On Thin Ice: Congress Negotiations to Avoid a New Shutdown – As negotiators from both parties in Congress seek agreements on a border security package, President Trump continues to threaten to shut down the government again or declare a state of emergency to appropriate funds to build the border wall if Congress does not deliver. Veteran political analyst Larry Kleinman joins us from Seattle to discuss this and other issues on the national program Línea Abierta with Chelis López.
California’s First Charter School Strike Ends – This week saw the end of the first charter school strike in California. A group of 80 teachers from the charter school network known as Accelerated Schools, organized under United Teachers Los Angeles, demanded job stability and an end to dismissal without the right to arbitration. The agreements reached include better health insurance and a severance package for teachers. Forty percent of teachers were dismissed or resigned last year, affecting educational quality, says German Gallardo, a history teacher who was an observer in the negotiations. Los Angeles County has 300 publicly funded but privately run charter schools, more than anywhere else in the country. This week, the L.A. Unified School District agreed to cease charter school expansion and discuss ways to raise school performance among local students.
Toxic Lead Dust – A family devastated by pollution from tons of lead dust and other toxic metals spewed out for decades by the battery recycling factory Exide has organized a forum with health and environmental researchers to assess the current state of the area, which is being cleaned up by the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). The factory is located in the city of Vermont and has also affected neighboring cities southeast of Los Angeles. Dr. Brian Johnston, an emergency medicine specialist, insists that the situation is an environmental disaster and that the state must expand its impact studies to other contaminated areas that were not yet included. Meanwhile, Joe González, a member of the devastated family who has terminal cancer, is outraged over the slow pace of action; three years ago, $176 million was authorized to accelerate testing on 10,000 properties and clean up 2,500 most contaminated.
Teacher Promotes Racial Tolerance Using Technology – In the last five years, hundreds of thousands of children and young people have sought asylum in the United States fleeing violence and extreme poverty in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Some have found refuge in Oakland, California, where they have enrolled in schools, learned English and joined students from other countries with different languages and customs. Those differences, however, sometimes generate friction and disagreements. To address this problem, a high school teacher is making creative use of technology to promote mutual respect and tolerance. Zaidee Stavely visited his classroom and reports from Oakland.
