Newsom wants tax rebate, touts 'California Way' of governing

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Governor Newsom address high tax prices head on in last night's state of the state speech.
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They want to do a tax rebate for people affected by these high fuel prices.
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I'm Christina Kim in for Jade Heinemann with Maureen Cavanaugh.
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This is KPBS midday edition.
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Crime rates are up across the city of San Diego , according to the police.
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Essentially , every major crime the city tracks , which coincides with what the FBI tracks increased and some increased by pretty startling numbers.
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Is funding a biotech startup even harder if you're black ? A look at equity in biotech and we check in with how the city's new ambulance provider is doing as they ramp up service.
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That's ahead on midday edition.
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High gas prices , rising crime rates and worsening homelessness all featured prominently in Governor Gavin Newsom State of the state address yesterday in his fourth address in office.
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Newsom touted California as a national leader in a number of fields and affirmed his plans to address the major issues facing the state.
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So what exactly did the governor lay out ? Joining me now with more on last night's address is Carp Radio's state politics reporter Nicole Nixon.
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Nicole , welcome to the program.
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Thanks for having me.
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Happy to be here.
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So do we have a sense yet of what the response has been to the governor's speech last night ? What are people saying ? Was it well received ? Well , it's interesting you say that because I'm not sure that a lot of Californians actually tuned into this.
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This definitely seems to be kind of geared toward the Sacramento crowd.
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There were lawmakers in the audience , which was one difference from last year when he gave this address at an empty Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
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He did have it in the evening at five o'clock.
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I think he probably tried to get in front of as many people as he could.
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But the governor himself also acknowledged in his speech that , you know , with everything going on , people are kind of in this weird funk with what's happening in the news in Ukraine around the world.
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He kind of understands that people aren't going to be exactly waiting with bated breath about what he has to say about how things are in the state.
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Front of mind for many Californians has been the issue of skyrocketing gas prices , and Governor Newsom did address that right off the top.
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Let's take a listen.
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And that's why working with legislative leadership , I'll be submitting a proposal to put money back in the pockets of Californians to address rising gas prices.
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This was one of the only new ideas that Governor Newsom brought up last night.
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What exactly does he mean by putting money back into the pockets of Californians ? What might this look like ? Well , the governor didn't give many details during his speech last night.
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His office later clarified that they want to do a tax rebate for people affected by these high fuel prices.
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They say that would also include undocumented people.
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One idea that's been talked about a lot by Republicans to address high gas prices.
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Obviously , California has the highest.
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Some of the highest gas prices in the country is suspending the gas tax.
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It's more than 50 cents a gallon.
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You know , they say that is a clear solution to the problem would save people money.
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Democrats are less keen on this.
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They say that the state collects that money for a reason it would lose money for roads.
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And then some also argue that if the gas tax is suspended , oil companies could still keep their prices high and pocket that difference.
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Newsom has supported pausing the gas tax increase that's supposed to happen in July.
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It's only a few cents a gallon.
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But based on what he mentioned last night and the reaction from top Democrats in the Legislature , they may get on board with this tax rebate and not touch the gas tax.
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A recent poll by UC Berkeley shows that Californians are also very concerned about crime , and Newsom did address it with a quote from Robert F. Kennedy.
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Let's take a listen.
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Bobby Kennedy , just six weeks before he was killed by a assassin's bullet , reminded us that the health of a society depends on the ability of people to walk their own streets in safety , not to be frightened into isolation.
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A nation , he said , which surrenders to crime , whether by indifference or heavy handed repression , is a society which has resigned itself to failure.
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What did last night's speech tell us about the governor's stance on policing and crime ? And is it a departure from what we heard from President Biden ? Californians are concerned about crime.
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It's something that's kind of lingered , and I think the governor is trying to respond to that here.
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A few months ago , he mentioned this new proposal for more funding for local law enforcement , more funding for district attorneys.
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He proposed a new smash and grab enforcement unit.
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Newsom also hasn't really expressly supported calls to defund the police.
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He said that he supports reimagining the police and more funding for community and mental health focused response.
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He has signed some bills to do that , but I think these funding proposals to address crime and smash and grabs are directly a response to what we've seen in the state in the last few months and voters concerns about that.
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Much of the governor's speech celebrated California as a national leader in areas such as COVID 19 and reproductive and gender rights.
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In a clear attempt to differentiate the state from Florida and Texas , what do you make of this strategy and do you think it's resonating for voters who at one point out the governor is kind of the antithesis of former President Trump ? That's a good question , because obviously you knew some.
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If you will pay attention to what he does day to day , he rarely misses an opportunity to compare California with Texas and Florida , the next two largest states.
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Republican governors who often make national headlines.
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So , you know , last night , he mentioned controversial moves by those states or local officials in those states to ban books that discuss race or LGBTQ issues.
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This.
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On Florida that just passed that makes it illegal for teachers to even mention the word gay and contrasting that with what he describes as California's inclusive values.
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One other thing you know , you mentioned reproductive rights.
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This is something that California Democratic lawmakers are united on.
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You know that this new law in Texas that severely restrict abortion.
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Other states are following suit proposing similar laws.
