Education

We know that high-quality, affordable, and accessible child care has a significant impact on the economic growth and competitiveness of our companies and economy, and yet child care is difficult to find and afford for most families. Labor force participation of working parents has faced a steep decline since the start of the pandemic. Our child care crisis is damaging the productivity and strength of our workforce. In terms of our future workforce, studies show that investments in early education set the foundation for learning, ensure school readiness, and narrow the persistent achievement gap for the region’s most vulnerable children. This is the best investment we can make locally to improve outcomes that increase cost savings in education, health, economic productivity, and crime reduction.

We support policies that encourage an investment in quality early education and care, including the expansion of high-quality preschool. We support efforts that strengthen California’s birth-through-third-grade mixed delivery infrastructure, particularly critical as Transitional Kindergarten is implemented. Failure to invest meaningfully in child care will irreparably damage California’s already fragile child care system, immediately hindering our current workforce and creating long-term negative effects for our future workforce, while stifling California’s economic recovery.

Improved preschool through third grade (P-3) alignment within school districts and engaging students in STEM subjects during these early years are critical building blocks for future success. At the high school level, we support the alignment of A-G requirements and CTE opportunities, so that all students will have access to pathways to sustainable jobs and careers, and support efforts to leverage our region’s higher education opportunities that meet our region’s workforce demands for education and training in science, technology, engineering and math. Equitable distribution of resources, including broadband access, is crucial. We support improved collaboration at all points of the cradle to career continuum.

We support funding for higher education and improved collaboration across education and workforce sectors. Postsecondary education drives economic development, and Santa Rosa Junior College and Sonoma State University are tremendous assets in our region. These systems represent opportunities for our residents to secure meaningful employment, to launch a next generation of entrepreneurs and job creators, and to provide the skill-building, certificate, and degree programs required to support our diverse local economy. We support the active effort of our local school districts to learn from the robust data obtained through the YouthTruth survey to inform the improvement of curriculum, school culture, and staff professional development.

Experts agree that child and youth mental health is at crisis-level concern. In Sonoma County, high school students are failing classes at rates never before seen in our community. Sonoma County high school students who participated in the national YouthTruth survey over the last few years have reported “feeling anxious about the future” as their number one barrier, and our incoming workforce has the highest numbers of anxiety, depression, and stress ever recorded. With rates of anxiety, depression and suicidality on the rise, we support policies and funding to provide social emotional wellness and mental health resources for students such as mental health screenings, suicide prevention, and extended learning opportunities that address the pandemic learning loss and that help students to feel connected to their future potential. Our educational institutions and elected school officials must do better to care for our kids.

School Board members and district leadership must prioritize above all else the safety and security of students. School safety lays the foundation for a learning environment where students can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. Removing political rhetoric and implementing evidence-based school safety programs is critical to ensure that interventions and responses to safety events are grounded in research, and proven effective in prevention, intervention, and support services. Utilization of Resource Officers and implementation of restorative justice programs are not mutually exclusive. Meaningful and appropriate levels of investment in any program, particularly safety programs, must be made to achieve success. Without sufficient resources allocated across all aspects of school safety, critical gaps remain, leaving students and staff vulnerable to potential threats and feeling unsafe.

Acting swiftly to implement a school safety program is essential to ensure the protection and well-being of students and staff. While it takes time to implement a comprehensive school safety program this should be done as quickly as possible, and when possible, should be guided in large part by the recommendations collaboratively developed by school safety-focused student, staff, and parent committees. In the interim, there must be immediate implementation of a plan to: alleviate pressure on educators to fill this role without support or resources; act on violent offenses; protect students from campus violence; and to provide consistent, dedicated on-campus support.