California’s Reparations Task Force report
Good Morning, I’m Annica Colbert….it’s Thursday, June 2nd.>>>>
The task force on reparations report
More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….######
A COVID indoor and outdoor mask mandate is back at the South Bay Union School District.
An uptick in cases prompted the superintendent to reinstate the mask mandate until the end of the school year.
That’s only a little more than a week away
Oscar Guerrero was wearing a mask when he picked up his younger brother from Nicoloff Elementary in San Ysidro.
“I feel more safe to not get the virus…and it’s better for the kids so they don’t get sick and lose more day to learn.”
South Bay Union officials say they hope COVID numbers drop over the summer so masks will be optional when classes resume in the fall.
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More than half of the child abuse reports made by counties in recent years were not in a statewide database, according to state auditors.
The unreliability of the state database could result in child abusers being allowed to care for children, and otherwise puts kids at risk.
The state’s database is used by state and county social services and welfare departments, adoption agencies, medical workers, and agencies conducting background investigations.
State auditors found that state officials did not always put county reports into the database, and that counties did not always send their reports to the state.
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S-D-G-and-E started its conservation incentive program on wednesday.
It rewards customers with a discounted bill for reducing energy use on days when there’s high demand for electricity.
Customers enrolled in the “power saver reward program” will be notified a day before they’ll be asked to conserve.
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From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.
Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
The first report from California’s Reparations Task Force was released wednesday.
KPBS Speak City Heights reporter Jacob Aere has a look at the 500-page report and its recommendations.
Support of slavery… segregation… racial terror… just some of the harms perpetuated by the state, according to California’s first-in-the-nation task force on reparations for African Americans.
The report calls for action to address those wrongs…
Task Force Chair Kamilah Moore says the recommendations include expanded voter registration… making it easier to hold violent police accountable… and improving Black neighborhoods.
“In this first report we’re really just documenting the harms against the African American community. But in terms of compensation we still have to have conversations about that.”
The comprehensive reparations plan is due to lawmakers before July 1, 2023. Jacob Aere, KPBS News.
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From homelessness, to mental illness, to law enforcement oversight, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria is working on a number of the city’s most serious and contentious issues.
He spoke to KPBS Midday Edition host Maureen Cavanaugh yesterday. Here’s that interview:
And that was KPBS’s Maureen Cavanaugh.
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Coming up...the skyrocketing housing market is just one more crisis for san diego's childcare providers.
We’ll have that story and more, next, just after the break.
East county water districts broke ground on wednesday on a new water recycling plant.
they say it’ll provide 11.5 million gallons of purified waste water a day.
KPBS Science and technology reporter Thomas Fudge has more.
The Santee plant, due to be completed in 2026, will take wastewater that is normally treated and dumped in the ocean and turn it into water that’s clean enough to drink. The Padre Dam water district is one of four water agencies that are partnering to build and operate the new water plant, which they say will cost 950 million dollars. Outgoing manager of the Padre Dam district, Alan Carlisle, says plans to expand the plant and inflation have added to the cost. But once it’s built, ratepayers will see plenty of savings.
“In other words, if we do nothing. What are we going to pay for water and what are we going to pay for wastewater services compared to what those services will cost if we do this project.”
Carlisle says recycled water will soon make up 30 percent of East County’s water.
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We all know rents and housing prices are skyrocketing.
And that market is becoming just one more insurmountable challenge for San Diego childcare providers.
KPBS reporter Claire Trageser explains.
A dozen young children sit in a circle on the sun speckled lawn of Liberty Winn’s home childcare in Carlsbad.
After singing their school song she dismisses them one by one to leave the circle, visit the potty, and then pick out their snacks.
“If your name starts with Z you may go, how about Zaven? Z-A-V-E-N?”
The idyllic scene belies the more than two years of turmoil Winn has faced in the age of COVID. She was forced to close when the pandemic first hit in March of 2020. She wasn’t able to re-open for two months..
“And then within two weeks, we got the eviction notice.”
Her landlord said he was moving back into the home Winn was renting. She frantically searched for a new place where she could both live and have her childcare business. She ultimately found the building in Carlsbad.
But it wasn’t suitable for a daycare. So Winn had to take out a federal Emergency Disaster Relief Loan and spend $20,000 on the property.
“I had to put a lot of the loan money into this place because it's on a lake. It's lovely, it's gorgeous, but it was a huge risk.”
Her lease will be up this summer, and Winn just received more bad news—her landlord has plans to turn the property instead into a luxury AirBnB. So Winn is out of business again – this time permanently.
“So our last day is August 26. Oasis of San Diego will be ending.”
This historically tight housing market has created a crisis on top of a crisis for childcare providers. First the pandemic walloped the already fragile industry. State data show that one in eight childcare businesses temporarily closed during the past two years. And now, many are struggling to re-open due to staggering rental costs.
“It puts the providers in a terribly vulnerable position.”
Laura Kohn is a long term early education expert.
“The child care provider is totally dependent on that rental situation for their livelihood and moving the business would be incredibly disruptive to a lot of parents and families, as well as to the provider's business.”
Without government funding to help providers, childcare availability will continue to decline, says Kim McDougal, the executive director of the San Diego County YMCA’s Childcare Resource Services.
“The funding mechanism for child care is truly broken, and the way we have built our economic model is truly broken. And that's something that we really need to address going forward if we're going to solve the childcare crisis, because parents can't pay more, providers can't charge less, and it's never going to match up without public subsidy to close the gap.”
“So let's take your brush. I'll help you hold your fabric. Do you know if you turn your brush over, you still have some paint on it?”
A subsidy certainly would have helped Winn in Carlsbad. She will have to pack up or sell everything—from the art supplies and tiny tables and chairs to the aquariums holding snakes and turtles. And all of the money she put into the property will be lost.
“I'm so grateful to have found my calling and have a business that was flourishing, and I seem to be in my element…But if I really think about it, I'm just quite vulnerable, and that's what I'm noticing.”
The kids at her school—and their parents—will have to find new care when Winn moves.
CT KPBS News
That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Annica Colbert. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
