Education

By Dominic J. Caserta

Public schools need full funding -- and the innovation to help every student thrive in the 21st century.

To boost education in California, Dominic Caserta proposes:

• Creating a public-private partnership to provide college money to students who contribute community service.

• Starting classes no earlier than 8:30 a.m. to boost grades and reduce lateness, behavioral problems and dropout rates.

• Expanding on Senate Bill 1660 -- which offers incentives to draw math and science teachers to low-performing districts -- to include all teachers who choose to work in such schools

• Ensuring, through whatever legislative means necessary, that Prop. 98 represents a minimum, not maximum, for school spending.

• Offering online classes in each discipline for grades seven through 12 to better engage our generation of Web-savvy students and accommodate those whose circumstances compel them to learn off-campus.

• Making career and technical classes a graduation requirement to lower absenteeism and help the next generation of workers feel more secure in the global economy.

• Establishing a data-managing system to monitor spending, ensuring that taxpayers' money is being used properly.

• Increasing the money delineated for the Quality Education Investment Act, which helps low-income, minority and English-learners close the achievement gap.

• Banning junk food and sodas in school cafeterias and vending machines while providing healthy menus and snacks based on the FDA's food pyramid.

• Reducing obesity and promoting walking and overall exercise by giving each fifth-grade student a low-cost pedometer.