• U.S Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) are reintroducing the College for All Act—a legislation that would expand access to college for millions of working-class children. This legislation represents the most significant federal investment in higher education in the modern history of the United States, according to a statement from Padilla’s office. As the nation seeks to reconcile the burden of student loan debt, the College for All Act would open economic opportunities by allowing tuition-free community college for all students; allow students from single households earning up to $125,000 a year, and married households earning up to $250,000 a year, to attend college without fear of being saddled with student loan debt; double the Pell Grant from $7,395 to $14,790 for the 2024-25 school year for students enrolled at public and private nonprofit colleges; establish a $10 billion grant program for states participating in the federal-state partnership to scale evidence-based practices and strategies; and double mandatory funding for historically Black colleges and universities, tribal colleges and universities, and other minority-serving institutions. “As a first-generation college graduate who came from a low-income household, I understand the challenges of accessing and affording higher education,” Padilla said in the statement. “The College for All Act would help millions of working families shoulder the financial burden of paying for their children’s college. It is in our nation’s best interest to invest in all students to ensure that the American dream and economic prosperity are attainable to all, regardless of income.”
• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) joined several other representatives to introduce a bill that would establish a Specialty Crop Mechanization and Automation Research and Development Program within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support specialty crop mechanization and automation projects. Specifically, this bill establishes an industry-derived specialty crop committee that annually consults with USDA, provides $20 million in annual funding, prioritizes projects that address the training or retraining of any impacted employees, and makes clear that eligible proposals and projects must focus on the modification or reduction of labor-intensive tasks in specialty crop growing and harvesting operations. “As the son of a farmworker and someone who knows the difference technological improvements could make, I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan legislation to support research and development for specialty crop growing and harvesting,” Carbajal said in a statement. “Undertaken in the right way, with guardrails like those included in our bill, breakthroughs in this space will improve the quality of life for our farmworkers, and ensure we have a more sustainable workforce that is prepared to cultivate the farms of tomorrow.”
• Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that California awarded $14.4 million in grants to grow the state’s behavioral health workforce by nearly 3,300 personnel through training and placement programs. “California is building a behavioral health workforce that reaches people where they are,” Newsom said in a statement. “These grants will help provide invaluable support to those who need it most from workers with lived experience.” Awarded by the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) under its Peer Personnel Training and Placement grant program, the grants—awarded to 16 organizations—will allow them to recruit, train, and place nearly 3,300 peer personnel in 43 counties throughout California. The Peer Personnel Training and Placement Program, funded by the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI), seeks to increase the number of peer personnel specialists ages 18 to 25. The program prioritizes the recruitment of youth and students with lived experience in high schools, adult education programs, regional occupational programs, community colleges, and those already working and/or volunteering in a behavioral health program. HCAI funds student scholarships, loan repayment, and organizational grants to mentor and support a future workforce. The $4.7 billion CYBHI aims to transform California’s behavioral health system into an innovative ecosystem where all children and youth from birth to age 25 have access to services for emerging and existing behavioral health needs, regardless of health payer.
This article appears in Jun 22 – Jul 2, 2023.