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California Democrats really want to make this an abortion sanctuary.
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They want to expand access.
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They believe that people will come from these states to get an abortion here.
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And the governor has signaled that he'll support any bills that lawmakers pass to expand abortion on COVID.
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He has doubled down on his pandemic policy.
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This is one of those probably biggest points of contrast between states like Florida and Texas and California.
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The restrictions and sort of the impacts California does have a lower death rate compared to states like Florida and Texas.
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Of the largest states , we've got one of the lowest death rates per capita.
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A lot to keep our eyes on as the year moves forward.
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I've been speaking with Cab Radio's state politics reporter Nicole Nixon.
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Nicole , thank you so much for joining us.
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Thanks for having me.
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In his state of the state speech , Governor Newsom talked about the need to address rising crime rates in California , saying that while the state is funding law enforcement and prosecutors to solve and investigate crimes , we're also investing hundreds of millions in new programs to tackle the root causes of crime.
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Doubling down on proven violence prevention programs.
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That is the California way , while San Diego leaders found out yesterday just how much crime has risen in the city.
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Police presented statistics showing crime increased 13 percent last year.
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Almost all major crimes saw increases from vehicle thefts to homicides , and hate crimes were up a startling 77 percent.
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The cause , according to San Diego's police chief , is frustration and anger over COVID disruptions to normal life.
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Joining me is San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Lindsay Wakely and Lindsay.
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Welcome.
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Thank you so much.
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Now do these statistics show both violent crime and property crime are up ? Yes , so both violent crime and property crime rose.
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Overall crime rose essentially every major crime that the city tracks , which coincides with what the FBI tracks increased and some increased by pretty startling numbers.
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Vehicle thefts spiked 25 percent.
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Rapes increased by 18 percent.
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As you already alluded to , hate crimes saw a startling increase as well.
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Seventy seven percent.
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Right.
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That that number is really disturbing.
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Can you break that down for us ? They did break down hate crimes for us yesterday and determined that race by and large was the motivating factor in more than half of those crimes.
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So twenty five of the forty six hate crimes were race associated.
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Next in line was some kind of anti bias towards sexual orientation , and when race was involved , which race was targeted the most ? So the anti-Black bias accounted for 10 cases , and then anti-Asian and anti-Latino bias each accounted for four cases.
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And in the statistics , domestic violence increased , but domestic violence involving guns saw a significant increase.
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Absolutely.
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And that was something that was really troubling to police and City Council members yesterday.
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So overall , domestic violence increased about four point two percent when twenty twenty one statistics are compared to twenty twenty statistics.
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But much more alarmingly , domestic violence cases involving firearms increased by nearly 70 percent.
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And that very much a jives with an overall increase in gun violence , which is something that got a lot of conversation yesterday.
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San Diego Police Chief NYSE's light was asked about the reasons for the increase in crime.
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And what did he say ? Yeah , so the pandemic got a lot of attention yesterday.
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I think that not just the police chief , but City Council members wanted to take the time to acknowledge just how difficult the last two years have been for many people , how destabilizing the pandemic has been for many people , especially when City Council members were talking about young people , you know , the cancellation of schools , most sports and extracurricular activities ceased as well , and that really left a lot of young people without the social safety net that they rely on.
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And some councilmembers wondered if that resulted in an increase in violent crime among those same young people.
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Now how do we put these crime statistics in context ? Is San Diego experiencing the highest crime rate it's ever seen ? No , no , certainly not.
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You know , I think that it is important not to minimize an increase in crime.
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Obviously , every crime is associated with a victim , a real person who is impacted by whatever sort of crime you're talking about.
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That being said , it's also really important to acknowledge that despite these increases , San Diego is very much still experiencing near historic lows in crime.
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If you look at the last decade , our crime levels have held pretty steady , even when you see sort of these year upon year increases.
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And does our homicide rate remain among the lowest ? Yes , absolutely.
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Our homicide rate has been and continues to be among the lowest of the country's big.
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Cities and our clearance rate is pretty good in comparison to sort of the national average clearance rate is basically sort of a fancy way of saying that police solved the crime nationally.
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You see , homicides are solved about 60 percent of the time in 2019 , according to FBI statistics.
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And yesterday , when this light was talking about his clearance rate , it was closer to 75 percent.
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Now you noted the reaction of some City Council members to this presentation.
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What reaction stand out to you ? Yeah.
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So I thought that it was really interesting to hear the City Council president , Sean Rivera , talk after the police department had sort of given their update.
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And what he really urged is the city to invest in strategies that are designed to prevent crime and violence from happening in the first place.
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And I think that that's rhetoric that we hear at the state level , obviously , with Newsome as well.
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But the idea is to put more funding into programs that are designed to stabilize communities and help communities recover so that crime is not something that they that they choose to engage in in the first place.
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And he noted that during this increase in crime , there were no budget cuts to police spending in fiscal year twenty twenty one twenty twenty two.
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In fact , the police budget increased by millions of dollars.
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And so the idea is is , are there other things that we aren't with that we weren't investing in during that time that we need to consider investing more seriously ? And I've been speaking with San Diego Union Tribune reporter Lindsay Wakely.
