now, so I would like to talk about like two things that we're doing right now. So in 2019, we were able to run a survey where we were able to like distinguish like how young people felt around policing and criminalization in their communities, how they felt around like education in their classrooms, and then how they wanted to see county dollars invested in their favor. Right. A lot of the folks that we like were able to survey were from any sort of inner city communities. Right. Was drastically like affected their answers. And so just a small data point. Right. Eighty percent of folks affected by arrest. Right. Didn't feel safe around law enforcement. Right. And then on the other hand, right, folks who weren't arrested. Right. Still at a rate of about 58 percent still felt the same way around law enforcement. Right. And so how does that translate to today? Well, a lot of what we're seeing in the data points are just young people talking about looking for more investment. So we're talking about care-first community investment, different things like that. Really investing in things like BSAP, not only investing, but making sure the implementation process is for some of these programs that we have created. like are solidified. They're not something that we have to come back, like, to the Capitol to keep, like, advocating around. They're more so, like, implemented in, you know, the different process and things like that. And so the way that we are looking to, like, keep folks in school, right, is with a BSAP, right? is with some of these different programs like BSAP, like a Care First community investment that helps to help strengthen some of the work that we already doing out here with the different orgs that we are part of. Thank you. Thank you. We've been joined by Moreno Valley's finest, Dr. Corey Jackson. Assemblymember Fong, Assemblymember Gonzalez gave some welcoming remarks. Is there anything you might want to add, Mr. Jackson? Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you for your efforts to make sure that we keep this movement alive. We know that it was important a few years ago, and it's important now. And the work that we are embarking on in terms of boys and men of color is generational. So we have a lot more room to continue to develop, nurture, to provide a place for boys and men of color to be able to thrive. This is near and dear to my heart. I was an anchor myself for the boys and men of color in Riverside County. and so I'm excited to see this work continuing and jumped at the chance to be able to be a part of the Select Committee under your leadership and continuing the great work that even Reggie Jones-Soyer did and so well done Mr. Chair and whatever I can do to continue to be supportive count me in. Thank you. Now, turning back to members who have any questions for the panelists, I have a question, Dr. Turner. You mentioned some data points that seem to suggest that suspension expulsion data has gotten better. Were there changes that were made at the local level or at the state level? What kinds of things led to that precipitation in suspensions and expulsions? Just better kids, what would you attribute it to? Really glad you asked that. So first and foremost, there have been changes at both the local and state levels, right, that have led to the decrease in suspensions as well as reducing contact between law enforcement and young people, right? Some of these include Senate Bill 274 that was mentioned earlier, right, that eliminated Wolf of Defiance school suspensions for grades K through 12. And prior to that, there were two other iterations of that. There was SB 419, which was passed in 2019, and then there was AB 420, which was passed in 2014. Each one of them successively increased the grade levels for eliminating defiant school suspensions. Now, defiant school suspensions at one point in time accounted for 42% of all school suspensions. So they were the vast majority of the ways in which young people were being pushed out of school. Now, there are still over 26 different ways that young people can be suspended, right? The folks at the Fixed School Discipline Coalition, they've done a lot of work, right, I think, to uplift, right, some of those data points. So I want to give them a big shout out here. But with that being said, right, like there's still a lot more work to do in ensuring that young people can get some of the support that they need. Following up from that, right, like I think as you mentioned in terms of thinking about some of those interventions, right, the multi-tier systems of support or MTSS, was one of the interventions that school districts could apply for to be able to get some financial support to establish right like positive behavioral disciplinary practices right, in local school districts like San Francisco, Oakland, Pasadena, Los Angeles. They have worked to eliminate those school suspensions earlier and invest in restorative justice models. So those things help to contribute to the outcomes. But I want to underscore a point that Brandy had mentioned earlier, right, that even though we have been able to be successful at reducing some of these numbers, right, there are other ways that these quote-unquote ghost suspensions are happening in schools, right, you know, where students, for example, would be sent out of the class and just to the office, right. There have been reports in places like in LAUSD, Long Beach Unified, et cetera, where they would use the restorative justice room as a de facto in-school suspension, right? So even though, right, like we have been able to shift the ways in which these numbers show up, right, the ways in which these schools are transforming, it has made the punishment more elastic, if that makes any sense, right? And it's important for us, right, as a community and people who are interested in these issues, right, to continue advocating for not only the way our schools enact policy, but also how our schools feel for our young people, right? Which is why you're going to hear on the next panel, a conversation about community schools and that particular intervention and how it has worked to transform not only the ways in which schools are governed, but also school climate and culture. Mr. Gonzalez. with respect to the data points across all speakers one of the the challenges that I see so it you kind of see it from different angles right if I'm in LA I see it from LA but I represent you know places like Calexico Brawley Nylund it's got you know Palo Verde 134 people live in that town. So for me, with respect to data points and comparing, is there any data that will show California in its totality versus big urban centers or big population centers? Because that matters, right? I don't want to forget the people that live in the mountains and the woods and the hills and all that other stuff, we got to remember that it's from all corners of California. So is there anything like that that shows the data for all California? Yes. There are a few different studies, I think, that highlight some of those data points, in particular when looking at school push-out, school suspensions. There's one that was published a few years back by Dr. Tyrone Howard and others, right, looking at black male suspensions. And there was actually some of the smaller school districts, school districts that, you know, have less than 10,000 students, right, you know, where we saw some of the highest disparities, right, in school suspensions. But I think to your point Assemblymember Gonzalez is especially in those smaller areas and you going to hear this on the second panel the community schools model is one of the better interventions in particular in some of those smaller areas because you have a lot more community input and it a lot easier to get community buy around some of these issues Right So as you hear throughout the day right there are definitely ways to continue to support our rural areas ways to continue to support our suburban areas who don't necessarily get the same eyes and attention, right? But I think to your question, I would strongly recommend looking at the community schools initiative and looking at the ways in which local schools in your area can benefit from that initiative because especially if you're looking at cities or areas with a very small with a very small population they're going to have the most input in the directions that their schools take. The chair mentioned a bill that he authored and led the charge on with respect to the youth in fire camps and I had the opportunity to visit a fire camp in in in southern California An interesting statistic came up at fire camps is that there is a 70 percent, roughly 70 percent recidivism rate in your standard prison, so to speak, and a 30 percent recidivism rate in fire camps. I was like, well, let's make everything a fire camp, right? What's going on here that's that's working? Let's copy the model and let's do this, whatever that thing