League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Kern, Tulare, San Bernardino Counties, CA November 4, 2014 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues State Senator; District 16

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 Fiscal Choices, Water, Education, Your Priorities Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 1. How would you prioritize the fiscal choices the Legislature must make to align the state’s income and spending? Answer from Ruth Musser-Lopez: The Jerry Brown Administration and Betty Yee are doing an awesome job in reigning in the budget crisis that haunted the previous administrations. California is doing so well that the our federal government should take lessons. 2. Given our current drought condition, concern for water rights and usage is an important issue. What solutions would you support to address our water problems? Answer from Ruth Musser-Lopez: Some of the no thrills elements of the water conservation project proposed in Measure 1 on our November 4 ballot are a good start. The downside is that we will be paying to clean up after polluter corporations messes. Reallocating money from unused bonds to make better use of the money is a controversial and should be weighed on a case by case basis. Our need for safe drinking water for all communities is critical and Measure 1 will start the ball rolling on filling up our dangerously low underground water aquifers in the central valley where we can store water naturally while protecting it from evaporation. Intra county water swaps crossing county lines saved Central Valley farmers during this last growing season. We cannot assume that the water crisis can be taken care of locally. State Officials are appointees of the Governor and our elected representatives in Sacramento and the State is the right government entity to get the job done. We need to ensure that our farms and businesses get the water they need during dry years by managing our water resources efficiently in wet years and being in a good position to transport surface water from outside areas that have excess water to give. Measure 1 will provide the mechanism to manage and prepare for droughts, to invest in water conservation, build water treatment plants so that water can be used and hopefully (as the bills proponents have suggested) recycled at least 10 times improving our local water supplies. The bill proposes to increase flood protection and capture the unbridled rain run off, fund groundwater cleanup, clean up polluted rivers and streams, and restore the environment. All of the things that I have been campaigning for in the last 6 months. PLEASE VOTE YES ON MEASURE 1. We need me in Sacramento because I care about and would have voted for the key landmark water conservation measures that were just recently passed in the senate (SB 1168) that could require urban and rural areas to develop and implement water conservation plans such as crop sprinkling at night, drip irrigation, planting drought tolerant crops, reconditioning old water pipe infrastructure to avoid leaks and pipe bursts and prohibiting wasteful industrial uses. Now we need the Measure 1 bond money to help provide incentives and funding for implementing the landmark water conservation bill SB1168. When elected, my first legislative effort would be to look at California's Integrated Waste Management Act and iron out the twists and tweaks in the law and regulation that denies the people of the County of Kern the right to decide for themselves if they want to accept Los Angeles County's sewer sludge be placed over their drinking water aquifer. It is unacceptable that the people vote to stop the potential contamination of their aquifer and then are denied because of some clause in the law that the State legislature made. The damage of pollution in various aquifers throughout the state including SD16 has been done, but the necessity of cleaning up after polluter corporations must end. The solution to pollution must not be dilution in our water aquifers. PG&E continues to be allowed to monitor their own Chromium 6 "clean up" activity and that tragic situation at the Hinkley aquifer is still going on after 20 years even after the situation was exposed by the famous movie Erin Brockovich. We have been losing out from influence by water polluter corporations and those who would privatize the public clean water that we do have. It is against our interest that oil and gas corporations are not disclosing the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") chemicals they use above our aquifers because such information is a "trade secret." We loose billions of gallons of good water to fracking operations--operations that are contaminating our drinking supply and then the taxpayer ends up flipping the bill for testing what those contaminants are. I also support the campaign for a moratorium on oil fracking in California unless it can be guaranteed to be safe. Now we know about the leakage of fracking chemicals into our central valley water aquifer and the contamination of billions of gallons of water that could otherwise be used for farming. California State Senate bill SB 1132 failed this year. This bill would have authorized a MORATORIUM ON hydraulic fracturing (FRACKING) until we can learn more about the long term environmental impact. A top contributor to no voter is the oil industry...California Independent Petroleum Association ($3,900), Occidental Oil & Gas ($3,900), Valero Energy ($3,900), plus a whole slew of others, Conoco, Kern oil, totalling $22,800 from the oil and gas industry. Stop the transfer of billions of gallons of water to the oil industry that could be used on FARMS. When you see the word RUTH, vote RUTH--for sustainable water use, not wasteful corporate water heists and water contamination. Further, I have written opposition papers to the unnecessary "HECA" project which amounts to a coal burning energy plant near Bakersfield that would add to the already high particulate matter in the air and produce an immense amount of CO2 adding to the threat of global warming. Though the proposal is to use the CO2 in the fracking operations then sequester it in deep wells, with the history of seismic activity in the Central Valley, such a scheme is a huge risk given the existing faults and fissures from historic seismic earthquake activity. I am for sustainable use of water and for this reason I oppose whole sale corporate water heists of public water including the Cadiz Corporation's proposed project, a plan to pump and pipe to Orange County the water that is under the East Mojave desert. I am for providing incentives for installing energy efficient roof top and road way solar and solar over already disturbed parcels and corridors