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Thank you so much.
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Thank you for having me.
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This is midday edition.
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I'm Christina Kim in for Jade Heidemann with Maureen Cavanaugh.
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Over the past two years , conversations about race , gender and equity have become more mainstream and in some cases , more contentious.
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That's why I've been collecting your questions as part of a series we're calling.
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Let's talk about it.
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We start today with an audience question about the meaning of the word woke.
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Mike Milton is a retired Navy man.
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He's white and he considers himself a lefty.
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Oh , definitely left.
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Politically speaking , that is.
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He says he pays attention to the news and current affairs.
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But lately , there's one word he's been hearing a lot that's got him scratching his head woke ideology.
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The woke world gone wild , woke capitalism , a ship I think might have sailed.
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It's a word he mostly hears used by conservative media outlets , and he's not sure what it means.
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What is it about woke or wokeness ? The definition of that ? The truth is the word woke has lived many lives and iterations right around the early 1960s 70s , when you had a lot of black power movements and kind of civil rights issues going on at that time.
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It wasn't called woke , it was called consciousness.
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That's Dr DeMaria Smith.
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He's a professor of rhetoric and media studies at San Diego State University.
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All the say he's the person to talk to when it comes to understanding how words like woke have changed over the years.
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At that time , black people particularly started thinking about what are the ways in which our government is not necessarily protecting us as citizens.
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Smith says woke as he knows it and uses it , is really about connecting the dots.
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So what to me means basically having a consciousness about some of the systemic issues that are taking place that have unintended consequences that kind of seem as though it may be a good thing , but again , there's things that we're not necessarily thinking about.
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For instance , he says , being woke is questioning what's being taught in schools.
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So when a student goes to school , particularly at the college level , we have to ask ourselves if they're not in ethnic studies or black studies , how are they being exposed to the realities and the sensibilities of different racial groups ? And recognizing the power dynamics behind what's being taught in a lot of our curriculum is that it's primarily focus on white folks perspective and also just Greco-Roman tradition.
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According to Smith , the word woke started to become more mainstream around 2015 , with more people using it that didn't know the words origins.
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The everyday white folks , as I would say , and they started kind of using that terminology about , you know , Oh , I'm woke , I'm woke , I'm white , but I'm woke.
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You know what I mean ? Which is when the word started to change and become less a way of thinking and more like a badge to signal to other people that you weren't racist.
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Yeah , it definitely changed its significance because those folks who will say I'm woke , particularly in public situations , are still the kind of people that will walk past black people and not speak to them and say hello or anything like that.
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Fast forward to today , where woke is being used by conservative media outlets to describe just about everything from criminal justice issues to education.
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You know , like all words , they can be weaponized in this context.
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Wolk has become a catchall for anything deemed progressive or inclusive.
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The problem when you hear woke , I would say , at least for Fox News , they kind of see it as more like anything that they don't deem is correct.
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It's considered woke , and that's how Mike Milton first heard of the word woke.
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Light years away from its original meaning.
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I called in back up and shared this story with him to see what he thought.
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This educated me that it goes back , not just to the whatever that was 90s or early 2000s , but back to the 60s and early 70s.
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Smith anticipates will be hearing woke a lot this election year , and he hopes more people think deeply about how the word has and is being used.
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Christina Kim KPBS News.
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Share your questions about race , gender and equity by calling six one nine six three zero eight five one six and leaving a message.
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Getting funding for a startup biotech company is seldom easy , but many black biotech CEOs say they face an entrenched white good old boy network of venture capital investors who are usually not willing to take a chance on them.
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That can lead to the frustrating experience of one San Diego biotech leader.
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His company is on the brink of offering a breakthrough technology for DNA sequencing and diagnostics , but funding has dried up and he's had to cut back.
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And he wonders , is it really because he's black ? Joining me is Jonathan Rosen , West Coast Biotech and Life Sciences reporter for STAT News.
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Jonathan , welcome.
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Nice talking with you again.
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Now in your article , you tell the story of Paul.
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He's CEO of Roswell Biotechnologies here in San Diego.
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What's the product his company has developed ? So Roswell is making what they call a molecular electronics chip.
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It's basically a tiny little chip about the size of a pea , and it's packed with thousands of electronic sensors that have little molecules that are worked into the circuit.
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So what it does is you can use it to detect interactions between molecules and so you could use that to sequence DNA.
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You could potentially use that to identify new drugs based on whether two molecules stick to each other or interact.
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It's what in biotech is called sort of a platform , a technology that you can do many different things with , and that's what they've been working on since they were founded back in 2014.
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Yet just when it's about to launch , he's had to cut staff and pull back.
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What kind of financing does he need ? Yeah , that was pretty jarring.
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So back in November , I was at the sort of launch or the unveiling of that , that chip.
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They were looking to raise about $100 million to make the jump to actually manufacturing and developing the product for commercial use.
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They've raised about 60 million to date for everything up until this next point.
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Basically , the issue they ran into was they couldn't they couldn't raise enough money.
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They were having a lot of conversations with investors who were asking for evidence that the market and other companies were interested in the product , and they were beginning to strike collaborations with different companies.
