League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Los Angeles County, CA June 5, 2012 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Member of the State Assembly; District 39

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund and asked of all candidates for this office.     See below for questions on Budget, Government reform, Higher education, Major issues Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 1. How will you prioritize the budget choices the Legislature must make to align the state’s income and spending? Answer from Omar Cuevas: In the case of budget choices, I would look no further cuts in education, healthcare, and public safety. I would push for wage caps on high paying bureaucratic management positions. I would also look at setting a method of tracking out-of-control spending that will eliminate source of waste and misuse of public funds. Answer from John Paul "Jack" Lindblad: Ingredients of solving the State budget shortfall crisis in "my 2008 position paper": lowering the sales tax, insuring California's fair share of the Federal reallocations to the States, and closing speculative developer tax loopholes - are part of a August 5, 2010 proposal suggested by Senator President pro Tem Steinberg to recover Federal taxes directly to the taxpayer, making modest increases in taxes that are federally deductible, while dramatically cutting the state sales tax, closing an unfair loophole for big oil companies and delaying new corporate tax breaks. 2. What types of changes or reforms, if any, do you think are important to make our state government function more effectively? Answer from John Paul "Jack" Lindblad: Reverse spending on prisons 6:1 over education to spending on education 6:1 over prisons. Stop the influence of money in politics by disbanding the 'third house' and returning to the state coffers the 1/4 billion dollars of lobbyist expenditures just from last year alone. Answer from Omar Cuevas: The government needs to desperately stimulate economy and put a stop on over regulation on business. We lose more business in our state than what is being created. We need to push for legislative solutions that will create a better business climate to will stimulate job creation. Our education system in California needs to look at new forms of technologies and computer programming as a way to produce new jobs that cannot be exported to a foreign country. 3. Fees for public higher education have gone up dramatically and funding has been cut. Is this a priority concern, and if so, what measures would you propose to address it? Answer from Omar Cuevas: Higher learning should be a priority in California and should be made affordable for everyone. College/University graduates are the new workforce generation and long-term health of our economy. I am in disagreement with appointed Regions/Administrators for our State and California universities who give themselves annual raises at the expense of the students. We need to take their high pay salaries and return them back to the students. Answer from John Paul "Jack" Lindblad: Our public education system has failed our kids. We must institute comprehensive reform of our schools and their management. We must fully fund public education so that our kids have the opportunity to compete with students from anywhere in the world. I know that we can have a world-class public education system again - and I will not stop until we achieve it. Without a highly educated population, we will not have a sustainable economy, and in turn, a never-to-be balanced budget. Education Issues a) Do I support national education standards? No b) Do I support requiring public schools to administer high school exit exams? No c) Do I support using a merit pay system for teachers? No d) Do I support state funding for charter schools? No e) Do I support the state government providing college students with financial aid? Yes f) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from California high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? Yes g) Other or expanded principles: Renew the California Dream of fully funded tuition free public education par excellence bar none from pre-k through 16 and free life-long community college for skills training for all. No better investment to make our future stable and sustainable. We support lifelong public education, with an emphasis on giving our young people the tools they need to navigate their way through the sources of information which will enable them to lead meaningful and productive lives. Decrease the student-teacher ratio in classrooms and increase the number of counselors, nurses, librarians and social workers. Provide smaller, more personalized schools and a greater diversity of choices. Promote & fund bilingual & second-language immersion education with trained teachers & appropriate materials. Restoration is needed of in-demand careers that State universities provide for in nursing, engineering, and computer science curriculum. `Some of the most insidious effects are on teaching and monitoring. The Enlightenment ideal of education was captured in the image of education as laying down a string that students follow in their own ways, developing their creativity and independence of mind. The alternative, to be rejected, is the image of pouring water into a vessel - and a very leaky one, as all of us know from experience. The latter approach includes teaching to test and other mechanisms that destroy