Adult Schools from all over California went to Sacramento to visit Legislators and tell them:
Adult Education matters!
Keep the K12 schools open!
We need designated funding!
Our Assistant Director Tim Doyle went to Sacramento with 4 ESL Students -
Hitomi, Natalia, Marina, and Iglika.
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| ESL Students Iglika, Hitomi, Marina, Natalia and San Mateo Adult School Assistant Director Tim Doyle |
Here, in her own words, is Hitomi's story of Leg Day:
Step Forward
At the entrance, we needed to get a body and bag check. Inside of the building was very classic architecture.
I got up at 5 o’clock. I was very nervous about today’s job because today was a big day for me and of course Adult School. At 6:30am, we (Tim, Natalia, Marina, Iglika and me) hit the road. Two hours later, we arrived at the Capitol Building in Sacramento. This is a distinct building which we could easily catch from the distance.
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| Approaching the Capitol |
At the entrance, we needed to get a body and bag check. Inside of the building was very classic architecture.
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This is where the Senate votes on bills that become laws.
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The meeting (Legislative Action Day) had already started. We were late?! Next time we should come here earlier than today because there were lots of Adult School teachers and students. There were no seats for us!
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There was no room to sit in the Orientation
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Today, we had four chances to meet assembly men or senators. I couldn’t imagine how it could be. First chance was at 9:45am. We went to see Mr. Kevin Mullin. He is an assembly member. However, he didn’t show up. We met Miriam. She is a very young and beautiful lady who didn’t know anything about adult school. We talked about “What is Adult Education?” “Budget Proposal and Adult Education Position: Oppose, Alternatives Offered” “The Value of Adult Education” and “Adult Education Reform Position: Support”. I think she was able to learn a lot.
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| What is Adult Education? |
The Next Meeting was at 10:30am. We were supposed to see Senator Mark Leno. However, Mr. Carlos Machado (Legislative Director) welcomed us. He was very nice to talk with us. He had a lot of knowledge of Adult Education and listened to our story. When Tim and Carlos had a different opinion, Tim had a good attitude with Carlos. At this time we and other Adult School (The Jefferson Adult School) students and a teacher were together. So for 20 minutes or so, we had a nice meeting.
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| Talking with other Adult Education staff and students. |
At 2 pm we were going to meet Senator Leland Y. Yee, from the 8th District of California State Legislature. We waited quite a long time outside of the room. And we met Alicia who is Chinese and was born here and knew a little about Adult Education. There was no room to talk with 8 people, so we stood up behind her desk. During talking a lot of staff came and went between us. This was kind of difficult for us to talk. We left 15 minutes or so.
The last person was Mr. Phil Ting (Assembly member, 19th District). However, we met Evan Heath Minton (Legislative Aide). She was so nice to us. This was our first time to have a good meeting. She was so eager to know our individual story. She wrote something on her paper about our information. I was so glad to meet her and talk with her. She gave us a lot of pamphlets. I believe we had a good time.
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| Taking a break with State Trooper and State Mascot - the Grizzly Bear |
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| Tim and Iglika leaving the District Offices. |
Overall, we couldn’t meet anyone who was an assembly man or senator. We did meet their aides. We prepared the same paper for everyone, but their reactions were so different. This really depended on what they thought. And this was our real situation of society. Some of them didn’t welcome us, but they knew our situation a little bit after telling them. I think this is our little step, but we stepped forward! We made a path to the next step. The Most important thing is to keep on trying. Never give up! Next time we can reach further!
(All photos are courtesy of Hitomi)
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| The capitol ceiling looks like a winding stairway... a stairway we can climb one step at a time! |
(All photos are courtesy of Hitomi)
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