is. ultimately, you know, whether someone goes to prison, doesn't go to prison, you know, you want them to be successful, care for their family, so on and so forth, right? Live a good life, be good, productive members of society and to the community. That's kind of the goal of the whole thing. My question with this data, because I'm sorry, my analyst mind is going, right? So I see the data and then I see the geographic locations. And then the third overlay would be, so what is the model that's working in this particular geographic location versus other geographic locations? What's the disparity? Like what are all these different things to start honing in? because up here, when we're talking about whatever the push is, a bill or whatever, the data informs, right? And for me, things like when he brought this up, I was like, this is a no-brainer. If someone's willing to put their life on the line, youth or not, to go out there and save my community, yes, pay them, right? I'm a Marine. I served in the Marine Corps 21 years. So I know what it's like to put your life on the line. So that's why I was 100% behind him on that. So that's one piece of the puzzle. So as I'm trying to analyze this, by the way, I'm not fighting it. I'm trying to understand. Absolutely. I'm trying to understand what is it that works in community A per se? What is it that's tried that same thing, tried in community B and maybe it doesn't work. How do I get deeper into the into the data to understand that? And is there something out there that can help inform me? Absolutely. So. So, again, right, like you're definitely going to hear about the community schools initiative. initiative. I don't want to talk too much about it because, you know, we're going to, they're going to die against you and also provide information. But I think to talk specifically about the data, especially looking at what's effective, right? There are a number of ways that scholars as well as community organizations have been working to uplift what is the most effective through what we call case studies and research right So for example right One of the things that I was going to mention you know but I wanted to make sure to stay on time right was a case study that was facilitated out of school districts in the greater Bay Area in particular focusing on San Francisco but also across other schools in the Bay, right? Schools where the vast majority of students were students of color and schools where the vast majority of students were white. And one of the things that they found was that ethnic studies, right, plays a role in these students' academic achievement as well as their enrollment in the college, regardless of their racial identity, right? So looking at not only different communities, but also I think students with different identities, we saw that ethnic studies plays a role in that, right? Looking at case studies in different areas, for example, looking at a recent initiative that I had led right down in LA looking at the Black Student Achievement Plan, right? There are some schools, right, who are able to implement, right, the strategies to support Black students a lot more effectively than others, right? And again, these can be schools that, quite frankly, share a community, right? Like they could, you know, have a bus line that's exactly one stop away, but, you know, because the ways in which they implement the intervention is different, right, they're getting very different results. So I think with that being said, right, it's so important for us as not only scholars, but also community folks to continue uplifting some of these pieces. And there are more than enough places to go get the data and information. But I think one thing that's particularly important, especially for looking across districts, right, is not doing an apples to apples comparison, Right. You know, because, you know, the the needs and the context, right, for what young people are experiencing in Kern County, right, may be very different than what people are experiencing right up here in Sacramento. But that doesn't mean that we don't have interventions that can't continue to support folks, which is what you're going to hear about a little bit later when we talk about community schools. I have. Go ahead, Mr. Jackson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, when they started rolling out MTSS restorative practices, I was doing mentoring programs in schools for Boys of Men of Color in Riverside County. And one of the things that I noticed right away is that in many cases, schools were just checking off a box. We have an MTSS coordinator. done, right? But they weren't following the fidelity of the practice. And we know that if you don't follow the fidelity, you can't get the outcomes. But we were prioritizing just the existence of a position or a program, but we weren't doing enough to monitor the fidelity of it and add accountability to the lack thereof? Number one, have we been able to make improvements on that in terms of MTSS and restorative practices? And then number two, how can we use those lessons learned to guide us through the community schools process? Maybe Brandy, maybe you want to touch on this one. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I definitely know what you're saying because I see a lot of the restorative practices in in SFUSD kind of being checkbox. OK, I wrote a letter, so I went through a restorative practice. And so a lot of times we could be using it as a way to address consequences. rather than a way to prevent conflict and to really establish a culture of belonging in the schools. And we really need to be serious about the accountability part of it, especially with the informal discipline practices that are happening. They can indicate whether that MTSS coordinator is doing their job because then we wouldn't have this number of students repeatedly going to the referral classroom, missing out on their math lessons and now they can't approach proficiency in their testing. And so we really need to make sure that all districts across the state are tracking that informal discipline practices and also really honing in on the pillar of community schools that's about community input. So that model really centers collaborative environments where the community can come and speak about what's not working, and that coordinator and the rest of the school community can come together to figure out how can we actually address our needs rather than just having this model in place to say so. And centering the community's voice is really where the biggest impact is going to be happening because they know what they need and they know the solutions. So that's another benefit of that pillar in the model. I just have one more question for this panel. Mama Robertson, if you could speak directly to the governor or to the only two black men that will be in the legislature next year about what would make the difference between your son ending up the pathway so many of us do or ending up here with us, What kind of intervention or interventions should the state support you in helping to change that trajectory? What should we be doing? I mean, thank you for that question. And I'm grateful, number one, for the champions that we have in you two black men. And I know that this is not an easy feat because I don't know if this is true, but I read that like more than 50 percent of the folks that walk the halls are white men. And so when you said earlier how many we have this year and how many we will have next year, it saddened my heart. My son, I had a whole space for him yesterday as he went to see Michael Jackson for the fourth time with his father since last Thursday. Yeah. So yesterday was the fourth time he went to see Michael Jackson. And when I came home, he was sharing with me the experience he had with the family next to him and how they seen him, these are his words, as a big black threat. And my son has me. And he has community. He's participated in the Alliance of Boys and Men of Color. He participates in the work that we do at COPE. And I drag him along to a lot of other things. But it saddened my heart to know that my baby can't even go to the movies in peace. Right? And we talking about creating another thing that is for all. And we know when we create more programs and whatever this is called, steering committee, whatever this is we have right now, things like this. And we talk about all. We know who swept off the table. They're no longer. They barely want to talk about black boys brown boys po boys right But then when we talk about creating something that for everybody then we know they eliminated Our boys are invisible It like you know if you if you and and I sure Dr Turner has experienced this as well as a black man that is not short. Right. Six, twelve, six, twelve, chocolate, robust. I mean in all the good ways Dr. Turner Articulate, beautiful Child of God I already know it That if they're not running down