while at the same time imposing a moratorium on massive corporate solar plants situated directly over water aquifers, destroying pristine, fragile desert wildlife habitat. Since these industrial plants result in the loss of ground water through pumping and evaporation they are another type of water heist occurring in the Mojave Desert. I am the Archaeologist who demands Sacramento throw District 16 MORE THAN JUST A BONE. We need to restore our contaminated water aquifers. We need to end corporate ground water heists via pollution and direct pump and pipe. We need to recharge depleted aquifers. I love wildlife and I love to go fishing and I know a lot of you do too. When I look at the dry Kern River channel where once flowed through Bakersfield, I think of the words Joni Mitchel sang back in 1970, "They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot." Its been 50 years and finally people are beginning to appreciate the idea of water conservation and what an attitude changer it is to see water flowing right through a community. My dream is to see the Kern River paradise restored in Bakersfield, in my lifetime, put my feet in it, go fishing in it, and then catch a fish that I am not afraid to eat because of disease by toxic pollutants. 3. California high school students rank lower than many states in student performance. What do you see as the ongoing role of the Legislature in addressing this problem? Answer from Ruth Musser-Lopez: Performance is such a relative matter...the true test is whether or not a young person is going to be able to fend for themselves and live a comfortable, happy and contributing life without parental support after they leave home. Its time to make high school meaningful. Not all students desire to study liberal arts in college and instead need to get out of the home and on their own simply to survive. We need engaging education that is designed to route students into a successful life path. We need flex funding in support of collaborative apprenticeship programs that prepare young people for good paying jobs. We need our high school administrators to collaborate with career technical industry and professionals, workers in the industrial and construction trades, artists and professionals of all sorts, farming and business people. We need to build cooperative programs designed to give the youth REAL SKILLS and motivate them to jump right into the work force running or go on to college if required to accomplish their professional goals. Work/study apprenticeship programs is key. We've got the potential to create thousands of jobs gearing up for the high speed rail slated to be constructed in Senate District 16 area first!!! This is great news for this area. Students, Veterans and the unemployed have high hopes for getting the instruction they need to become welders, carpenters, etc. so that they may help in the workforce to build for the future with High Speed Rail. MORE SOLUTIONS... Here are some budget issues pertaining to California education that I would like to see addressed by the State Legislature and would sponsor. A) Student/teacher ratio--increase the number of educators and stimulate the economy in the state. B) Attract and hire quality teachers by offering excellent salaries and compensation packages (equal to other state employees including fire fighters and law enforcement officers) and carefully review qualifications of new hires. C) Incentives for using flex funds to develop collaborative apprenticeship programs, working with local businesses, agencies and industry. Incentives for introducing apprenticeship programs and engaging students in trial career experiences early on in the student's education. Build a sustainable funding model for career technical education that ensures equity and access through ROC/Ps, whether by joint powers authorities or by programs operated regionally by county offices of education. I would vote to expand the opportunities for community college credit through concurrent enrollment of the high school student. I would not vote to cut state school funding when districts receive federal funds for one-time use and I would vote to protect the integrity and funding of alternative education programs. D) Insufficient funding to meet curriculum and content standards and unfunded mandates to comply with a variety of other state requirements is unacceptable. I am for a imposing a 2% oil and gas extraction fee, similar to to fees charged by other large oil producing states, generating 1-2 billion dollars in annual state revenue that would go to provide instructional material, tools (including computers) and bright and engaging teachers. These funds could potentially be used to fund the development and for maintenance of a statewide student data base system, make employee cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for inflation and provide for step-and-column salary increases. E) EXCELLENCE. I would be happy to introduce any policy or budget adjustment that would provide students with more natural environment appreciation, and more opportunity to experience and engage in art, music, theatre and creativity. F) I would vote to: 1) Relax prevailing wage requirements to more accurately reflect local market conditions and to provide greater flexibility in school construction; 2) Provide adequate funding for deferred maintenance to ensure necessary maintenance for all school buildings; 3) Include schools in any provisions for planning and funding state and local infrastructure; 4) Include a method to fund the increased need for school facilities as part of any property development and expansion; 5) Fully fund ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) access requirements separately from other modernization funding; 6) Require full participation of school districts and/or county offices of education in planning for local infrastructures before a government entity takes any action that would have an impact on schools; and 7) Remove the timeline for ROC/P exemption in non-Field Act compliant facilities. I agree to review and determine the impact of rising construction costs and the resulting imbalance between state and school district contributions for building new schools and/or other facilities including offices, conference rooms, and professional development facilities. G) Charter School Policy. The State should: 1) Hold schools including Charter schools to be accountable for improved student achievement and sound business practices with fiscal transparency; 2) Require charter schools to comply with Government Code Section 1090 et. seq., conflict of interest reporting and the Brown Act (open meeting law); 3) Prohibit blanket submission of the same charter petition to multiple districts and