LegiSchool Hosts First Virtual Town Hall

“Racial Disparities in California”

The LegisSchool Civics Institute for high school students held its first virtual town hall on October 14, tackling the issue of “Racial Disparities in California” in the wake of the nation’s reckoning with race relations.

The town hall featured panelists from both the legislative and public education fields: Stella Choe, Counsel to the Senate Committee on Public Safety in the California Legislature; Micah Ali, President of the Compton Unified Board of Trustees; and Michael Lucien, Legislative Director for Assembly member Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Sr.

The event was moderated by LegiSchool Civics Institute students Katelyn Blair and Carson Karle, who performed extensive policy research on this topic during their virtual internship this summer.

The panelists touched on important issues in California, such as the many instances of police brutality committed against the African American community, the need for properly trained police officers, and the racial disparities that exist in arrests, convictions, and sentencing.

Ali noted that the public education system is important to solving this pressing issue in California and the entire country.

“This is something that just did not happen today and is not going to be something that we're going to be able to solve tomorrow,” Ali said. “Which is why it is extremely important when you look around this country and you look at the disproportionate funding levels of public education.”

Each school year, the Center for California Studies’ LegiSchool Project hosts town halls that tackle important policy issues in California. For the very first time, LegiSchool has shifted to virtual town hall meetings for the 2020 – 2021 school year, giving students and teachers from all over the state the ability to access the policy discussions via Zoom Webinars. Virtual town hall meetings aim to engage California’s high school students, teachers, administrators, and other educators and brings them into a virtual discussion with state leaders and key figures in state government.

This year’s event drew attendees from 20 different high schools from across California, and for the first time, allowed hard-to-reach school districts, high schools, educators, and students to attend a LegiSchool Town Hall Meeting with no geographical constraints.

Blair expressed optimism about the potential of future events to reach even more students like herself. “Events like these are great resources to receive information and learn more, so that we can figure out what to do and how to move forward,” Blair said.

Karle, the other student moderator, added that the event was similar to “having the ability to take a dive into legislation.”

LegiSchool will continue to host virtual town halls on timely topics, with the next one occurring on December 9^th on California’s response to COVID-19.

For more information, please visit the Center for California Studies’ LegiSchool website or contact Rotce Hernandez.