A football field or performing on a stage To entertain These folks in this country Then they have no value Or the value that is Placed on them is how much Somebody gets for that cop that they sleep on In the prison Like they are invested in the failure of our black boys, which means they're also invested in the failure of our black girls. They're invested in the failure of our black families, our brown families. And so if we are not going to fight along with Alliance of Boys and Men of Color and all of these organizations that do hard and hard work every day, then who will? Right. And so I would just say if you I want to say a lot of things and I didn't even come here to say this today. I was coming to talk about something else. I thought. Right. But I would say, please continue to fight and make room for us to come and talk about the things that are important to us in the neighborhoods that we live in, that we drive down the roads, that we spend our money in. Because if y'all don't see us and make room for us, then we not. We you know, unfortunately, we know others are not checking for us. And so we have to, how can we undo 400 plus years of their knee on our neck by investing in Alliance of Boys and Men of Color? How many years we've been around? What, about 15? You cannot undo the harm, trauma, the raping, the stealing, the thievery of 400 plus years and 15 years of investment. This is a long game. And we need the state of California to play the long game. Not play the long game. Be serious about the long game. We got the brother back there that's with a men who are invested in black men. Right? And so I want to say a lot of stuff, including cuss. But you letting us clap, so I'll stop there. I won't push you too far. But we care. And then also, I represent thousands. This black man represents thousands. This sister represents thousands. Dr. Turner and so on, everybody in here. And so everybody doesn't have the luxury to get on a flight, to buy that high customer gas, to make their way to sit before you all. And so we come. It might look like a few, but we are mighty and we represent a lot of good people that you all know about because you guys are sitting here representing those folks as well. So please continue to fight. Fight with us and fight for us. fight for our babies because they are worthy. My son said we just need somebody to invest, to give us opportunities to support and to love on us. Because my son also sees his peers that don't have nobody checking for them at home. So when there's gaps in the home, the community has to show up. And when there's gaps in the community, we need folks like y'all to show up and to fight these systems on our behalf as well. So I'll stop there. Thank you We going to transition to our second panel but I want to thank all of you for your testimony to the state of California Thank you, Mama, for speaking from the heart and not cussing. Also, another point of personal privilege. I remember when David Turner was catching bodies on the blacktop and I was in the backyard when he became Dr. Turner. And so we're all very, very proud of you in that transition and that example. Thank you all for testifying today. Thank you all. Thank you. Our second panel is on building local schools and community power, investing in community schools. We have Clara Medina-Maya. We have Eric White, George Villa, and Daniel Guzman. Yeah. We'll go two minutes a piece and maybe we'll go in the order that I've got you listed with Clara going first. Okay. Good afternoon, Chair Bryan and esteemed select committee members. My name is Clara Medina, Senior Manager of Policy and Partnerships at Californians for Justice, a statewide grassroots organization working with black and brown youth at the intersection of racial and education justice. It is an honor to be here to speak on this panel on behalf of CFJ and the California Partnership for the Future of Learning and to uplift the thousands of students, families, educators, and community members who have been advocating for and partnering to advance the community schools approach. At CFJ and the California Partnership, we believe that racially just, relationship-centered schools are a key intervention in dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline and in addressing systemic racism in schools. We're excited to support the governor's proposed $1 billion annual investment in the California Community Schools Partnership Act apportionments program because this moment demands it. The California Partnership's recent listening campaign found that current threats being felt by students and families to their sense of safety and belonging in schools include immigration rates, family separation, financial strain, impact of mental health, and under-resourced schools. The community school strategy is rooted in trust, deep listening and partnership, which allows shared decision-making teams to respond to the unique school needs and for youth to lead as boots on the ground education experts and partners in school and systems transformation. The proposed investment would make these conditions a reality for an additional 3,700 schools. The community school strategy is improving student academic outcomes and reducing absences and exclusionary disciplinary practices, particularly for historically underserved students. Results from an impact study conducted by the Learning Policy Institute of Cohort 1, which I have and I'll pass out, demonstrated a 15% decrease in suspensions with the largest decreases occurring where rates were previously highest. among black students and in secondary schools. The largest gains in academic outcomes were also felt by black students, with the impact translating to 130 extra days of math learning and 151 extra days in English language arts. The impact is clear. This strategy provides an alternative for black and brown youth. Community schools offer an opportunity to double down on our commitment to equity and the future of young people in California. Thank you Good afternoon Thank you all for having us here, board members, I mean, members of this committee. Appreciate y'all. And my name is Eric. I'm an organizer with Reclaim Our Schools LA. We're a coalition of parents, students, and educators in LAUSD. I'm here by way of ABMOC, the Alliance of Boys and Men of Color. I'm a parent at a community school myself, and I'm here with full support of the $1 billion ongoing investment towards the community schools that is proposing a governing Newsom's budget. The Black Student Achievement Plan implementation in LAUSD is complemented by community schooling. We see it as a strategy and a vehicle for transformation in our public schools that address harms that marginalized communities experience in the education system. There are other black student initiatives in other districts across California that will benefit from it as well. In the community schools initiative, the assets and the needs assessment process that most community schools, it empowers the existing community, connecting them with local orgs and resources within the community, instead of making our community seem like we need a savior. Our local school leadership council in LAUSD empowers parents with real decision-making authority over the school budget and school-wide discipline because Title I money has lots of restrictions. A quick story about a parent I was able to build a relationship with through my parent organizing in community schools as a partner. Kenyatta Gray is a single black mother of six who her principal called the school police on her kids when they got into a fight. Her daughter actually got into a fight and her son intervened, but he ended up being targeted by the police and they tried to stick him with charges saying injury and great bodily harm. And so from that, I was able to build a relationship with her and encourage her to join the local school leadership because she would have influence over the school's discipline and policies. And through that, she was able to influence and channel and have a positive outlet in the school. And I think that that was very powerful because she told me that she was really close to taking her kids out of the school because the principal was the one who called the cops on her kids. That's powerful. I'm going to have some follow-up questions about that. George. Thank you. Good afternoon, members of the Select Committee hearing. My name is George Villa. I am the policy and program manager with Motivating Intergenerational Leadership for Public Advancement. I was born and raised in Salinas, California. I'm also a returning citizen from incarceration. I'm also a former firefighter when I was in the CY system. And in 2001, when I came home, I applied for the California Department of Forestry and got hired on. I also got a violation for being at a lake with my ex-girlfriend at the time. So thank you for highlighting the firefighters and the amazing bill that you passed for