40th Anniversary of Poor People’s March on Washington is Opportunity for Californians to Act on King’s Dream

Nor is the “welfare-dependent” stereotype of poor families accurate. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, about a third (34 percent) of poor children have a parent working full-time, and another 39 percent have a parent working part-time. More than two million children live in poverty despite their parents “doing the right thing.” California has the most families earning the minimum wage and more working poor than anywhere else in the nation.

If the present trends of increasing poverty continue, the Golden State could be headed toward a future where a privileged few do well, while the majority struggles.

So the problems are real. Here are some workable solutions:

• GREEN JOBS: Let’s put Californians back to work cleaning up the environment in jobs that require a variety of education and experience levels and pay decent wages. Surely, the same talented innovators who created Silicone Valley can make California the leader in green technology.
• Education: until the 1970s, California was a national leader in education and Time Magazine called the University of California “the best in the world.” Now, the state is ranked 47th in overall educational achievement, according to a Congressional Quarterly study. To prosper in the 21st Century, California will simply have to re-commit itself to K-12 education.

• HEALTH CARE REFORM: In studying the problems of low-income families, the state Senate Office of Research concluded recently that a two-parent/two worker family with children could get by (though barely) on minimum wage — as long their health care premiums were provided by their employer or the government. Those who did not have coverage were essentially one illness away from bankruptcy. The Legislature’s health proposal in 2007 was a victim, in part, of this year’s budget crisis. But when revenues return to normal, health care reform should be the first priority for state government.

• TRANSPORTATION: Voters two years ago wisely approved a series of bonds to improve California’s infrastructure. Future transportation projects must strive to be both time-efficient and environmentally friendly in creating affordable, un-congested alternatives (like mass transit). And projects like the High Speed Rail Initiative can help restart our economy by generating well-paid jobs that can’t be outsourced.

• ALTERNATIVE ENERGY: California must become a world leader in more efficient uses of renewable energy such as solar, wind, geothermal, bio-mass and using ocean tides to generate electricity. Such “wave-power” in coastal areas can also be used for desalinization plants that could help solve California’s seemingly perennial drought problems.

While I represent a coastal district that includes some of the most affluent areas of California, I also recognize that a society continually polarized by poverty will eventually hurt everyone, regardless of wealth. Any society divided by income, race and ethnicity will have a much harder time overcoming issues that impact everybody like global warming, environmental decline, and our basic quality of life.

But creating green jobs, implementing universal health care coverage and improving transportation and education will be the keys to making 21st Century California economically stable and socially united.

Allow me to close with a quote from Robert F. Kennedy: “As long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.”

Elected to the Assembly in 2000 and the Senate in 2006, Jenny Oropeza is one of the highest-ranking Latinos in the Legislature and chairs the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee. For more information visit www.senate.ca.gov/oropeza