by Suzanne Potter
This week is a great chance to enjoy the great outdoors – with more than fifty free events, up and down the state of California, as part of Latino Conservation Week.
People can go paddle boarding, hiking, take nature walks, attend film screenings and more.
Juan Rosas is a conservation program associate with the Hispanic Access Foundation – which organizes the event with the help of dozens of community, non-profit, faith-based, and government organizations and agencies.
He said the program dispels the misconception that Latinos don’t care about the outdoors.
“A lot of the Latino community do live in nature-deprived areas,” said Rosas. “So, to be able to take them hiking and fishing, camping – have virtual events, webinars, educational resources that they can firsthand experience – is the goal of Latino Conservation Week.”
An event on Saturday, July 23 will promote the proposed Western Riverside County National Wildlife Refuge.
Rep. Ken Calvert – R-Corona – and Rep. Mark Takano – D-Riverside – recently reintroduced a bill in Congress to officially create the new urban refuge. They say the idea is to improve access to nature for millions of people living in Southern California.
Find out more about all the events online at ‘LatinoConservationWeek.com.’
This year’s event slogan is “Disfrutando y Conservando Nuestra Tierra,”which mean
“Enjoying and Conserving Our Land.” According to Rosas, this annual event has really caught on, growing significantly over the years.
“It started in 2014 with nine events,” said Rosas. “And this year, in year nine, it looks like we’re just nearing 200 events that are going on, all around the United States. So, we’re so excited.”
Many of the events touch on environmental justice themes, since so many Latinos in California labor in manufacturing and agriculture – industries that often pollute the air and water in nearby communities.
Educators Speak Out on Ballot Measure to Fund Art, Music in CA Schools
A new ballot measure to support arts education will go before California voters in November. Proposition 28 would require that 1 percent of school funding go toward arts and music education. The measure does not provide new money, but rather directs districts to prioritize existing funds.
“Just as math teaches them two plus two and how to get along in life and how to balance their checkbook, the arts teach them how to have empathy, how to be better people, how to have confidence and interact,” said Richard De Haven, president of Children’s Playtime Productions in Palm Desert, which has offered in-school and after-school children’s theater programs for 27 years. “Confidence is a huge one.”
Opponents favor a focus on reading, writing and math and have said the measure would limit school districts’ flexibility, especially in tough economic times. Prop 28 would apply to all K-through-12 public schools, including charter schools. It would concentrate more funding in low-income schools. It would not raise taxes but would direct about $800 million to $1 billion a year in existing funds toward the arts.
De Haven said he’s seen arts education improve test scores, reduce bullying and encourage further academic pursuits.
“We’ve noticed that the kids who are exposed to the arts do much better in school, and tend to go to college more often than those who are not exposed to the arts,” he said.
Under Prop 28, schools with more than 500 students would have to spend 80 percent of their arts budget on staff and 20 percent on supplies and training. The group Californians for Arts and Music Education in Public Schools, which is campaigning for the measure, estimates that 90 percent of elementary schools, 96 percent of middle schools and 72 percent of high schools in the Golden State fail to provide a high-quality course of arts education.
Opening statements in Appeal to Protect DACA
7.6.22 – The fate of more than 600,000 so-called “dreamers” hangs in the balance as opening statements in a case that could make or break the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The Justice Department is appealing a decision last summer that declared DACA illegal. Now the three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit in New Orleans will decide whether to uphold or reject that summary judgment or order a full trial.
Attorney Nina Perales. vice president for litigation at the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, said the state of Texas, which sued to block DACA, should not have standing to sue because it cannot prove the state has been harmed.
“Texas has not been able to point to any employers that Texas says hired a DACA recipient instead of a U.S. citizen,” she said. “Texas was never able to identify a dollar of state money that went to a DACA recipient.”
The state of Texas has argued that DACA takes jobs away from legal U.S. residents, and that it costs the state money in the form of social services.
Gaby Pacheco, an advocate with TheDream.US, said the average age of arrival for DACA participants is seven, and most have lived in the United States for more than 20 years.
“Ninety-nine percent of them have graduated from high school,” she said. “More than 90 percent of them are recipients that are working including more than 340,000 workers deemed essential, including nurses, educators and those who kept food on our tables during the pandemic.”
Current DACA participants now are allowed to stay and renew their work permits, but no new applications are being processed. Congress has been unable to forge a consensus on immigration reform or a path to citizenship for dreamers. Perales noted that the Biden administration is expected to release a new regulation related to DACA, possibly in August.
