85 lawsuits and counting + Getting social workers in California schools+ Bail ads hit the web

Andrew Sheeler
·5 min read

Good morning, happy Wednesday! It’s the middle of the week, and what an eventful week it’s been!

CALIFORNIA SUES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION, AGAIN

Attorney General Xavier Becerra is taking on Education Secretary Betsy Devos for what he says is the state’s 85th lawsuit against the Trump administration.

At stake is $1.5 billion in federal CARES Act funding intended for schools in the Golden State.

Becerra argues that the funding is required to be distributed under Title I, that such funds are intended to help children in low-income families, and that the coronavirus relief law known as the CARES Act required that private schools should only be eligible to receive emergency funds in certain circumstances.

“The Trump administration has this bad habit of ripping off those most in need,” Becerra said at his Tuesday press conference.

DeVos has a different interpretation. She issued a rule that requires the inclusion of private schools based on the total population they serve, instead of income. She disputes that the CARES Act funding falls under Title I.

“The CARES Act is a special, pandemic-related appropriation to benefit all American students, teachers, and families impacted by coronavirus,” DeVos said in a statement at the time. “There is nothing in the law Congress passed that would allow districts to discriminate against children and teachers based on private school attendance and employment. In this new rule, we recognized that CARES Act programs are not Title I programs. There is no reasonable explanation for debating the use of federal funding to serve both public and private K-12 students when federal funding, including CARES Act funding, flows to both public and private higher education institutions.”

So what kind of private schools would benefit from this rule?

“We’re talking in the realm of $20,000 (tuition) or more a year per student in some cases,” Becerra said.

The attorney general called DeVos’ rule “a shakedown of low-income schools across the country.”

And Becerra is joined in the lawsuit by the attorneys general from Michigan, Maine, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.

MORE SOCIAL WORKERS, FEWER COPS IN C.A. SCHOOLS?

Via Matt Kristoffersen...

Cops could be on their way out from California’s public schools. Will social workers help replace them?

That’s what Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton — the Legislature’s only serving mental health professional — hopes to do with a new(-ish) bill.

Using a typical legislative tactic called a “gut and amend,” Eggman replaced a previous bill’s language with new wording on social workers in the classroom. In its latest version, AB 1343 would require public schools to hire at least one social worker for every 250 students starting in the fall of 2022.

When it comes to school safety, she said, “we keep saying we need to do something different. This is something different.”

Eggman doesn’t know how much implementing the bill would cost Californians. But, she said, social workers could better help students in certain areas than police officers — from dealing with bullying in the classroom to diagnosing mental health issues.

Data from the California Department of Education suggest that there was one social worker for every 7,200 students in the 2018-2019 school year.

ADS TAKE ON ‘THE BAIL CARTEL’

With California’s ballot locked in, we’re starting to see ads fly fast and furious.

Case in point: The “Yes on 25” campaign has fired off a couple of quick-hit digital spots in support of Proposition 25, which is a referendum on a 2018 law that replaces the pre-trial cash bail system with one based on a determination of public safety and flight risk. A majority of California voters must approve the law before it can go into effect, per the California Secretary of State’s Office.

The “Yes on 25” crowd doesn’t mince words in the two spots, titled “Facade” and “Bad Guys,” which lambaste the bail industry.

“The money bail system has spawned an absolutely brutal industry that operates just like a cartel. Money bail generates billions of dollars every year off the back of the poor and communities of color, driving massive profits for a handful of private equity firms and international surety corporations,”#EndMoneyBail spokesman Jonathan Underland said in a statement. “A YES vote on Prop 25 this November will finally disband this cartel-like industry, by replacing unfair, unsafe, and wasteful money bail with a system that prioritizes public safety and justice for all.“

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Culture change starts at the top. We must do more than give lip service to eradicate the shame and stigma associated with having and treating mental health.”

- Lenny Mendonca, former chief economic and business adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom, in in a CalMatters column about how it was depression and anxiety that led him to step down last spring. It inspired words of support from Sacramento insiders and pols all the way up to Newsom himself. It’s worth a read.

Best of the Bee:

  • Six COVID-19 cases now reported by California Assembly. Legislature’s return date unclear, via Mackenzie Hawkins

  • University of California names its first Black president, appointing Ohio State leader to top role, via Andrew Sheeler

  • The California Capitol Rotunda’s 5-ton statue of Queen Isabella and Christopher Columbus was removed Tuesday morning, two weeks after Legislature leaders announced it would come down, via Matt Kristoffersen.

  • In a letter released Monday, 60 state and local elected officials and 108 community organizations urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to issue an executive order halting transfers to ICE detention centers from prisons and jails during the state of emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic, via Kim Bojórquez.

  • Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg wants to remove a city code that requires people to stand and salute the flag when the national anthem is played, via Theresa Clift and Sam Stanton.