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But just on a day to day basis weren't able to raise enough money to keep operating at their current size.
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And so so they went from about forty four to twenty four employees almost immediately.
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And does he believe he hasn't been successful in getting funding because he's black ? Yeah , the short answer is he he does think that that has something to do with it.
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I talked with Paul several times , and the way he looks at it is basically that he feels they've got this really transformational technology.
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He also sees that they had literally just debuted the product.
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They've got a lot of high powered scientists on their scientific advisory board , and they had just published a pretty well-received paper on the underlying technology.
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So all the pieces were in place , except for the fact that the funding from traditional venture capital firms wasn't coming through either.
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When you put all those pieces together , especially the fact that he's having an easier time raising money outside this country than , you know , here in the United States , it does feel that not looking like the typical biotech CEO is something that has been a roadblock for him.
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You spoke with the director of Black and brown founders , which supports entrepreneurs of color.
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Did she say she's seen this hesitancy to fund black biotech leaders before ? Yeah , she said.
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She's seen it about 50 million times before , which I don't think is a precise estimate.
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But she did say something that she's seen and heard from a whole lot of people in the years that she's been working with entrepreneurs , and she mentioned all kinds of reasons for why.
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But I think one of the quotes that stuck with me is that really , when you're an entrepreneur and you're trying to raise money from investors , their willingness to give you that money or not comes down to trust.
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It's about who you know and who you trust and who you think is going to give you a return on that investment.
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And so what she pointed to is sort of a bias that still exists , that sees people who are of color or women , for example , as people who aren't really creators of technology , they're more consumers.
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And so that's one of the issues that folks like Paul and many others may have to deal with as they're navigating the investment world.
00:23:43.020 --> 00:24:05.070
What's the representation of black entrepreneurs in the biotech industry simply looking at venture capital ? It looks like basically less than two percent of venture capital think actually 1.2 percent of venture capital goes to companies that have a black founder , and you can see similar disparities , you know , for women , for example.
00:24:05.490 --> 00:24:07.380
It's clearly a very small number.
00:24:07.590 --> 00:24:19.530
It does seem like even if you correct for the fact that there are relatively few black entrepreneurs out there that the share of the pie in terms of funding , even by those standards , is quite low.
00:24:20.100 --> 00:24:27.060
There is now I understand a concerted effort to open up the biotech field , and some of that is coming from the Connect organ.
00:24:27.130 --> 00:24:33.100
Is Asian here in San Diego ? Tell us about the new program it's launching as of last November.
00:24:33.130 --> 00:24:43.020
They've started trying to do more in terms of explicitly helping underrepresented entrepreneurs navigate startups and growing their companies.
00:24:43.030 --> 00:24:47.890
So one of the things that they will be doing as of , I believe this September.
00:24:48.130 --> 00:25:05.850
Later this year is bringing in groups of about 25 tech and biotech employees across San Diego and creating essentially a little community of people that will , during a four month period , be able to talk about shared challenges with each other.
00:25:05.860 --> 00:25:12.610
They'll be able to visit various more established companies , talk with more established CEOs.
00:25:13.030 --> 00:25:21.640
So essentially , these are people who are already in the workforce and trying to essentially either rise the ranks or hopefully start their own company.
00:25:22.150 --> 00:25:25.120
And so connects trying to give them the resources to do that.
00:25:25.780 --> 00:25:27.700
They're going to be pulling together.
00:25:28.360 --> 00:25:39.220
Venture groups that explicitly say part of their investment strategy is supporting companies that have diverse founders , and so they want that to be a resource for entrepreneurs going forward.
00:25:39.700 --> 00:25:55.450
And where does all this leave Paul Mohler and his potential breakthrough biotech microchip ? Right now , they are still working towards trying to actually launch that product , and they're actually still talking with venture capital firms.
00:25:55.810 --> 00:26:01.420
I think they're still moving forward , but perhaps a little more slowly , frankly , given that they had much fewer people now.
00:26:01.930 --> 00:26:08.170
I've been speaking with Jonathan was West Coast Biotech and Life Sciences reporter for STAT News.
00:26:08.320 --> 00:26:09.370
Jonathan , thank you.
00:26:09.670 --> 00:26:10.240
Anytime.
00:26:13.670 --> 00:26:17.960
San Diego's new ambulance provider is getting its first progress report today.
00:26:18.290 --> 00:26:24.290
The City Council's Public Safety and Livable Neighborhood Committee will be looking at how operations have been going.
00:26:24.620 --> 00:26:27.680
KPBS Health reporter Matt Hoffman explains.
00:26:31.040 --> 00:26:36.170
Foulke ambulances have been on the streets in San Diego full time for about three months now.
00:26:36.290 --> 00:26:42.530
The company won the city's five year 9-1-1 contract after beating out the previous provider , American Medical Response.
00:26:42.920 --> 00:26:46.050
Foulke promised more staffing and new life saving equipment.
00:26:46.070 --> 00:26:47.760
The ramp up process was challenging.
00:26:47.780 --> 00:26:50.510
Jeff Baim runs Fowlkes San Diego operations.
