Students interview education officials in Sacramento
Community Contributor | 8-5-2010 | Comments |
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For five weeks students have been looking into education. The theme of their research project was the 10th anniversary of the filing of Williams v. California, a class-action lawsuit that argued the State and various agencies failed to adequately provide classroom materials, safe and secure campuses and qualified teachers -- —especially in low-income neighborhoods. The lawsuit was settled in 2004 and laws were created to correct these inequities.
Last week, the students, known as the Council of Youth Research, traveled to Sacramento to interview key political and education leaders. Among the interviewees were Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, Undersecretary of Education Kathryn Radtkey-Gaither, Sen. Gloria Romero’s education consultant Roslyn Escobar, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, and Liz Guillen from Public Advocates, who worked on Williams.
Following are some student reflections from the Sacramento trip:
By Cesar Ramirez
As a young person, I felt that these people in power felt that we were a joke. Their responses to our question were often avoided or [they] responded in a long un-relevant way. I felt that after these people in power felt a sense of nervousness and startled after seeing the type of questions they had to answer. I also felt a sense of anger towards some responses I was given… For example, [Sen. Gloria Romero’s education consultant] Roslyn Escobar saying that students should pretty up their schools…[and asked the students which they preferred] for them to give us a pretty school or good teachers when we should be entitled to both, not have access to one and create the other. How can we pretty up our school with our own money when we hardly have money to feed ourselves.
Cesar Ramirez, 17, is a junior at Locke High School. He has been a member of the Council of Youth research for one and a half years.
By Jessica Velazquez
How I feel about meeting with people in power in Sacramento as a young person is that they are keeping educational information about why there is not enough funding going towards schools secret from me and other youth. As a researcher, I feel that the people in power were afraid of us when we interviewed them because when we asked questions they had to resort to going off topic with meaningless conversations or diverge from our questions with meaningless comments. I do believe my voice was heard because they were surely impressed with the questions we had for them. However, the only way I believe my voice will be valued is if something is done about this educational inequality after we present our research in City Hall. Because when your voice is valued, the things you say will have an effect on others. Some of the information the interviewees gave us was informative and related to our research but some of the comments they said didn’t mean anything to anyone and probably to themselves, especially when they tried to dodge our questions. From some of the useful comments the interviewees said helped me understand that they either don’t know about the state of education in California or [don’t] care about students in California having a quality education. And that’s the most important part–the people in power not doing the right things to improve the state of education in California.
Jessica Velazquez, 17, is a senior at Crenshaw High School. She is new to the Council of Youth Research.
By Emily Ramos
Having the opportunity to meet people in power in Sacramento at a young age and as a researcher was an exciting honor and experience. When interviewing most of the politicians I felt that our voices were being heard and valued. Many of our interviewees were impressed with the way we presented and were astonished of how strong our questions were. I believe that many of the politicians got the point that just because we come from a school that is located in a low-income community does not mean we are unaware of what a low education we’re really receiving. I also believe they were able to see that we have the capability of moving forward, that we’re not careless students that were raised to be part of the workforce, but students that were raised to become leaders.
Our interviewees all believed in equity. We all deserve to be led and prepared to be competitive and to have the ability to communicate well with others; we all deserve a curriculum that is critical, rigorous, vigorous, and relevant.
This trip taught me that when interviewing people in power we must always lead and not be lead. Just because we’re kids does not mean we don’t have the power to make a change, and does not make us any less. We have the power to change things. We have the ability to educate others, and are able to be educated.
Emily Ramos, 17, is a senior at Crenshaw High School. She has been a member of the Council of Youth Research for two years.
By Bernardo Torres
I felt that the trip was a great experience because I never thought that I would have to interview important people like one of the lawyers from the Williams Case, the State Superintendent, or Roslyn Escobar. When I interviewed these important people I felt very important and intelligent because the interviewees were impressed that we, as high school students, knew words that they didn’t know. For example, I believe that the Sacramento Mayor was pretending that he was playing around, not taking us seriously and trying to challenge us by asking us questions and offering money because he felt uncomfortable when he noticed that we were aware of educational issues. Specifically, I noticed that when we started asking questions that were a bit harder, with big words, he was resisting [by asking us questions]. The outcome of him asking us questions and fooling around was getting some of us involved in his comedy show and losing the focus and objective of the interview.
Bernardo Torres, 17, is a senior at Crenshaw High School. He has been a member of the Council of Youth Research for two years.
By Miguel Sosa
Sacramento was an exciting trip as a young person but not as a researcher because we didn’t get the answers that we were looking for. As a researcher, I felt that my voice was heard but not taken seriously because most of the politicians went off topic talking about what their future plans for “change” are. I believe that the state superintendent tried to use his jokes to get out of our questions. Jack O’ Connell and other Politicians succeeded because we went along with their jokes. I admit we did get some data that will be relevant to our presentation but I still believe that we could have done better. Politicians tried washing their hands by saying that the problems in education were occurring because of lack on community effort.
Miguel Sosa, 17, will be a senior at Locke High School. He has been a member of the Council of Youth Research for one year.
By Gustavo Correa
Going to Sacramento was a great experience that I will never forget because of the people that I interviewed and also their responses to our questions. What I felt with meeting with these people with power, as a young person, was that I was looked as a person that doesn’t know what I want for my life [or] for my future. I felt that the higher I go to speak up so my voice could be heard the less power I have because of the position that they are and the position that I am. As a researcher, I felt that there were people that just was playing around with us and that our faces looked like clowns. My voice wasn’t heard by most of them but now I know what to do for my voice to be heard. Now I know that I cannot let them take control of the stage but me and let me be the puppeteer and them the puppets.
Gustavo Correa, 17, senior at Locke High School. He is new to the Council of Youth Research.