them. I used to work for 30 cents an hour at 24-hour shifts. But I'm here today to talk about the investment for the $1 billion community schools ongoing funding. Since I've been working in community schools for over 10 years now, even inside of the DJJ for three years before it closed down, the youth have never given me any issues. They know that someone who's worked hard and transformed their lives through the community, through advocacy, through volunteering. can feel you know it's like their their BS detector doesn't go off so it's important that you have find some folks with the lived experience to go back into those schools but ensuring that we're also taking care of ourselves before we go in there one of the things I like to highlight is that in Salinas Monterey County where I'm in Nevada we have some of the most unhoused students in the in the state and we live in an 11.2 billion dollar ag industry so we know there's There's money there, too, that can support us. But, you know, asking for that investment. We know that when young men have hope, equity, and wellness, that they do way much better off. And you already heard that from our testimonies today. As we know, there's a huge disconnection with the resurgence on tough-on-crime, the impacts of COVID. And so we just want to be able to highlight that. And we know that when there's punitive practices that this drives the school-to-prison pipeline, and we know that that system is failing. The prison systems are failing. There's no success rates. As we've heard, there has been a recent study, Learning Policy Institute, where they are increasing higher graduation rates and improving school climate. There's also a 30% reduction, as my colleague mentioned, in chronic absenteeism. and because of the scare with ICE and there is truancy and a lot of students aren't showing up to school like they used to. So we feel that this investment is definitely going to help improve the conditions and the community schools, their role that they play is collaborative, it's a shared decision-making with parents, educators, community-based organizations and this is gaining traction. So this is important that we continue to uplift our young people and I'll even share in a recent grant that we got, the youth that I'm in programs with are going to actually go to a field trip hiking, so part of the community schools grant. They're also going to go to the boxing gym that I established in 2012 when I came home. And so our ask today is to invest $1 billion in community schools to stop also the issue with mass incarceration of the school-to-prison pipeline. And with all due respect, that we invest in transform prisons into higher education and support these authentic partnerships that community schools have. And it's way more better than the traditional factory model schools that we know does not work. Thank you very much.
Absolutely.
Mr. Guzman.
Good afternoon. It's a privilege and honor to be here. My name is Daniel Guzman. I serve as a program officer leading our boys and men of color portfolio work at the Center at Sierra Health Foundation. And I'm here to speak about the transformative power of community schools. Prior to my employment at the Center, I served as a community school coordinator in San Francisco Unified School District. Shout out to Willie Brown Middle School. Today, I'll share an overview of the role, key successes, and best practices. Schools do not struggle because of a lack of care or effort. They struggle because effort and care are often not strategically aligned. That is where the role of a community school coordinator comes in. A community school coordinator is both a connector and a bridge builder. We align the many voices in a school community into a shared mission and purpose, while also building bridges of trust between schools, families, and community partners who haven't always sat at the table. Easier said than done, right? The work starts with relationship building through one conversations with students families teachers and staff to understand their lived experiences and realities It means showing up consistently wearing multiple hats and identifying gaps in student and family needs during and after the school day This work requires compassion, curiosity, empathy, along with strategy. Like a scientist, you begin with a hypothesis, but you need evidence, a meaningful hopes and needs assessment, especially with our most marginalized and historically underserved students in mind, helps surface blind spots and builds a shared collective vision. Just as important is sharing that data back in ways that are clear and accessible and meaningful to our education system leaders and the community that we're serving. What worked for me was building strong partnerships, using data to identify gaps and sharing those insights with community partners like Coleman Advocates and Improve Your Tomorrow to help address those blind spots. That work led to expanding student leadership opportunities, growing student campus clubs, improving academic outcomes, and creating more joyful after-school experiences for students and families. The community school coordinator is not just an add-on role. It's not just nice to have. It is essential infrastructure that organizes and aligns the resources of a school, including families and community partners around student success. Thank you.
Thank you. So I think this panel, one thing you should know is while this committee has a dozen or so members, it's also being shown right now on every single TV in the Capitol and can be watched online all across the state. So a lot more folks than who are in this room are listening to you right now. And I don't think everybody knows what community school is. And I think it's important. You all have been very clear. And I didn't know this was how y'all were going to show up today. We need that billion dollars. And I'm not mad at it. Come in and ask for your money. The state is facing a $30 billion budget deficit. We have to cut money. Why shouldn't we cut community schools? Why should we increase the money for community schools at this time? and for folks who are watching who don't know, what is the community schools program? Like, what's a community school and why should we put a billion dollars into it? If you had to sum that up for somebody who has no idea what you're talking about.
Can I speak to that?
Yes, sir.
Don't quote. I mean, I don't want to get my, I don't have, my numbers might be a little skewed, but from my understanding, California is like the fifth largest economy.
Fourth.
The fourth largest economy.
and what does it rank at in education spending?
Not good. That's all I would say.
Yeah, and it's worth the investment.
So when you look at the impact, we actually have data around every $1 invested saves the state $15. So it's an investment that goes a long way and we're seeing the impact. Even just the study that I cited, I have a printout for you, the fact sheet with some of the numbers that came out. But the study itself by Learning Policy Institute only just looks at after year one implementation, cohort one. And so if we see that amount of impact in the first year, we can only imagine what the impact will be after the investment of $1 billion. Because right now the initial investment was $4.1 billion over a 10-year period. And with this new apportionment that would be billion every year ongoing And it an equity strategy It targets low schools that serve students of color And that targeted approach is an investment in equity across the state So yes, some of the impacts that we're seeing are the reduced chronic absences, as folks mentioned, 30% decrease, 50% decrease in suspension rates, improves test scores. And that's just the data. I think what folks are speaking to on the panel, which I think is so powerful, are the deep, authentic relationships that hold the school community together, not just because of the people that are on the campus, but we acknowledge the folks that are community partners outside the college campus that use the schools as hubs. And so this strategy really thinks creatively about using the relationships that exist, fostering authentic relationships, and also creating spaces for shared decision-making where in authentic partnerships, students, educators, parents, families, community members can shape what their school is and to serve the needs of the community. So it's a really powerful strategy. And I think hearing the stories that folks shared about these like very specific community-specific initiatives and approaches, I think speaks to the way schooling should be, right? Like that it should be moldable and fluid and adaptable to the needs, especially as we're seeing right now that needs are changing day to day quickly. But the Money is a real, real concern for sure. But we see already that it's an investment worth making because the returns are more than meet what we invested. You know, it's 15 times more.