00:26:50.660 --> 00:26:54.860
The company spent six months building up before taking over just after Thanksgiving.
00:26:55.040 --> 00:27:00.130
He acknowledges that staffing requirements haven't been met yet , so I'll tell you , we're slightly below that level.
00:27:00.140 --> 00:27:00.620
It depends.
00:27:00.620 --> 00:27:01.400
It's day to day.
00:27:01.610 --> 00:27:02.960
Now there's challenges to that.
00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:06.950
Baim says the most recent COVID 19 surge complicated operations.
00:27:07.250 --> 00:27:11.900
We just came on the other side of the coronavirus , so that's really good , and our staffing is improving very well.
00:27:11.900 --> 00:27:18.140
But January was challenging , you know , twenty five percent of our employees were out at some time sick with COVID.
00:27:18.170 --> 00:27:24.270
Data from the city of San Diego over the last three months shows that Foulke hasn't quite met their monthly staffing requirement.
00:27:24.290 --> 00:27:27.880
In February , they were about eight percent short in terms of the unit hours.
00:27:27.890 --> 00:27:33.770
We're working towards meeting the goal that we said we would meet , and we're in a much better position today than we were when we started.
00:27:33.950 --> 00:27:41.480
Fewer staff means some have to pull extra shifts and the city's worried about busy crews and the potential for burnout as we move through the contract.
00:27:41.870 --> 00:27:49.940
We continue to address the requirements and Falk , as I mentioned , is making achievements with with each of those requirements.
00:27:50.030 --> 00:27:55.280
Jody Pierce is the deputy chief of emergency medical services for the San Diego Fire Rescue Department.
00:27:55.550 --> 00:28:00.290
She says the city runs the 9-1-1 system , with Foulke providing ambulance transports.
00:28:00.380 --> 00:28:06.200
Each fire apparatus has a firefighter paramedic on it , and then the second medic is coming from Foulke Ambulance.
00:28:06.410 --> 00:28:13.560
And again , they're providing the transport to the hospital from the incident , and that's where we work together to provide the service.
00:28:13.610 --> 00:28:17.120
The department says to their knowledge , everyone has gotten the care they needed.
00:28:17.120 --> 00:28:21.080
And Pearce says that Fowlkes three month report card doesn't show the full picture.
00:28:21.110 --> 00:28:25.790
I feel very good about where we are right now in our contract agreement with them.
00:28:26.090 --> 00:28:30.860
Falk is following through on other contract obligations like bringing in new ambulances.
00:28:30.860 --> 00:28:35.780
At least half of the fleet is brand new , and Foulke says all the vehicles will be in by April.
00:28:35.810 --> 00:28:38.270
Brand new ambulances you can never go wrong with a brand new ambulance.
00:28:38.390 --> 00:28:41.210
Mark SarahPAC is a paramedic supervisor for Foulke.
00:28:41.330 --> 00:28:53.210
He's worked emergency medical response in the city over the last 22 years , which has seen many different operators roll Metro DMC armor and now felt Mobile Health Corp..
00:28:55.470 --> 00:29:05.070
SarahPAC says the ambulances come with new tech that helps first responders and patients like power loading gurneys save her back.
00:29:05.190 --> 00:29:10.230
It's also the winger and it's more suited for or heavier patients.
00:29:10.230 --> 00:29:17.370
But one of the big factors in those gurneys is it's it prevents injuries and it takes a lot of pressure off your back.
00:29:17.490 --> 00:29:21.360
It's also now just one person instead of sometimes two or three.
00:29:21.720 --> 00:29:24.360
Jenny Touma is a 911 one paramedic with Foulke.
00:29:24.510 --> 00:29:27.380
She says ambulances also now have Lucas devices.
00:29:27.390 --> 00:29:29.550
They deliver automatic chest compressions.
00:29:30.630 --> 00:29:32.160
It's super easy to use.
00:29:32.160 --> 00:29:36.420
Yeah , and then it'll basically start compressions.
00:29:37.830 --> 00:29:45.540
It allows one more person to do other things rather than compressions , but actually frees up two people while they have new equipment.
00:29:45.540 --> 00:29:47.340
Staffing issues are persisting.
00:29:47.550 --> 00:29:52.080
Foulke reports that response times are at or near 90 percent across the city.
00:29:52.110 --> 00:30:02.370
We're really proud of our of our fellow employees , our paramedics and our EMTs that are responding out to the to the San Diego residents and making sure that we get there in as quickly as possible time as we can.
00:30:02.580 --> 00:30:10.740
And you know , it's just been really under some tremendous strains in the last few months with COVID and folks being out ill and they're just working really hard and we're so proud of them.
00:30:10.740 --> 00:30:13.920
And I want the community to know that they're working really hard for them as well.
00:30:14.100 --> 00:30:17.640
File could be fined by the city if they don't meet contract requirements.
00:30:17.790 --> 00:30:24.870
The San Diego Fire Rescue Department says they will continue working with the ambulance company to deliver the highest level of emergency services.
00:30:25.320 --> 00:30:27.660
Matt Hoffman KPBS News.
00:30:31.880 --> 00:30:40.070
From virtual learning to in-person learning , the pandemic caused many disruptions for students and as many returned to in-person learning again.