students' interest and seek to fit them into a mold, easily controlled.' The Assault on Public Education' by Noam Chomsky Our world-class preeminence in education was based on the California Dream 40 years ago when education outspent prisons by at least 5 to 1. Over the past 40 years, California lost it's world competitiveness in education, having a skilled workforce, and making demonstrable progress to climate change mitigation, adaptation and revitalization - by spending 7 to 1 on prisons over education, unintended abuse by corporate unjust enrichment of the original mission of Proposition 13 to keep low income and elderly in their homes, extending endless lobbyist self-enriching authoring, sponsoring, and writing the legislation of corporate loophole welfare, 'independent' campaign/non-profit abuse, and the sucking sound from war profiteering- all drains on every state budget. Hardly a state budget is solvent. California's education system will have zero-tolerance and no room for self-enriched, excessively paid administration fat-cats. 4. What other major issues do you think the Legislature must address? What are your own priorities? Answer from Omar Cuevas: I believe the worse law to have been passed by legislature was the Public Safety Realignment Act that added to more crime in our community. This law eliminated prison sentences for many serious and career criminals by placing them at local jail for 10-to-30 days only. This was no common sense law to deal with prison overcrowding by our current legislature. Lastly, we need that Federal government to pay the State an equal tax return like all other states. We cannot afford to be a donor state. That why we are in a serious economic crisis. Answer from John Paul "Jack" Lindblad: Stop Strip Mining in Sylmar. Save the Oak Trees. Stop oversized elder care housing complex proposed for 11762 Fenton Ave Lake View Terrace. Protect Lopez Canyon Restoration. Save 50+ Oak Trees at El Cariso Park. Mitigate DWP Sediment removal and transport from Pacoima Reservoir on Hubbard Ave major thoroughfare to May Site above Olive View Hospital. Stop oversized Samoa Ave Housing development in Sunland. Save Verdugo Hills Golf Course with Storm Water Project. Capture, cleanse and store storm water, provide flood protection, increase water conservation, enhance habitat protection, and preserve open space. Stop blanket city-wide rezoning. Quality of Life. Massive unemployment. Lack of Green Jobs. Corruption and favoritism by the clique of corrupt electeds who represent developer and corporate interest. No addressing community interest by electeds of keeping neighborhoods integral. Education tuition hikes, classes lacking. Skyrocketing prices from commodity speculation. Foreclosures, the adverse impact on families, the neighborhood, and the community. Food security. Locally-grown produce. Publicly funded political campaign reform. Inequity of Citizen United: democracy to the deepest pockets. Compliance with SB 375 requiring development to meet transit-friendly, mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented criteria to meet 2020 required 1/3 global greenhouse gas reductions. Financial market seizure and freezing small business loans to expand or meet payroll. Dependence on oil-based economy. Gang injunctions merely suppress anti-social behavior. Availability and quality of water. Lack of adequate global warming mitigation to avert massive environmental and human catastrophes with human extinction looming. I choose the high road in my campaign, rooted in the Green four pillars and 10 key values - my three campaign issues are encapsulated by supporting and advancing legislation to: 1) save our neighborhoods - by transformation of a failed-growth economy to a steady-state, 100% renewable energy economy, relocalized energy, get off the grid, rewilding, restoration of Tujunga-Pacoima watershed ecological services, mediation of home loans to halt foreclosures, to lower the loan value and payments to stabilize neighborhoods, families, and the community. Relocalize water resources, energy, food. Climate-change mitigation & adaptation measures. Restore Tujunga-Pacoima Watershed. 2) stop payola politics - with a ban of all corporatist lobbying and campaign spending with implementation of public financing of elections. Jobs. Education. Sustainable Environment. Ban corporate contributions and lobbying. Implement public financing of elections. 3) protect rights, not raids - to ensure Human Dignity and fair Immigration rights by immediately ending immigration raids and deportations. Ensure Human Dignity and fair Immigration rights for all. Healthcare is a right, quality universal single payer healthcare. Focusing on water issues to wean the District away from dependence on water conveyed from long distances at high energy costs, sustainability and a steady-state economy. Single-Payer Health Care - Guaranteed quality universal single payer healthcare for all. Deployment of strategies and tactics to reduce and cope with climate change and promote a healthy environment. Increase Parks and Recreation Areas Emphasis on Early Childhood Care, Education, Mentoring and Sports to Prevent Gang Violence Formation of a 39th Assembly District Representative Council New Bus and Rail Lines Connecting Transportation Nodes Expanded Mission Community College Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. References to opponents are not permitted. The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.