I appreciate that. You have an ally and an advocate in me already. Yeah. Just wanted to give folks the opportunity to convert more folks. I think it's a billion dollars well spent. I can think of several other billion dollars that we're not spending nearly as well, or where that billion dollars might be invested, which system it might be invested in if we don't make this kind of investment. And so incredibly mindful of that. And I just want to thank you all for bringing that to this committee today. Thank you so much. We're now going to switch over to panel three. Investing in California's future career and college pathways. We have Cesar Rodriguez from the California Faculty Association, Minor Garcia from UCSA, Garrett Galbraith with Brotherhood Crusade, Dr. Vines from Amend, and Michael Lynch from Improve Your Tomorrow. The Avengers of Boys and Men of Color. We'll go two minutes each, and we'll start with Cesar.
Thank you. My name is Cesar Rodriguez. I'm an associate professor of race and resistance studies at San Francisco State, rank and file member of the California Faculty Association, representing 29,000 knowledge and care workers across 23 Cal State campuses. We serve 470,000 students, 75% of which are of color, 57% are Pell eligible, meaning they're working class, 40% self-identify as men, And our ability to serve all of our students has been undermined by the state's commitment to mass incarceration instead of higher education for the past four decades. The past fiscal year is a great example of this trend as the state of California spent 1 times more on California state prisons than Cal State universities That a five point six billion dollar difference CSU administrators also bear responsibility for their budgetary priorities. They've decreased spending on direct instruction and student wellness down from 50 percent, 53 percent in the 90s, down to 30 something percent, closer to 30 percent. now, they've increased spending on administrators and investment portfolio and policing. As a result, CSU students need to work more hours, take on more debt, pay higher tuition, and in return they get fewer course offerings, larger class sizes, and at some campuses like San Jose State, they have more administrators, 340, than counselors, 18. And other campuses like Cal State East Bay, more COPS, 26, than counselors, 10. What do you think your kids need, right? And I want to share more importantly an opportunity to improve access to higher education. The state of California has 15,000 empty prison beds, and they're growing. In fact, the California Legislative Analyst's Office recommended that the state of California could shut down at least five prisons and save $1 billion annually. Upon learning this, some rank-and-file members and community members have started to build a campaign to shut down five prisons, repurpose those facilities to benefit local economies and prevent future incarceration, i.e. via the federal government or private industries, and redirect the savings to the CSU, specifically for instruction and student support, not to administrative salaries, not to the investment portfolio, no policing. Thank you for your time.
Mr. Garcia.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair and members. My name is Miner Jaret Garcia-Hernandez with the UC Student Association, which represents well over 230,000 undergraduate students across the state, and the future students of UC who rely on us to ensure there's a place for them on our campuses. The scale of challenges our boys and men of color face to even reach a post-secondary degree, let alone even graduate, are incredibly formidable and truly shocking. As a first-generation Guatemalan-American and recent graduate from UC Riverside, I cannot emphasize enough that we need to address this issue for the harmful crisis it is to our communities and the state. On behalf of UCSA, I'm honored to share some of our priorities and my experiences that can allow us to do so. For nearly a decade, students have prioritized Cal Grant reform to expand financial aid access for students taking less than 12 units at community colleges, or removing GPA requirements that often exclude boys of color struggling with general education curriculum and reducing age restrictions that limit thousands of adult male learners from pursuing their education. Investing in recruitment and retention like UC student academic preparation programs, which have received ongoing funding from the state budget over the last several years, is critical to foster campus belonging for men of color at UC. Third, students in under-resourced schools and community college face significant barriers to A-G completion, dual enrollment opportunities, and transfer pathways due to limited access to college prep, counseling, academic plans, and articulated general education. We need equitable access and support with A-G and transfer guarantees from community college to four years. In my experience, academic programs like AVID gave me mentorship, guidance, and a pathway to apply to UCR. Campus involvement allowed me to advocate and learn about the policymaking process, while also increasing my workforce opportunities for post-grad careers. For first-gen students, Early academic outreach program and educational opportunity programs are critical to ensure boys of color don't fall through the cracks before they even get to college. In closing, last spring, I walked the graduation stage and delivered my school's commencement speech. It's my hope that so many more boys of color follow in my footsteps. And if you wonder how important this matter is, I flew out here today while having my father in the ICU, which could potentially be his deathbed, so my community and UCSA can give a voice to our men and boys of color. Lack of education access is a threat and has been a consistent threat to our families, economy, and democracy. But importantly, we have so much more to offer, and we're here looking for someone to give us a chance. Thank you.
Before we go forward, I just want to thank you for being here. and I want you to know that your voice and your testimony today, it matters, and it makes a tremendous difference. So thank you for showing up. We're going to go to Garrick Galbraith, Brotherhood Crusade.
Yes, sir. Assemblymember Brian, thank you. Thank you for convening us. Thank you for bringing us to the table. This is a really, really interesting moment for me because I've been sitting back listening to everyone's stories, and one thing that comes to my mind, one of my favorite books in the world, is Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, right? And I think about all these stories I've heard about black and brown boys and girls too, right, who feel invisible, who feel invisible in their society, who feel like no one cares about them, who feel like there's no future for them, right? And I work at, obviously, at Brotherhood Crusade as a youth advocate. I've been in this work for 10, 15 years. I'm in this room now with people who were my mentors when I first started, right? And I'm a testament to that individualized love and intention that has to go into our young people, right? I'll speak really, really quickly about what we do at the Brotherhood Crusade, right? One of my mentors at the Brotherhood Crusade mentions all the time, if you're not at the table, you're on the menu, right? And so moments like this where I'm able to articulate, like, how dire of a situation, how hopeless a lot of our young men feel when they're matriculating through school to the point where they don't feel like they even have a place in college, right? A place at the CSU system. I'm coming to you today. You know, obviously you can see I don't have notes. I don't have anything prepared. I'm just kind of spitting off the dome because this is true. This is real. This is what happens, right? The lack of investment in our communities is going to kill our communities. That's just point blank period. I work with young people right now who, before Brotherhood Crusade, literally had no idea how they were going to continue to live where they live currently, right? In a way that dignifies them, that dignifies their family and their neighborhood. Through the Brotherhood Crusade and the sort of robust programming that we have, we're able to do this individualized trauma-informed therapy sort of with them and work with them individually to sort of fill those gaps. But I come to you because clearly we need more. You know, we need a more robust offering for these young people, for organizations that do this work, because there's a lot of invisible young people. And, you know, like I said, that's one of my favorite books of all time. And that book is probably 70 years old. And that says a lot. And so I come to you today, you know, as I've heard from everyone here, AB 805 is probably one that I really really aligned myself with because workforce development and closing these gaps with our young people in a state like California where we have so much opportunity where there are billions and trillions and oodles of money where is it Thank you Thank you sir
Dr. Vines.
