Are California programs having their intended effect?
Chas Alamo, principal fiscal and policy analyst for the Legislative Analyst’s Office: The report will “describe how the program’s basic design has encouraged the state and EDD to enact policies and take actions that make it difficult for eligible workers to get (unemployment benefits).” It will also include “about a dozen specific recommendations to rebalance the program.”
The California Department of Health Care Services, which oversees the program, refused to tell Elizabeth why it had served so few children in its first year. But parents and advocates pointed to myriad problems: For families, the application process is cumbersome and households with partial insurance coverage are ineligible. For physicians, reimbursement time is long and reimbursement rates are low. Pediatric audiologist Dr. Mary Frintner, one of three Los Angeles County providers enrolled in the program, said she has yet to be reimbursed for any services: “I love all my patients, the joy I see when I put a hearing aid on a child for the (first) time. … That’s what I get, which makes me rich.”
Although California received just 25% of the country’s allotment of emergency vouchers, it so far accounts for 45% of the funds spent on landlord incentives. Voucher utilization rates also vary dramatically across the state: Between July 2021 and July 20, 2022, Redding used about 90% of its emergency housing vouchers to successfully lease units, while the city of Los Angeles used about 5.8%. Sasha Harnden, a public policy advocate at Inner City Law Center who helped draft a 2019 state law barring landlords from rejecting vouchers: “It may be appropriate to talk about incentives at some point. But what we’ve not seen is really robust enforcement of the law that prohibits refusing the vouchers in the first place.” Daniel Yukelson, executive director of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles: “There’s just not enough money put on the table for people to jump for it. If I had a vacant unit and had 20 people show up — there’s a bunch of people begging to rent my apartment — why deal with all the administrative burdens (that come with a voucher)?”
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Back to school for thousands of kids
Staffing shortages. Oakland Unified as of Thursday still had 40 to 50 educator openings, while San Francisco Unified — which is starting classes Aug. 17 — had about 120 teacher vacancies, according to the San Francisco Chronicle . Los Angeles Unified, which is starting school on Aug. 15, had about 900 classroom teacher vacancies and a shortage of more than 200 bus drivers as of late July, according to the Los Angeles Times . And a massive surge in state and federal money may not solve California’s long-standing teacher shortage : “The influx of new funding is creating more positions in the district overall — some for current staff, and other positions for which we need to find candidates,” Oakland Unified spokesperson John Sasaki told the Chronicle . Meanwhile, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced Thursday the launch of a state program that aims to recruit 10,000 new school counselors by helping fund their education and residency programs. Closing schools. Amid quickly dwindling public school enrollment , some campuses — including more than a dozen in Oakland Unified — are set to shutter or merge. To protest the closures, a group of Oakland families since June has been occupying Parker Elementary School and running an unsanctioned summer program there, despite repeated clashes with district officials — including one Thursday that turned violent . “This is a working-class neighborhood,” Misty Cross, a West Oakland resident volunteering with the program, told the San Francisco Chronicle . “Families here work two or three jobs. To make their kids go to school 30 blocks away” is not right. “Of great concern is that the children that were onsite were sleeping in unsafe conditions and that the adults were running an unsafe and unlicensed child care program,” said Sakaki, the district spokesperson. Health concerns. More than 1 in 8 California children need to catch up on routine vaccinations missed or delayed during the pandemic, some of which are required to attend child care and school, the California Department of Public Health said Thursday . The agency noted that “many vaccine-preventable diseases, such as whooping cough and measles, can easily spread in childcare and school settings.”
2
Will 4 a.m. be the new 2 a.m.?
Councilmember Paul Koretz :“I believe the bill’s authors figured if they took L.A. out, that we would simmer down and not oppose it. But let me be clear: This bill still threatens our public safety, perhaps even more than before.”
3
What might California get from climate bill?
A red flag warning signaling increased fire danger due to gusty winds and low humidity is in effect through today for the McKinney Fire, which as of Sunday morning had blazed through more than 60,000 acres of the Klamath National Forest in Siskiyou County and was 40% contained, according to Cal Fire . The wildfire has killed at least four people and destroyed at least 87 homes so far, while a flash flood caused by heavy rains over the burn area last week appears to have killed tens of thousands of Klamath River fish, the Karuk Tribe said Saturday . The blaze has also inflamed the resentments some Siskiyou County residents feel toward Sacramento when it comes to forest management: “Our slogan in (the town of) Weed is, ‘You can log it, you can graze it or you can burn it down,'” Mayor Kim Greene told the Los Angeles Times . “The state of California chooses to burn it down.” Meanwhile, lightning strikes ignited a complex of wildfires in the Six Rivers National Forest in Trinity and Humboldt counties on Friday, forcing evacuations. As of Sunday, the blazes had collectively burned more than 1,100 acres and were 0% contained. Flash floods temporarily stranded 1,000 people in Death Valley National Park, which on Friday received nearly 75% of the rainfall it normally sees in a year. About 60 vehicles were trapped in mud and debris, while many businesses and hotel rooms were flooded or otherwise damaged. Roads blocked by water or debris are expected to remain closed into this week, officials told the Associated Press . Parts of Highway 89 in Alpine County are also closed following mudslides in the burn scars of previous wildfires, according to state transportation officials .Brooks Lambertson, 29, was one of three people killed in a lightning strike in Washington, D.C., last week. Lambertson, who graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and lived in downtown Los Angeles, was a vice president at City National Bank and was visiting the nation’s capital on business, according to a statement from the bank .
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