Education is an area where Senator Glazer has made a tremendous difference for California. We should be the national leader in education and our students should be performing among the best in the world. Our schools need more resources, and our students need more options for quality instruction.
Senator Glazer has a proven track record of support for local schools and expanding educational opportunities. Senator Glazer:
- Wrote the $15 billion 2020 Preschool, K-12 and College Bond (the largest in California history) to repair aging schools, remove lead from school drinking water, build new classrooms, expand classroom technology, and build affordable student housing at California’s colleges and universities. (AB 48)
- Voted to provide free tuition for first-year, full-time Community College students who carry at least 12 units and qualify for financial aid. (AB 19)
- Wrote The California Promise Act to help increase the 4-year graduation rate by requiring the California State University (CSU) system to provide priority enrollment, enhanced academic advising and other support for students who carry at least 30 units per year.
The State Senate plays a critical role in education. It goes beyond funding – which is vital – to creating educational reforms to ensure that each student who attends a public school has an equitable opportunity to succeed. Senator Glazer’s priorities include:
- Local empowerment. We need to empower local school boards to lead on educational issues. The centralization of educational decision-making in Sacramento is not healthy and should be reversed.
- Teacher Quality. Senator Glazer believes in accountability at all levels of government, including public schools. There are few jobs more important or difficult than being a public-school teacher. We need to support our teachers in every way and help them be successful.
- Allow families to select the best schools for their children. Senator Glazer supports the ability of families to select the best school environment for their children. Senator Glazer does not support FOR-PROFIT CHARTER SCHOOLS or private school vouchers as they siphon vital tax dollars from public schools.
- Greater educational resources. Senator Glazer promised to continue to work to strengthen California’s economy and bring greater resources to our education system. There can be no higher priority for improving K-12 education.
Senator Glazer has been a strong supporter of strengthening the finances of local school districts, assisting disadvantaged students, providing consumer protections for students and families, keeping students safe in their schools, recruiting and training quality teachers and reforming California’s K-12 curriculum. Senator Glazer:
- Wrote legislation to prevent the state from raiding local school district budgets. (SB 751)
- Voted for the Feed the Kids Act to automatically enroll 800,000 low-income students in the state’s free or reduced lunch program. (SB 138)
- Voted to license and strictly regulate student loan services to prevent students and their parents from being taken advantage of by unscrupulous lenders. (AB 2351)
- Voted to strengthen the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education and provide strict oversight and regulation of private, for-profit colleges that frequently fail to deliver on their promises.
- Voted to require classroom doors to lock from the inside to help keep students safe and to require all school buses to be equipped with passenger restraints. (AB 3205, AB 1798)
- Forbade school districts from withholding diplomas and transcripts from students with unpaid cafeteria debts and from reporting parents’ unpaid debts to credit agencies. (AB 1974)
- Required all public schools (Charter and Non-Charter) to provide “medically accurate: and “age-appropriate” reproductive health education at least once in middle school and once in high school. (AB 2601)
- Voted to forbid public schools, community colleges, the CSU system, and the UC system from collecting information about the immigration status of students, faculty and staff and their families. (AB 691, AB 21)
- Voted to reestablish Cal Teach to better recruit teacher candidates, help prospects navigate the credentialing process and enable districts to meet teacher shortages in key subject areas. (SB 915)
Higher Education
Senator Glazer served as a California State University Trustee, helping guide 23 campuses, 447,000 students and 45,000 faculty and staff — the largest, most diverse and one of the most affordable university systems in the country. As Trustee, he voted repeatedly against excessive executive pay.
Higher education is a gateway to lifelong learning and employment opportunities. We need to ensure our state universities and colleges remain catalysts for societal progress and individual opportunity, and that they remain accessible and affordable to all Californians.
There are a number of challenges facing our higher education systems that need attention; remedial educational needs of incoming students in English and math; achievement gap between student groups; faculty and staff diversity; and low four-year graduation rates in the CSU system.
“I am very proud of the fact that the Cal State System issued degrees to more than 100,000 Californians last year, Senator Glazer said. “About 60% of these graduates were the first in their family to graduate from college. We need to make it a priority to support our public universities, as they are making a difference for so many.”