00:30:40.280 --> 00:30:44.570
A new study shows that online tutoring could help them get the help they need.
00:30:44.660 --> 00:30:54.440
A new pilot program looking to measure the impact of online tutoring for K through 12 students found that online tutoring help students recover from learning losses during the pandemic.
00:30:54.500 --> 00:31:00.890
The study was conducted by researchers at UC San Diego and the volunteer mentorship nonprofit Cove Education.
00:31:00.920 --> 00:31:11.840
Joining me to talk about this pilot program is Sally Saathoff , associate professor of economics and strategic management at UC San Diego's Rady School of Management and one of the study's co-authors.
00:31:11.990 --> 00:31:13.010
Sally , welcome.
00:31:13.250 --> 00:31:14.570
Hi , thanks for having me.
00:31:14.750 --> 00:31:30.200
First off , can you tell us about how the pilot program actually worked , how many students participated and what was the tutoring schedule like ? Our tutors worked with about two hundred sixty four students in a school in the south suburbs of Chicago , Illinois.
00:31:30.230 --> 00:31:38.390
The volunteer college students worked with students twice a week for about half an hour each time , and the program lasted about 12 weeks.
00:31:38.750 --> 00:31:49.730
Your research finds that online tutoring help students recover from pandemic driving learning losses , which I think for some who were afraid that online learning was kind of the cause of this learning loss in the first place.
00:31:49.940 --> 00:31:51.500
It can seem a little antithetical.
00:31:51.710 --> 00:32:15.410
What was it about the online tutoring model that really worked in this study ? There's a lot of evidence now that in-person tutoring is highly effective at helping students catch up with fallen behind , and we think the reason for this is that students get this really close attention either one on one or one on two triggering that allows the tutors to individualize the material to the students and work closely with them.
00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:25.550
And what we're finding in our study is some suggestive evidence that you can use that model online because it's just one tutor working with just one other student or two.
00:32:25.550 --> 00:32:34.940
Other students were able to recreate that close connection and build those personal relationships that we think allows students to really learn in that environment.
00:32:35.210 --> 00:32:50.770
Why did your team decide to conduct this study in the first place , specifically with a focus on lower cost online tutoring ? So when we started the project , it was in the middle of the pandemic when most students were still learning remotely , and this was really the only tool available to us.
00:32:50.780 --> 00:32:58.220
We knew about the effects of in-person tutoring , and we thought that online tutoring might be able to achieve some of those same goals.
00:32:58.550 --> 00:33:10.460
And so , like so many others who are facing the learning losses that students were suffering under during the pandemic , we wanted to see if there was something we could do to try to address those learning losses during the pandemic.
00:33:10.460 --> 00:33:25.940
While we are running the study , the students actually returned to school in person for part of the time , and that gave us the opportunity to see whether we could incorporate online tutoring into the school day when students were in person , and we found that this does seem to be feasible and effective.
00:33:26.180 --> 00:33:36.600
What are some of the challenges public schools are facing to provide resources like this , such as online tutoring right now ? I think there is a challenge in recruiting online volunteers.
00:33:36.620 --> 00:33:48.260
We were really lucky to partner with Cove Education , which has developed a network of college volunteers who provided the service as college students return to in-person learning themselves.
00:33:48.560 --> 00:34:07.760
It has become a bit more difficult to recruit volunteers , but we are now partnering with the California state universities , which have a volunteer requirement for their students , and I think that this could be a great opportunity to provide college students with volunteer opportunities and provide tutors to K-12 students in need.
00:34:08.120 --> 00:34:21.920
You mentioned partnering with California universities , so what are next steps in getting this program rolled out ? And is it possible that we'll be seeing it here in San Diego ? We would love to expand this program to elementary middle schools and even high schools in San Diego.
00:34:21.950 --> 00:34:24.680
The partnership with Cal States is really promising.
00:34:24.710 --> 00:34:39.770
We would also like to work with universities to allow students who are on work study to use their work , study funding to serve as tutors , which you think could really expand the number of college students who are able to serve as tutors.
00:34:40.070 --> 00:35:06.020
What do you think people should take away from this research ? Our results are from a small scale pilot study and so that are only suggestive , but we think that they're promising enough to support a larger scale program where we really see the extent to which online tutoring can help students recover not only from the learning losses during the COVID 19 pandemic , but going forward students who may have fallen behind in school for other reasons.
00:35:06.320 --> 00:35:18.900
We think we've shown that it's logistically feasible to create this network of volunteer tutors and possibly combine that with paid tutors through programs like work , study or other sources of funding.
00:35:18.920 --> 00:35:27.300
And these programs can be incorporated into the schools and can be highly effective at connecting students with college students.
00:35:27.320 --> 00:35:31.370
The program not only provides academic support for students.
00:35:31.470 --> 00:35:40.980
That also allows them to build a personal relationship with someone in college and gives them exposure to a world that they may not know very much about.
00:35:41.010 --> 00:35:55.230
I think we're also seeing a lot of mental health struggles amongst students due to the pandemic , and having these personal relationships also provides socio emotional support , which is something we're also interested in exploring in future studies.
