Educators fight for district seat
By Manuel Gamiz Jr. and Wes Woods II
Daily Forty-Niner
The race for the 38th Congressional District
seat may have to be decided by a final exam.
Three Long Beach-area educators are fighting
for a chance to unseat former incumbent Republican and former Cal State
Long Beach President Steve Horn in the upcoming March 7 primary election.
The latest Democratic candidate to file,
CSULB Distinguished-Teacher-in-Residence Erin Gruwell, will join CSULB
political science professor Kenneth Graham and Cypress College and Long
Beach City College professor Peter Mathews.
"It may be a coincidence, that there are
this many candidates in the education profession running in this district,
it's an anomaly," Graham said.
All three candidates stressed education
as one of their major priorities in their campaign.
"It's not about pouring money [in schools],"
Gruwell said at a press conference Dec. 8. "We must raise our expectations.
I want to encourage students to pick up a pen not a gun."
Gruwell earned recognition as a teacher
at Long Beach Wilson High School, winning national attention for her teaching
techniques.
Gruwell, who twice earned Teacher of the
Year Honors, said classrooms need to teach tolerance, values and self-reliance.
She also said improving Social Security and health care, promoting educational
IRA's and raising minimum wage are some of her highest priorities.
"It's not about our race, religion, economic
status or political affiliation but about our similarities," she said.
Gruwell recently appeared on the "Rosie
O'Donnell Show" and has been on "The View" and "Primetime Live." She will
be featured on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" next month.
Graham stressed additional government funding
to raise the level of education from the kindergarten to college level.
"California ranks 42nd in the nation with
the amount of money spent on education," Graham said. "We spend more than
that to incarcerate prisoners."
"To educate our children, we need to invest,"
he said. "Our survival depends on it."
Graham, who teaches constitutional law,
served in the Marines for 21 years, participating in U.N. peacekeeping
missions in South America, Asia, and Africa and participated in the Gulf
War.
Among key issues in Graham's campaign are
the elimination of flood insurance, the protection of social security and
the improvement of health care coverage for all Americans.
Mathews, who is running for the 38th Congressional
seat for the third time, also stressed improvements in education and health
care.
"There are shortages in textbooks and overcrowding
in classrooms," he said. "It has come to a boiling point."
Mathews said he would like to help decrease
the cost of college tuition in the state by placing restrictions on unfair
corporate loopholes and eliminating corporate welfare, which he believes
would save billions of dollars. This money can be put back into developing
a plan for universal education like that in European countries, he said.
This would also leave a leaving enough
money for social programs, helping kids out of streets. It's gotten to
the boiling point.
Mathews, a long-time Long Beach resident,
also emphasizes saving and adding jobs by rebuilding ports, streets and
bridges and constructing rapid transit systems, such as bullet trains and
electric cars.
Another educator, former Long Beach City
College Gerrie Schipske is also running as a Democratic candidate.
Horn, who served as CSULB president for
almost 20 years, has represented the 38th Congressional District since
1992.
However, all three Democratic candidates
said the time has come for a change in the district's representation.
"Maybe educators will be the cutting edge
of the new millennium," Graham said. "It's time for a change and education
is the highest priority." |
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