Yes, thank you so much. Appreciate you for having us. Aaron Vines, Executive Director for Amen African-American Male Education Network and Development. And across the nation, black male participation in higher education has been declining for decades, reflecting systematic breakdowns an education to workforce pipeline, black enrollment has declined over 22% nationally. Even at HBCUs, 25%. Howard University currently has 19% black males on campus. Now, where the most of the black males are in California Community College, California Community College is the entry point for most black males has dropped more than 21% since the pandemic. This is a crisis in undermining generations of work from our ancestors, our civil rights leaders. We also know that students, black students in the California Community College system are performing at the lowest levels. And it's a reflection of our institutions and our practitioners. We firmly believe that it's our practitioners that need remediation. There's nothing wrong with our black boys and our black men. We have enough evidence of that to speak very certain about it. AMEND has developed a concept model that has been successful at the California Community Colleges. Black males in AMEND are achieving 72% course completion rate compared to the state average of 64. So when you hear the statistics, we know that AMEND students are performing differently. They're showing up differently. 90% retention rate above the state average of community colleges. Almost 68% of degree attainment compared to 51% of the state average. Again, we're talking about black men where it's happening. It's literally happening. 21%, almost 22%, compared to 18% statewide of transfer for community colleges. I mentioned we have 50 charters at the California Community Colleges. We also have UC Berkeley, Sac State, and Tuskegee unfunded. And we have a couple in Washington and Minnesota. A MIM put in a budget augmentation request to not only serve 50 of the California Community Colleges, but all 116. We know that the majority of black males in the nation are in California Community College, given our 2.2 numbers. It was denied. So we ask for your partnership in championing restoration of the funding and the legislature's final budget negotiations. And in the communication to the governor, the urgency of reconsidering this investment, given its demonstrated impact and strong alignment with California students' success and equity goals, It's money well spent. It's a concept model that has been successful. And it just doesn't make sense not to invest in it even more. Thank you.
Powerful. Mr. Lynch.
Good afternoon, Assemblymember Bryan. It's a profound right to be here. More than a decade ago, I had the privilege of leading this committee alongside Assemblymember Richard Jones Sr., senior where he served as chair and I grateful to stand before it again My name is Michael Lynch I the CEO and co of Improve Your Tomorrow also on IYT Our mission is a nation where young men of color are overrepresented in higher education underrepresented in the criminal justice system, and leaders in their community. We deliver on that vision through our school-based mentorship program, I serve boys and young men of color from sixth grade through college completion, with the focus on those who are off track. As the nation's largest college access to completion, nonprofit, serving young men of color, we take that responsibility seriously. Since 2013, we have maintained a 99% high school graduation rate, helping 2,000 scholars graduate, nearly an 80% college-going rate. But today, we serve almost 6,000 young men across more than 100 school sites in six states. More young men of color are accessing higher education today, more than a decade ago. But the stark gender gap persists. Nearly 500,000 young Californians between the ages of 16 and 24 are neither working nor in school. The majority are men, and Black and Native American young men face the highest rates of disconnection. Governor Newsom has called it a crisis, and organizations like ours are on the front lines. To continue to make progress and improve outcomes for young men of color across the state, this committee should consider prioritizing three requests. One, continue to support the governor's proposal to increase funding for community schools. Two is to expand ELOP, the Education Learn Opportunity Funding, to be able to serve high school students. The third one is to support IYT's budget requests of $15 million to help serve 8,000 young men of color across 10 counties. I will end with a story that is relevant to today's theme of cradle to career, Alejandro. Alejandro grew up in South Sacramento in an immigrant family. His parents sold corn and ice cream from a cart. His dad had a fourth grade education. Alejandro was barely showing up to class because school felt like a dead end, not a doorway. Then IYT took him on a college tour to Stanford, introduced him to brothers who had college dreams, gave him a mentor, and for the first time in his life, someone asked him, what do you want to do after high school? IYT's ecosystem of support transformed the way Alejandro saw himself and what he was capable of. He went from a 2.1 GPA to a 4.1 the very next semester, never looked back. Aljandro is now a UC Davis graduate and a founder of a thriving political consultant firm. In fact, he is currently running the assembly campaign for Brian Pacheco, the number one target seed in the state assembly. That is the power of mentorship. That's what happens when you put committed adults in a young man's corner. Thank you.
I think that story is powerful. I feel like it would be more powerful if he went to UCLA to visit instead of Stanford. But that's just me. This is an incredibly important and powerful conversation, and I appreciate the three action items. All of your organizations do incredible work, and the work that all of the members of CFA do, I think, is critically important. I can say in the time that I've been in the legislature, I've actually never voted, by the way, to increase prison funding because of the disparities that you've pointed out that have been going on since before my lifetime. I guess my question for you is what is it about programs like IYT, AMEND, Brotherhood Crusade? What is it that we're investing in? If the state invests in these programs, what is the difference? What is the thing that people don't understand if you are not a black or brown student in one of these programs or if you don't work in these programs, if you don know anything about a men brotherhood crusade or improving your tomorrow what would you want to tell people about what you do and why it matters that just real quickly uh unless on a high school campus unless
you're really exceptional or or tremendously in trouble you don't get a whole lot of individual like attention um right the brother talked about uh like invisible man by rafaelson and fucking what that meant that is like that's true especially when you're battling all the other sociological factors, right, that young men, young men of color, like are facing. I know for programs like IYT, and I'm sure for Brother Crusade and A2Men, it's that person-like element. But it's not only the person that you put in front, it's the person who shares lived experience, shares a culture, shares a language, shares an ability to help them to navigate that a teacher or a counselor most likely won't be able to do. Yeah, so for people that are not black and brown and why it would matter, when you look at the outcomes, those that engage in higher education and the outcomes and the economic mobility that takes place, closing social economic gaps, that's huge.