00:35:55.500 --> 00:36:02.350
I've been speaking with Sally SETOFf , associate professor of economics and strategic management at UC San Diego's Rady School of Management.
00:36:02.370 --> 00:36:03.480
Thank you so much.
00:36:03.720 --> 00:36:04.800
Thank you for having me.
00:36:10.890 --> 00:36:16.780
This is KPBS midday edition , I'm Maureen Cavanaugh with Christina Kim in for Jade Heinemann.
00:36:17.400 --> 00:36:23.010
This Saturday , Bodhi Treat Concerts presents the Victoria and Victor mature cabaret.
00:36:23.310 --> 00:36:32.100
It's a unique multi-media father daughter act in which Victoria plays tribute to her late father , a star of classic Hollywood.
00:36:32.250 --> 00:36:43.760
Victor Mature KPBS Arts reporter Beth Accomando speaks with daughter Victoria , a San Diego resident , about her dad and creating the show tonight.
00:36:43.830 --> 00:36:51.270
I'm going to be singing songs inspired by my dad's life and career and by the man I knew growing up.
00:36:51.420 --> 00:37:00.090
So I'm going to be talking a little bit about music , a little bit about movies , and a little bit about what it was like having Victor mature as my father.
00:37:00.360 --> 00:37:03.540
That was a little tease from the Victoria and Victor mature cabaret.
00:37:04.020 --> 00:37:13.140
So Victoria , you told me that you were working on a cabaret show about your dad years ago when I had you introduce your father's film , I wake up screaming at our film geeks noir program.
00:37:13.860 --> 00:37:30.870
So for people who don't know who your dad is , he was a hunky Hollywood star who started out in musicals , moved on to film noir , played Doc Holliday in My Darling Clementine and may be best remembered for starring in Cecil B. DeMille biblical epics such as Samson and Delilah and The Robe.
00:37:31.410 --> 00:37:38.940
For 40 plus years , his biblical epics were shown on TV around the world every single year at Christmas and Easter.
00:37:38.970 --> 00:37:46.140
People grew up seeing my dad in those films , and for many people that was their only only exposure to my dad and his films.
00:37:46.140 --> 00:37:54.540
And so he he kind of became synonymous with the sword and sandal , the biblical film epics because of that situation with television.
00:37:54.600 --> 00:38:05.040
And how would you describe your dad's screen persona ? What about him kind of comes across in his movies ? I love how my dad is so self-deprecating , and he was known for this , and he was.
00:38:05.310 --> 00:38:15.660
He was known for not taking himself seriously when he was at the height of his fame in the 1950s , he decided he wanted to join the L.A. Country Club because he wanted to just be able to play golf whenever he wanted to.
00:38:16.110 --> 00:38:24.460
And so he goes to the club and he says , You know , Hey , I'd like to be a member and they say , Oh , Victor , I'm so sorry , but we don't allow actors to be members here.
00:38:24.480 --> 00:38:28.770
And he says , Well , I'm no actor and I've got 64 pictures to prove it.
00:38:29.700 --> 00:38:33.020
And my dad did many different types of roles.
00:38:33.060 --> 00:38:37.650
He did musicals , which no one really talks about much , but they're all fun.
00:38:37.680 --> 00:38:52.260
And then after the war , Niwas became very popular , and the western noir The My Darling Clementine , my dad plays a part that's not entirely the moral center , but he's still a good guy and you can totally see that.
00:38:52.500 --> 00:38:59.400
And that's the the kind of image that the studio wanted to cultivate for my dad as the movies go on.
00:38:59.700 --> 00:39:07.350
He and the years go on and he gets more famous , and he's always playing the moral center against the villain.
00:39:07.680 --> 00:39:36.540
So your dad died when you were still young and you've dedicated yourself to keeping his legacy alive for new generations ? So how did all that kind of play into you creating this cabaret show ? When I went to the TCM festival in about six years ago , they ended up showing my darling Clementine , and I was just amazed at how many people were at that festival and that how much enthusiasm there was for classic film.
00:39:36.720 --> 00:39:41.870
And at that screening in particular , how much enthusiasm there was for my dad and his performance.
00:39:41.880 --> 00:39:53.340
And , you know , I think my dad in his retirement really believed that his work , his 40 plus years of work , was pretty much ephemeral and that , you know , he had a good time.
00:39:53.340 --> 00:39:54.090
He had a good run.
00:39:54.090 --> 00:40:02.880
He was happy , but I think he thought it was over and it was just interesting to see that know that people are still appreciating his work.
00:40:03.360 --> 00:40:21.870
And so from that point on , I started watching his movies and I really had watched some before , of course , in the past , but I really went from the beginning to the end and , you know , watched every one of his films and started to learn more about what was going on when he was making the films.
00:40:22.380 --> 00:40:26.610
And then I was I was asked to introduce.
00:40:26.610 --> 00:40:33.510
I wake up screaming at the North City Festival in San Francisco , and it just keeps growing.
00:40:33.900 --> 00:40:38.370
The more I learn , the more chances I get to introduce things.
00:40:38.670 --> 00:40:43.680
I just did a video introduction for the noir festival in the Czech Republic.