multiple counties; 4) Remove the 1 percent cap on charter oversight reimbursement to authorizing agencies in order to recover actual and necessary costs of oversight; 5) Require charter schools to publicly disclose all contracts with management companies and make the records of the management company subject to the Public Records Act and subject to Education Code requirements to produce records when requested by the county superintendent or chartering authority; 6) Require charter school board members and management employees to publicly disclose potential conflicts of interest to the chartering authority and file with the FPPC; 7) Require charter schools to annually report to the chartering authority the total compensation of all officers and management employees and all large payments to vendors and independent contractors over a specified amount; 8) Require charter schools to report to the chartering authority the purchase of all real property; 9) Require charter schools to provide the chartering authority with a report of all vehicles purchased or leased; 10) Prohibit a school district from approving a petition for a new independent charter school if the average daily attendance of the charter school in the first year of operation is projected to be larger than that of the chartering authority; and 11) Authorize the California Attorney General to receive complaints and investigate charter school violations of the law and to bring legal action, both criminal and civil, against charter schools and their operators. 12) introduce a mechanism to lessen the programmatic and financial impact on school districts that provide facilities to charter schools under Proposition 39. H) Special Education Funding Policy. The State should: 1) Continue to pursue full funding for special education from the federal government (of the 40 percent to be covered by IDEA, the federal government's highest contribution has been 17 percent) 2) Provide additional state funding for special education to equalize the per ADA rate across California 3) Continue to provide funding for mental health services for students with IEPs separate from the AB 602 base 4) Expand funding for WorkAbility1 grants in order to provide this opportunity for students in all districts in California 5) Fund Alternative Dispute Resolution grants to all SELPAs in California to reduce the cost of litigation and promote early resolution 6) Through clean-up legislation to AB 484, change the requirements for our students with the most severe disabilities to align with those of their general education and less impacted special education peers. Currently, state testing will not begin until third grade while those with severe disabilities must take the CAPA in second grade. 7) Appropriate funding for the BIP mandate reimbursement and pay the claims submitted in November and February of 2013-14 for mandated services that exceeded federal requirements provided to students in special education with behavioral challenges since 1993. 8) Pass legislation to address the unfunded liability of CalSTRS; 9) Cap private attorney fees for special education litigation and settlements; 4.Student Achievement and Spending Rules In 2013, Governor Jerry Brown rewrote school finance rules to eliminate dozens of specialized programs, change the base level of funding for each school district, and provide different levels of additional funding tied to student needs. The intent of his Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) was to empower local decision-making, but some legislators feared that this newfound flexibility could short-change services to high-need students and argued for tougher regulations. Today, despite an improved economic outlook, most districts are still struggling to return to pre-recession levels of staffing and funding. Do you think that student performance has the potential for greater improvement in an environment of fewer spending regulations or are more rules necessary for high-need students? Give reasons for your answer. The idea of more flexibility is so obvious, it took a genius like Jerry Brown to think of it. Gee, he must be a child of the sixties..."different strokes for different folks." When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s, little girls had three professions they were typically directed to: teachers, nurses, stewardesses. I am so glad that I was able to redirect my life into the field of archaeology and only wish that some of this subject matter had been offered to me in elementary school--I would have gobbled it up. Of course we are going to see improved results if we flex funding to help students get the tools and training they need to pursue a course of study that they are motivated to engage in and which they are capable of. And, schools should be able to introduce curriculum for emerging fields...a perfect example is the field of cultural resource management that emerged during the 1970s after the National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act were passed in the late 1960s. Reading, writing and computing are fundamental necessary tools for all, but given variables such as the economic circumstances of the student and the array of new fields of entrepreneurial endeavors in electronics and computers, why not be flexible? Flexibility can potentially provide students with the training and education they need to obtain the skills, experience and knowledge that will be necessary for them to survive outside of academia--to be self reliant, good, contributing citizens. Common Core State Standards. The implementation of Common Core State Standards is one of eight state priorities that districts must address in their Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs), the new three-year roadmap for academic and school improvement. LCAP is now part of the school district budget adoption process. I would vote to fund a repeat issuance of $200 per enrollment to implement Common Core State Standards and to budget for a special State task force to assist schools and school districts so that we don't reinvent the wheel every time the same issue arises. Further, my office staff would be available to review legislative proposals that may be helpful to overcome challenges. I will have my staff obtain the background information and inform me, then, I will communicate directly with Executive Committees and Administrators so that I have a clear and full understanding of the educational issues and to discuss the proposed legislation's potential impact upon the education community. 4. What other major issues do you think the Legislature must address? What are your own priorities? (No candidates submitted answers to this question) 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.