“What are you passionate about?”
“Making sure people who don’t have access to opportunity get extended access to education and jobs. We tend to think of education as being a private good, as in it only benefits me, but it’s actually a public good, it’s something that benefits the entire community. If you think about it that way everybody should have some skin in the game in insuring that it gets protected and extended to everyone.”
“What can the average person do to help out?”
“Be in touch with your elected officials. It makes a huge difference. Most people don’t know who their local state assembly person or local senator is, but getting in touch with them makes a huge difference in the dollars that flow to support K12 education and money for college.”
“Making sure people who don’t have access to opportunity get extended access to education and jobs. We tend to think of education as being a private good, as in it only benefits me, but it’s actually a public good, it’s something that benefits the entire community. If you think about it that way everybody should have some skin in the game in insuring that it gets protected and extended to everyone.”
“What can the average person do to help out?”
“Be in touch with your elected officials. It makes a huge difference. Most people don’t know who their local state assembly person or local senator is, but getting in touch with them makes a huge difference in the dollars that flow to support K12 education and money for college.”
“Is this work your job?”
“Yeah, I do higher education policy for the state of California looking at how to increase access, insure success, insure all that aligns with the needs of the state so that people can actually graduate from college and have the opportunity to use their degree to do something meaningful. If you get a college education without a job at the end it feels like a little bit of an empty promise.”
“Who is most at risk at not having their needs met?”
“When you look at data it’s definitely people of color in California. There’s a huge education gap between white and asian students vs blacks and latinos students, particularly in college. So we’re really looking at what kind of support kids need, not just in college, but also in K-12. Also, there are be geographical gaps. There’s a microcosm in the bay area that you have way more access afforded to people in San Francisco than you may have in Richmond. But then you look across the state and you have a lot less access in the Central Valley, Inland Empire, and even Los Angeles than you do in the Bay Area. So it’s figuring out what constitutes equitable access around jobs and education for various people around the state.”
“Yeah, I do higher education policy for the state of California looking at how to increase access, insure success, insure all that aligns with the needs of the state so that people can actually graduate from college and have the opportunity to use their degree to do something meaningful. If you get a college education without a job at the end it feels like a little bit of an empty promise.”
“Who is most at risk at not having their needs met?”
“When you look at data it’s definitely people of color in California. There’s a huge education gap between white and asian students vs blacks and latinos students, particularly in college. So we’re really looking at what kind of support kids need, not just in college, but also in K-12. Also, there are be geographical gaps. There’s a microcosm in the bay area that you have way more access afforded to people in San Francisco than you may have in Richmond. But then you look across the state and you have a lot less access in the Central Valley, Inland Empire, and even Los Angeles than you do in the Bay Area. So it’s figuring out what constitutes equitable access around jobs and education for various people around the state.”