Concerned citizens met at the state senate and state assembly Candidates Forum on May 18 in the Cupertino Community Hall to discuss education. 

“We wanted it to be clean, unbiased, and let people get to know the candidates, creating a smart voter,” said Susan Hough, a teammember of the League of Voters service.

The League of Women Voters of Cupertino-Sunnyvale hosted the event, with other sponsors including De Anza College, Parents for Great Education, and local counties through My Vote Our Future. The event was designed forum style to inform voters for the June 5 primary election. 

The forum began with images of the new districts resulting from the 2010 census, and the new top two primary system, where the primary ballot includes a long list of candidates and two candidates possibly from the same party or even those losing the popular vote landing a spot on the Nov. 6 ballot. 

“It is entirely possible that the two candidates on the November ballot will be of the same party,” said Hough.

Polly Bove, superintendent of Fremont Union High Schools in Sunnyvale, presented facts on the importance of education, and its effect on the workforce and homeowners, which she attributed to National Education Association, the California Budget Project, McKinsey Global Institute, and the under secretary of education, Martha Kanter.

“There is definitely a need for students to be educated if they are to enter the workforce,” Bove said. 

By 2018, 62 percent of jobs in the U.S. will require an education beyond high school. Bove also said even if you don’t care about education, homeowners will be affected because public schools drive the price of homes and therefore economy.

Candidates for Assembly Districts 24 and 28 were asked questions from the audience, moderator and Cupertino Councilmember Rod Sinks, to understand their stance in accordance to funding for schools and propositions. Most of the candidates agreed with reforming Proposition 13, and aligning with Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed ballot initiative, an increased income tax for those making over $250,000 a year to support higher education, yet a couple also liked Molly Munger’s initiative, which supports only K-12 education.

“The Munger initiative is the only initiative that funds pre-K,” said Christopher Kent Chiang, candidate for Senate District 13. “We need to start looking at kids beyond the scope of kindergarten through high school. Kids come with a lot of needs before kindergarten, and a lot of the research increasingly is showing that funding spent earlier in their lives will bring more return than if we only start in kindergarten.”

Chengzhi “George” Yang said he was running for Assembly District 24 because he has a 5-year-old and 1-year-old, and by the time they are ready for college, the state will have no money for them because state funding for the UC system is falling and will possibly be eliminated in the next few years.

“I want to cap on chancellor salaries and other school officials salaries,” said Joseph Antonelli Rosas, another candidate for the 24th District. “Right now, the chancellor of the CSU system makes more than our governor. This is absolutely unacceptable and there should be legislation.”

Richard Gordon, also a candidate for the 24th, said there was a master plan in the 1960s California adopted for higher education,  promising if you graduated from a high school in California, there would be a place in the state’s public higher education system, and the state has failed to keep that promise. 

 “The state legislature is the wrong place to be running schools. Decisions about schools are best made as close to the classroom and student as possible: the local school boards,” said Gordon.

Sally Lieber, candidate for Senate District 13, said, “We have these tremendous sugar highs and crashes, and so much of what schools and districts are coping with is just the churn from the constant change in financial fortunes, and we should take all that energy that is devoted to the churn right now and put that into education instead. I think reforming Proposition 13 will really help us get there.”  

Listen to the event or watch it on Cupertino’s government channel, The City Channel at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/city-channel.