Meeting Minutes with D78 Toni Atkins’ Chief of Staff
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Meeting Minutes with Toni Atkins’ Chief of Staff
Attendees:
• Jason Weisz, (third left on the picture) Chief of Staff of Assemblymember Toni Atkins, 78th Assembly District
• Representatives from San Diego Asian American for Equality (SDAAFE) (Xiaodong Zhang, X. Z., Ronnie , Haibo Huang, Joe Long)
Time: 4:00-4:45 pm, March 18, 2014
Location: Assemblymember Toni Atkins’ District office
Meeting Summary:
A group of us meet with Jason Weitz , the Chief of Staff of Toni Atkins, in her downtown San Diego office. We had a courteous and intelligent discussion which delivered the following messages:
(1) Introduced SDAAFE as a local gross-root organization in respond to SCA5.
(2) Presented 17X37 local signatures (of which 237 are in her district) that we collected in 3 days, and an additional 544 Change.com signatures in her district, to indicate people’s strong indignation against SCA5.
(3) Provided our personal perspectives as to why we believe SCA5 is a wrong prescription for deeply rooted social and cultural problems.
(4) Presented a document detailing the available data on UC/CSU enrollment and why diversity can be and has been, to a large extent, achieved through race neutral means such as socioeconomically considerations, which help poor children of all colors to achieve their dreams.
(5) Offered our assistance in the upcoming discussion with the broader community on what to do with college admission policy in California.
(6) Specifically recommended Preuss School of UCSD as a model in helping underprivileged children to achieve academic excellence so that they do not need race-based solution to get into the best colleges, and request the lawmakers to carefully study why such a successful model cannot be multiplied statewide.
(7) Requested lawmakers to make available any date they may have which support SCA5 so that we can have a substantive debate. We specifically criticized Senator Ed Hernandez’s unsubstantiated proclamation that “the best and the brightest” students are not getting into college.
(8) Make clear that we will be doing voter registration and voter education.
(9) We congratulate Toni Atkins on her upcoming Assembly Speaker assignment and expressed our desire to be each other’s resource in driving the upcoming debate in higher education policy. Jason thanked us for our engagement and confirmed that SCA5 will not be back on this year’s Assembly floor. He also agrees that we should work together toward the goal of a fair and equitable education policy.
Situation Analysis:
SCA5 is dead for this year. However, it would almost certainly come back in 2015 if the Democratic Party retains Super Majority in both the Senate and the Assembly. The only reason it did not go forward this year is there is not enough YES vote at the Assembly after the ferocious backlash from the Asian American community and the discovery by the Republican Party leadership this is a superb wedge issue for the Nov 2014 mid-term election. In this background, we have two key area to focus on:
1) Focus on voter registration, voter education to make sure the Democratic Party is deprived of Super Majority in the November election. A balanced power between the two major party is a prerequisite to any rational debate on public education policy, and to prevent a repeat of what happened in the California Senate where Democratic Party forced SCA5 through without any Republican support.
2) Actively engage Toni Atkins and other legislators in shaping the upcoming debate on California public education policy. The days of Asian American as silent “model minority” must be over before we have any political clout to shape the society and protect our legitimate interests. Only you can make it happen.
A Warning:
Focus on the bigger pictures. If you intend to stay and live in this country for the long run, make it your home and act like an owner. Asian Americans are 14% of the population in California and only 8% of the voting population. Many of our friends are eligible for US citizenship but choose not to apply for lame reasons such as saving $100 visa fee when traveling to ancestral countries. If we think and act like this, we are perpetual foreigners who have no future in this country. We really deserve SCA5. In fact, we are begging it to happen.
Taxation cannot be without representation. Become a citizen, get registered, come out to vote in Nov 2014. Do you have the audacity to make us a 10% voice in the coming election?
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” -- Mahatma Gandhi