00:40:44.070 --> 00:40:50.670
But I became more enthusiastic about about his work because everyone else was so enthusiastic about it.
00:40:50.670 --> 00:41:00.470
And it also what it is is it gave me a chance after several years had passed to watch my dad in those films and get to know him in those films.
00:41:00.480 --> 00:41:05.790
I didn't know him when he was 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 or 60.
00:41:06.270 --> 00:41:09.720
I knew him pretty much in the 70s and 80s , and it's.
00:41:10.330 --> 00:41:32.260
Wonderful , and it's I'm very lucky to be able to watch all these films and recognize facial expressions that I saw growing up , and it's just been so much fun to take and healing in a way to to get to know my dad through those films and to talk to other people about how his films have touched their lives.
00:41:32.650 --> 00:41:44.200
There's such a community around classic film and in so many different ways between the festivals and and the social media commentary and the people who blog , and there's such love for it.
00:41:44.710 --> 00:41:47.830
I I grew up here in San Diego.
00:41:47.860 --> 00:41:49.450
I went to UCSD.
00:41:49.540 --> 00:41:54.580
I was a vocal performance major the first time around when I tried to do this cabaret.
00:41:54.820 --> 00:42:03.290
It was a lot of songs , a lot of my dad , a lot of songs from his musicals , a lot of stories about my dad , but I wasn't in the show.
00:42:03.430 --> 00:42:10.720
And this time around , the songs I'm singing are inspired by his life and his career in motion pictures.
00:42:10.720 --> 00:42:24.610
But they're they're also inspired by the person I knew growing up , and I'm planning on talking a bit about about music and about movies and about what it was like growing up with Victor mature as my father.
00:42:25.510 --> 00:42:34.690
So what can people expect from the show in terms of how it's constructed ? What are they going to get in this show ? It's going to be music and there's going to be multimedia.
00:42:34.690 --> 00:42:43.330
So we're going to talk about his life and his movies , and we're going to show clips and photos.
00:42:43.330 --> 00:42:48.790
And there's going to be some , some films where I might be sharing the screen with my dad.
00:42:48.970 --> 00:42:55.330
What's up ? I've been watching the old movies from the Forties again , classics like I Wake Up Screaming and Cry of the City.
00:42:55.990 --> 00:42:59.710
Those are early noir films really had something it to the point.
00:42:59.830 --> 00:43:01.870
I love the music in those movies.
00:43:02.230 --> 00:43:08.710
And you might find it hard to believe , but a lot of that music has gone away away where out of the public eye.
00:43:09.550 --> 00:43:12.940
These are top notch songs , catchy tunes and clever lyrics.
00:43:12.940 --> 00:43:13.990
They need to be heard.
00:43:14.920 --> 00:43:16.270
I'm going to take them out on the road.
00:43:16.660 --> 00:43:26.590
You appear in scenes with your father , so how does that feel ? Putting those elements together , it's surreal when I see it.
00:43:26.620 --> 00:43:32.680
That's fun , and it's fun getting to have a conversation with my dad in the context of the show.
00:43:32.920 --> 00:43:43.300
It's a little bit like a little kid that is constantly wanting to connect with their parent and saying , Hello , I'm here , I'm here , I'm here.
00:43:43.450 --> 00:43:45.910
And basically , I'm doing that in his films.
00:43:45.910 --> 00:43:47.710
I'm like , I want , I want to connect with him.
00:43:47.710 --> 00:43:49.120
I want to speak with him about this.
00:43:49.330 --> 00:43:51.010
And so I'm just saying , here I am.
00:43:51.250 --> 00:43:53.320
And in one film , here I am.
00:43:53.320 --> 00:43:54.160
I'm in the western.
00:43:54.370 --> 00:43:55.150
Hi , I'm here.
00:43:55.150 --> 00:43:57.070
I'm in the I mean , the sword and sandal film.
00:43:57.460 --> 00:44:09.160
And not a lot of people can relate to having a movie star as a father , but I think everyone can relate to wanting to connect with someone that they love.
00:44:09.670 --> 00:44:20.080
And so I think when I see myself on the screen with my dad , it's another way of connecting with him now that he's gone.
00:44:20.650 --> 00:44:34.000
You know , my dad was sick for a good long portion of my life , and when I saw the pictures that were on our wall at home of him with different actresses , in different films , he's so vibrant.
00:44:34.300 --> 00:44:41.860
When I saw those movies , there's there's so much life , there's so much vitality , and I missed a lot of that growing up.
00:44:41.860 --> 00:44:46.900
And so it's just wonderful getting to have those conversations with him in the films.
00:44:47.230 --> 00:44:48.550
There's another way I connect with him.
00:44:48.880 --> 00:44:52.540
Well , I want to thank you very much for talking about your cabaret show.
00:44:52.630 --> 00:44:53.620
Thank you very much.
00:44:54.250 --> 00:44:56.710
That was Beth Accomando speaking with Victoria.
00:44:56.710 --> 00:45:04.690
Mature Boteach Free Concerts presents the Victoria and Victor Mature Cabaret this Saturday at Vision in San Diego.