And black males need to be a part of that. And that changes societies. That changes neighborhoods. It changes communities altogether. So while there are so many individual benefits, identity development, we take students to Africa. We do conference. We do mentoring. We do a lot of other things, scholarships. But at the end of the day, I think all people should be concerned about how students are bettering their lives and performing at the same rate or better, in our case, better than the state average. so that they can engage in the economics of California.
Can I jump in? Sure. So I want to front load again the big picture and then come bring it down to the ground like that. So right now, oh, my gosh, my notes are skipping around, and I'm nervous, so apologies about that. $14.5 billion to state prisons to cage 90,000 humans. $8.6 billion to educate 470,000 students. Many of them are working class students of color, first generation, right? $5.6 in difference. And, you know, I think it's really important, like, tell me what you spend your time and your money on. I'll tell you what you value, right? And so that's the state of California. And we have a great opportunity to invest at the beginning of people's lives. And for those folks who only care about, like, the return on the tax dollar, I think there's an important story to be told that kind of map onto these programs right here that folks are talking about. Because I'm thinking about Metro College Success Program at SF State. They recruit, they go send cats like Ronnie Bautista, smooth Latino brother from the mission, barber. I wish I could give him business, but I'm bald. He'll go to high schools and recruit working class, he'll recruit students from working class, from high schools that serve mostly working class students of color. They then have built a small cohort on SF State, very large campus, but they have small cohorts organized by interest, mostly first-gen, working-class people of color. They provide them core courses in small classrooms with social justice educators, people like Mark Bautista, Filipino brother, really dope educator. And they also do wraparound services where they work one-on-one with an advisor. And they provide them, you know, like tutoring, advising. They connect them with material support for food, mental health, as is the case with folks. And they're getting a great return for the dollar that way. Ninety-one percent of those students are from underrepresented backgrounds. They have higher retention rates, higher graduation rates. They're faster to go to graduate. Ripple effect in the community. Some of the graduates from those programs are now in positions where they can open up doors for others. That has lasting repercussions on life, right? And so for folks who are thinking about the impact of their dollar, I think about early childhood education. When you look at early childhood education, the dollars you invest in young people, they're less likely to get involved in the criminal punishment system. They're more likely to go farther in school. They're more likely to get higher-paying jobs. They're more likely to pay more in taxes. And so for those folks who only care about the bottom dollar in that regard, these kinds of investments allow our people to go be changemakers in their community, find more economic stability in their life, and return more to the state. You know what I mean? So anyways, I'll step back. Thank you.
So if I'm getting what you're saying correctly, if we invest in the systems that care, educate and uplift young people, we don't have to invest as much in the systems that cage and punish them.
That's right.
That seems to make a lot of sense to me. I want to thank you. This was our final panel. But for everybody who's here joining us today, we're going to do something that I've actually never done before because it's not usually something that happens in the state legislature. And that is open it up for 30 seconds of public comment for anybody who wants to talk about what going from the cradle to college and career pipelines for boys and men of color means in this moment. So thank you to all of our panelists. And if there's anybody in the room who wants to give public comment, there's a microphone right there and we can just start a line.
Hi, good afternoon. Thank you, Chair Bryan, for having this conversation, and thank you for the committee. We really appreciate this important conversation. Carol Gonzalez, on behalf of EdTrustWest, an organization committed to advancing policies and practices that dismantle racial and economic barriers, embedded in our California education system. We would like to echo our support for community schools as this program has been one of the most effective tools in the state
to close the opportunity gap in schools and improve learning outcomes for students of color, especially Black students and English learners. Regarding pathways, our advocacy over the last several years has highlighted that despite meaningful growth across the state, access to dual enrollment remains highly uneven particularly for Black, Latinx, and Native American students, underscoring the need to prioritize this proven program and model for underrepresented students. Research consistently demonstrates that CCAP students earn higher grades, enroll in college, and complete transfer level math and English courses and attain a degree certificate at higher rates than those who do not. For those reasons, we strongly support the governor's proposal for these two investments and really appreciate the conversation today. And we look forward to working with you and your committee the year ahead. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Good afternoon. My name is Ashley De La Rosa. I am a member of the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color Advisory Board. I come from Kern County, a county that is really rural at times and also has its city areas. But a lot of the times it's overlooked. And earlier the assembly member asked about how does the data show up in these rural communities right And how do these programs support our rural communities And it's laying the foundation and the basis for us to keep organizing and to keep fighting. In Kern County, we have three detention centers. We have a state prison, and our students are 80% population, black or Latino, and our faculty and our teachers and staff are 70% white. This creates a discrepancy and discrimination process with Kern County being one of the top, highest suspending school districts, along with California City and Mojave Unified School District. This is creating the school to prison pipeline. In reality, we have the prisons in our backyard, and it's also creating the school to detention pipeline. And so a lot of our members, our boys and our men, are being affected to where we're not getting those opportunities. The investments need to be made statewide in order to really invest in these communities and stop the school-to-present pipeline. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Is there anybody else in this hearing room?
Hello, everybody. My name is James Birch. I'm with the Black Solutions Live in Oakland. Boys and men are of color, and my community face compounding disadvantages in schools, in the job market, in the criminal legal system, and they don't happen by accident. the result of policy choices. That's why we're proud to support the Commission on the Status of Boys and Men in Color. We want to give a special shout-out to Isaac Bryan for the leadership in making this happen. This commission gives the infrastructure to actually change outcomes, an accountable body that tracks data, centers community voice, and drives real policy solutions. Our boys and men deserve a government that's paying attention. We're glad we got some people here who are. Thank you.
Thank you.
Jasmine Delapaz. I'm the California Alliance Youth Community Justice. CAYCJ Executive Director. First of all, thank you for allowing us this time. CAYCJ is just here in support of everything that was being shared today. Every issue that has been raised as one of the largest juvenile justice alliances here in the state of California and across the country, we stand alongside all of our speakers today. We also share that the stories are not isolated and the stories that we heard today are a reflection of systemic challenges that we're facing constantly every single day and that we want to be clear that we're committed to supporting these and that all the efforts and demands and investments that we talked about today, we want to say that we also echo and share the same support for those solutions that are being centered. And as an organization that supports and uplifts young people across the state, we ask that we continue to build this room stronger and stronger and that we're here as an alliance of CAYCJ to stand in support with all those efforts.
