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A decade ago, California’s political apparatus finally recognized a yawning achievement gap in its public schools, separating poor and English-learner students from their more privileged classmates. While overall, California’s nearly 6 million K-12 students were not faring very well in state and federal tests of...

The end of a semester is a stressed time for all our students. From tests to essays to presentations and projects, Gilroy students are being put through their paces.  My student interns who go to Gavilan College regale me with stories of all their end-of-semester...

This has been a year of labor unrest in California, a state in which unions represent a relatively small faction of the state’s workforce but wield great political power. The most obvious example is the protracted strikes of actors and writers in Southern California’s iconic...

There was a lot of discourse in September about having police officers at high schools in the area. While there was talk from people like Councilmember Zach Hilton and District Attorney Candidate Sajid Khan about the lack of effectiveness of safety, there was a...

Happy New Year, Gilroy! 2024 is sure to be a big year, beginning with a milestone birthday for me in February: 60 years old. Yikes! 2023 was a year of many accomplishments for Gilroy, and 2024 shows no less promise. In 2023, we saw the...

I am proud of the future housing plan that the Gilroy City Council, Planning Commission, staff and the public have approved.  We committed to advancing the 40 opportunity sites for multi-family homes, downtown expansion district and First Street mixed-use corridor flexibility program, 429 corner lots...

A Happy New Gear to you! May 2023 add mile after mile of wonderful new bicycle adventures! Three items for you as we kick it off: 1. Is “A New Me in ’23” one of your resolutions? Weight loss, more cycling, new distance goals: whatever...

After time with the criminal justice system in 2010, I experienced the job rejection that many like myself deal with upon re-entering the workforce. While I was more than qualified for job after job, as soon as they saw the box checked for a...

California enters the new year with its existential issues still unresolved, and a new one—an immense budget deficit—threatens to make dealing with them even more difficult. California has made very little progress, if any, on narrowing its shortage of housing, its levels of homelessness and...

We are the members of Zach Hilton’s Student City Council Internship Program. We represent different genders, cultures and backgrounds. We are the first generation. Most importantly, we represent a demographic of the crippingly underserved.  We have come to let our written words lay bare, so...