Campaigns and Actions

2006 ACTIONS

PLAN Organizes a Bay Area parent meeting with California’s Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction

On February 20th, PLAN members held a meeting with California’s Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, Gavin Payne, to discuss concerns and solutions regarding the racial achievement gap in education. 15 PLAN leaders did a great job sharing their personal stories to highlight the impact of the persistent, structural achievement gap and its impact low-income communities of color, and possible solutions.

The meeting was the result of persistent action by PLAN leaders, beginning with our Parent Action Forum in October, to persuade Superintendent Jack O’ Connell to come to the Bay Area and listen to the voices of parents regarding the achievement gap. O’Connell had been invited by PLAN to attend PLAN’s October Forum on the achievement gap, but declined to attend. O’Connell then held an Achievement Gap Summit in Sacramento, but it was inaccessible to low-income parents.

During November and December of 2007, PLAN leaders sent over 150 signed postcards followed up with over 50 calls requesting a meeting with Superintendent O’ Connell. In early January, we learned that Deputy Superintendent Gavin Payne was willing to come to Oakland to meet with a regional parent delegation.

At our February 20th meeting, we advocated that Superintendent O’Connell advocate for the following solutions:

• Requiring expansion of Professional Development Block Grant and require new and veteran teachers receive cultural awareness training to respond to the needs of California’s diverse student population

• Restructuring funding formulas so districts in most need are not disproportionately affected by cuts to education

• Adding a parent representative to Assemblymember Coto’s AB 586 working group on school finance.

While Mr. Payne did not give a clear commitment to our all of our presented demands, we were able to get Mr. Payne to commit to briefing Superintendent O’Connell on our solutions and Mr. Payne also committed to contacting Assemblymember Coto and encouraging him to include parent representation in AB586!

PLAN is following up with O’Connell’s staff to ensure that the commitments are met. Stay tuned for future actions!

Spring 2006: PLAN members visited several Bay Area legislators to win support for our 2006 Parent Platform. Partly as a result of this advocacy, the Governor and the legislature restored funds owed to K-12 education, increased eligibility for child care subsidies, and increased support for families on CalWORKs. PLAN also won commitments from Assemblymembers Mark Leno (pictured) and Wilma Chan, as well as Senators Migden and Perata, to push for increased monitoring and enforcement of the California Department of Education’s Parent Involvement Policy.

January 2006: Along with member organizations Parent Voices, California Partnership and LIFETIME, PLAN helped stage a parent action at the San Francisco office of Governor Schwarzenegger to protest “family unfriendly” proposals in the state budget.

2005 ACTIONS

May 2005: PLAN leader Eduardo Martinez delivers a giant postcard signed by 100 parents, teachers, and community members telling the Governor: “Don’t Terminate California Schools.” The postcard was delivered during a massive rally of public employees at the state Capitol.

March 2005: PLAN organized a contingent to support member group March 4 Education’s march and rally to urge the Governor and state legislators to support public education.