Regardless How Deeply In The Sand Republicans Bury Their Heads, Our Nation's Future Prosperity Is All About Education

Compton Board of Education President Micah Ali

DCCC Chair Steve Israel uses the empty phrase, "problem solvers" to describe the hopeless batch of mystery meat candidates he recruited and is leading down the path to slaughter in November. Most of his recruits are drudges who were recruited because they are drudges. The idea of "problem solvers," however, isn't as stupid as most of the claptrap that comes spilling out of Israel's mouth. This statement by a far smarter Member of Congress is anything but empty rhetoric: "I’m really getting tired of listening to people who don’t know what they’re talking about. One of the dirty little secrets of Congress is that many of us legislate in areas in which we are utterly bereft of knowledge. If ignorance is bliss, then some of our Members must be deliriously happy... [W]e have Members on the Agriculture Committee who couldn’t tell a plow from a harvester. We have Members on the Science Committee who couldn’t tell a proton from a photon. We have Members on the Foreign Affairs Committee who couldn’t locate Indonesia on a globe if their lives were at stake. And we have Members on the Intelligence Committee who are as dumb as… Well, you get the idea. And don’t even ask me about the Ethics Committee." Maybe you can tell from the stylistic flair, but that was the congressman from Central Florida, Alan Grayson. Aren't we all "really getting tired of listening to people who don’t know what they’re talking about," particularly when they're our elected political elites?

We've introduced you to Compton School Board president Micah Ali in the past. He's running against a corrupt Establishment Machine for the 64th district Assembly seat now. A real education reformer who understands the need to get to the economic and social roots that are leaving kids in danger, Ali is leading-- albeit not by much.

Ali starts this race in a strong position. He is tied at 18% with [Mike] Gipson and runs well ahead of [Prophet] Walker (6%) and [Steve] Neal (5%). A majority (54%) are undecided at this point in the race.

While Gipson leads in his home base of Carson by 36%-14%, Ali has the edge over
Gipson everywhere else in the district-- 30%- 11% in Compton, 17%- 10% in Los Angeles, and 16%-8% in the district’s other areas. Should Ali’s advantage hold outside of Carson, it will be difficult for Gipson to beat him in June.

We also found that voters are receptive to messaging focusing on Ali’s successful tenure as school board president. After hearing positive statements from each candidate, Ali jumps into a clear first place. His vote total increases by nine points, to 27%, giving him an eight-point lead over Gipson (19%, an increase of 1%) and larger edges over Walker (11%) and Neal (6%). Importantly, he cuts Gipson’s edge in Carson, while increasing his vote share in every part of the district.

Ali is strongly positioned for the primary election. He is the best-liked of the four candidates and the second best known. He starts out tied for the lead and garners a clear edge after voters learn more about the four candidates. With appropriate resources, Ali should make the general election and go on to win the seat.

Big Oil and fracking may be the dominant issue-- Ali opposing fracking and Gipson a paid-off shill for Big Oil and gas interests-- but what makes Ali one of the most compelling candidates for the state legislature in all of the Los Angeles Basin is his vision for educating young people. California will sink into Texas style ignorance and stagnation if we don't regain our status as a state with a vibrant and powerful education system. That's Ali's world. A report in today's NY Times emphasizes the looming problems America will have in maintaining our standard of living as a nation if we keep ignoring our children's education. The report doesn't show U.S. students anywhere near #1 relative to students in other developed countries.

[S]tudents who took the problem-solving tests in countries including Singapore, South Korea, Japan, several provinces of China, Canada, Australia, Finland and Britain all outperformed American students.

“The good news is that problem solving still remains a relatively strong suit for American students,” said Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia and president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a national policy and advocacy group focused on improving high schools. “The challenge is that a lot of other nations are now developing this and even moving ahead. So where we used to, in an earlier era, dominate in what we called the deeper learning skills-- creative thinking, critical thinking and the ability to solve problems-- in terms of producing the workers that are increasingly needed in this area, other nations are coming on strong and in some cases surpassing us.”

Above I talked about the danger of California turning into another Texas. I had that fear in my mind because of a story by Melissa Block at NPR last night, As Texas Gets More Diverse, Educators Grab The Bull By The Horns. It's about seven and a half minutes and well worth listening to (at that link). The state of Texas, like CA-64, is a minority-majority area, and has been since 2005, even if most Anglo Texans refuse to accept that reality. Texas' Rick Perry-appointed state demographer, Steve Murdock, is warning that unless the growing Hispanic population are given access to opportunities, Texas overall will become poorer and less competitive. The state will spiral downward. "The reality is that the future of Texas will be tied to its minority populations and how well they do is how well we will do," he says. The key to that future, Murdock says, is better education which leads to higher-paying jobs.

Brian Woods is a school district superintendent in the sprawling, fast-growing San Antonio suburbs. Virtually all the growth in his district is Hispanic.

For superintendent Woods, that means he needs more resources and staff to meet the needs of disadvantaged students. So he was dismayed three years ago when the Texas legislature slashed $60 million out of his budget. He had to cut almost 1,000 staff positions at time when his student population was ballooning.

"To ignore the changes in our state and to ignore public education and health care as infrastructure projects, is really to set the state up for dismal times in the out years. These are long-term issues. The great 'Texas Miracle,' to borrow a George Bush phrase, cannot last if we don't fund infrastructure," he says.

Californians like to think they'll never sink to the level of Texans. But they're kidding themselves and California's corporate Democrats are just as likely to shortchange education as brain dead Texas racists. If you'd like to contribute to Micah Ali's Assembly campaign, you can do that here.