Hello, everyone. My name is George Vea. I'm the policy and program manager for Milpa. Just want to say thank you for bringing us all together, Mr. Isaac Bryan. I'm here to also urge the state of California to utilize the money of those prisons that are shut down and listen to the testimonies, the data that these men just shared. We know that prisons don't have a success They create a process of misery for families, for communities. It's too expensive. And if we're talking about cradle to career to college, that's how I was given that opportunity. The assembly member talked about the opportunity gap that's there. We're seeing this right now more than I think we've ever seen in a long time. So it's important that we invest. Let's shut those prisons down. Most of them are in there for technical violations anyways. So I think it important that we listen to the children the youth the teachers you Because we know there a relationship with schools and prisons And right now we have a high rates of depression in schools We don want to repeat what we did in the 90s That didn't work. So please invest in early education, early childhood development, mental health. This is going to better everybody in California. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Good afternoon and thank you so much for holding this space today. My name is Katie Nunez-Adler. I'm the statewide coordinator for the California Partnership for the Future of Learning and here in solidarity with everyone from the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color. I think the thing that was really striking to me from all of the panels that we heard from today is how critical deep relationships and deep listening are. They're foundational to transforming our schools and our communities. And we've heard that over and over again. That's why we support the transformative community schools approach and the governor's proposed investment of a billion dollars of ongoing funding. because it's both founded in deep listening and relationship and also creating structures that enable folks to really partner, deeply partner in their schools, in their districts, county offices, be part of leading the statewide system of support to create a community school state across California and ensure that we really transform what's happening for black and brown boys at other young people in our communities. Thank you.
Thank you so much. To close it out, we'll turn it back to the dais. Assemblymember Juan Alanis has just joined us. Assemblymember Alanis was texting me during the hearing that he was watching all the previous panels and hustling to get down here as soon as he could. I just want to point out our first select committee hearing was at Chuco's Justice Center in Los Angeles after touring Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. From that tour, a couple of pieces of legislation came to light. One of them is AB 1647, the Voice Act, which protects young people's ability to speak during their transfer hearings. That bill has unanimous support because it came through the Public Safety Committee and the vice chair of the Republican—the vice chair of the Public Safety Committee, the Republican, stepped in and supported it. That person was Assemblymember Juan Alanis. um some members is there anything you would like to say both in opening and in closing about the status of boys and men in color in California I would thank you sir so just so you guys are aware and I'm sure you guys are very very aware of this man here has is a great voice for you up in Sacramento he fights the fight no matter what and I enjoy being on his side I enjoy helping him as much as I can We have a lot of work to do here in the state, as you guys all know and have attested to here today. We have a lot to do. I'm a retired law enforcement officer. One of my best assignments was a school resource officer. And as you guys had mentioned also here with youth programs, I am 100% behind youth programs. Get to them early. Mentor them. Show them right and wrong. Show them what they can do to better themselves. and I think Assemblymember Brian here does a great job of that and making sure that that message is put across the entire state and if I can do whatever I can to help him do that then I will try and do that and I do apologize for being late man as I running over here but I happy that everyone here in this room has taken their time out of their day to show how important this is to all of you and to California And that we need to shine some more light on the issue as well and make sure that we are making sure that people of color Oh, he wants to talk to him. I'll have him light. Get their day in court in a sense, making sure that, you know, our voices are heard as well. And so I welcome that. I, again, I think the work that's being done here in Sacramento is starting to go more towards that way. There's so much more room for growth. And I think we're going to get there eventually. I'm hoping it happens while I'm up here, at least together with you, buddy. And then I thank you guys all. Thank you very much. Absolutely. And we'll turn to our last public comment. 30 seconds.
I'm a formerly incarcerated prisoner. I served 20 years in the prison system. I was exonerated when a videotape came to light proving my innocence. Subsequent to my incarceration, I began college, and I recently graduated law school with summa cum laude honors. And I just spent my entire youth, you know, from the time I was 21 to 42, incarcerated. And I just want to stress to you all the value of humans, you know, whether they're black, brown, white, Spanish, Asian, whatever, you know, try to get these people, try to help them to prevent them from getting in trouble, from spending, you know, a large force in their lives in prison or from making bad decisions. You know, anything you can do to try to help them is valuable to them, and it's also valuable in God's eyes. And with regard to the funding bill you all are considering in these matters, I want to point out there's also a bill pertaining to parole eligibility for elderly prisoners. And a lot of elderly prisoners comprise the large portion of health care costs in the prison system for medication, your heart surgeries, all kinds of medical treatments for the elderly inmates. If these guys are, you know, legitimately pose no risk, to be paroled, you know, consider passing that bill because it will free up some funding that can also be used for the effort you're currently pursuing. Thank you, sir.
And I think you all are doing good by supporting, you know, trying to help out some youth, and I'm glad you all are here. Thank you, sir. So with the final words, one I want to say, in all of my time in Sacramento, I've never seen a panel of men of color like this ever. And so thank y'all for this. I think representation matters tremendously. You don't know who you can be if you don't have any examples. That was me when I was a young person. And so selfishly, this day was a lot of reflection for me when I was in middle school. I went to three elementary schools and then I failed out of middle school. I got into seven fights. I was suspended multiple times. My mom will never forget the day that she picked me up from the middle school. I had been suspended for fighting, and then she picked my brother up. The middle school and the high school were back-to-back. She picked us both up within the same hour, and we had both been suspended. I then went to three high schools, and I'm famous at one of them because I got an F-minus in my English class. And you've got to work extra hard to get that minus. nobody knows those things now because I graduated top of my class with a master's from UCLA and the difference between me ending up incarcerated like some of my siblings and me ending up the chair of the select committee on the status of boys and men of color is a lot of the work that you all do it's people who advocate for first chances and second chances and compassion and mentorship. It's people who invested in me and invest in the community that I came from. And I think that is the role of good governance, and that's the role of a good society. So thank you all for sharing your testimony today and for informing the legislature. With that, this committee is concluded. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you.