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Projects funded include continued support California’s statewide Future Farmers of America (FFA) program, mobile educational exhibits, local farm days for students, agricultural activity centers at local fairs, and agricultural internship opportunities.
Each of these projects provides educational and leadership opportunities connected to the agricultural sector.
“Ensuring the continued success of our agricultural industry begins with education,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “These projects help us sustain the future of California agriculture by inspiring youth about agriculture as a career and actively engaging our young farmers and ranchers.”
The CalAgPlate program is funded with proceeds generated through the sale of specialized, agriculture-themed license plates through the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
CalAgPlate project abstracts are available online at www.cdfa.ca.gov/calagplate.
Help to support agricultural education and the CalAgPlate program by purchasing a special interest license plate at your local DMV office or online today.
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“The rise of fake and misleading news is deeply concerning, as is the habit by some to dismiss real facts as ‘fake news’ just because they don’t like them,” said “We already require critical thinking skills in our schools, but they haven’t kept up with technology. Crafting a comprehensive curriculum for media literacy education is essential to combating fake news. By giving students the proper training to analyze the media they consume, we can empower them to make informed decisions.”
A 2016 Stanford study found that 82 percent of middle school students struggled to distinguish advertisements from news stories.
The same study also found a significant percentage of high school and college students scored poorly in media literacy evaluations, and concluded, “Our ‘digital natives’ may be able to flit between Facebook and Twitter while simultaneously uploading a selfie to Instagram and texting a friend. But when it comes to evaluating information that flows through social media channels, they are easily duped.”
"If anything, the last year has shown us that the prevalence of hoax websites and false claims will not recede, but rather continue to increase as more and more Americans than ever get their news from nontraditional sources such as social media sites,” said Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom. “It's time to acknowledge that since the way we receive our news has changed, so must the way we digest the news. As a father of four children, and thinking about the next generation, teaching them media literacy so that they can be able to discern factual information from farce is vital to the health of our State and Country. I commend Senator Dodd for reintroducing this bill and I support its passage so that we can continue the fight against false and misleading news."
The prevalence of fake news garnered national attention in the 2016 election, where in the final months of the presidential campaign, false and misleading stories from hoax websites outperformed actual news stories in terms of social media engagement.
Adolescents can spend up to nine hours a day absorbing media from these various sources, and this flood of information can make it difficult for the public to differentiate between reputable news sources and false or misleading claims.
The practice of advertisements masquerading as news has also seen an increase in recent years.
“Media literacy is no longer a ‘nice to have’ option in education – it is an essential skill for life in the 21st century,” said Tessa Jolls, president of the Center for Media Literacy. “Today, we see that access to media literacy is an equity issue: students who gain media literacy skills are advantaged in a world where news and information are exchanged 24/7 globally through social media and powerful images, words and sounds. This bill is a way for California students to thrive and prosper in a demanding media-driven culture.”
Dodd’s bill, which is coauthored by a bipartisan group of legislators, would empower the California Board of Education’s Instructional Quality Commission to develop a model framework necessary for incorporating media literacy into school curriculums.
The legislation will also provide media literacy training opportunities for teachers in California.
The bill, SB 830, is a reintroduction of Senator Dodd’s measure from 2017 that passed the Senate but stalled in the Assembly.
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The board will meet in open session beginning at 6:15 p.m. in the Carol McClung Conference Center, 9430 B Lake St. in Lower Lake.
Timed items include a public hearing and proposal for implementing school facilities fees as authorized by Education Code Section 17620 and Government Code 65995.
There also will be a workshop on understanding the California School Dashboard. Staff will present an overview of the California School Dashboard, how indicators are calculated and Konocti School District results.
The board also will consider approval of the amended Konocti English Learner Master Plan, consider personnel items and adopting a resolution for the authorization to teach outside credential.
Also on the agenda, the board will consider approval of the 2016 Developer Fee Justification Study and adoption of Resolution 14-17-18 - A Resolution of the Governing Board of the Konocti Unified School District Immediately Implementing School Facilities Fees as Authorized by Government Code Section 17620.
For the full agenda visit http://konocti.agendaonline.net/public/.
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Students became eligible to apply for this relief after the courts found that Corinthian defrauded these students in violation of California consumer protection laws.
More than one in four of those students with pending debt relief claims resided in California.
“What Secretary DeVos is doing is unconscionable,” said Attorney General Becerra. “After having their American Dreams stolen by a so-called higher education institution, Corinthian students are now being denied critical relief by a Secretary of Education hostile to their plight. It is hard to believe that we are forced to sue the Department of Education to compel Secretary DeVos to carry out the Department's legal duty and help these students rebuild their lives. We will work to ensure that all who seek a college degree can do so without worrying about unscrupulous for-profit purveyors of a sham college education.”
The federal Higher Education Act entitles student loan borrowers to relief if they are defrauded by their schools.
More than 50,000 such claims submitted by Corinthian students are pending before the Department of Education, 13,000 from Californians.
The Department of Education promised many of these borrowers “expedited” student loan discharges.
Prior to Secretary DeVos’s appointment, the department had granted this critical relief to 28,000 student victims who were no different than those with pending claims.
However, since the change in administration on Jan. 20, the Department of Education has completely and inexplicably halted processing these claims.
Thursday’s lawsuit follows repeated calls by state attorneys general from California and several other states,
Members of Congress, and student advocates urging the department to do its job and provide federal loan relief to defrauded Corinthian students.
In 2013, the California Attorney General’s Office led the charge against for-profit Corinthian Colleges and its subsidiaries, seeking to put an end to abusive practices that left students under a mountain of debt and far too often without the jobs Corinthian had falsely promised its degrees would provide.
Corinthian specifically targeted low-income, vulnerable students through false advertisements that misrepresented job placement rates and the value of its educational programs.
Corinthian illegally used the seals of the armed forces in its advertisements to recruit veterans. It also engaged in illegal debt collection practices.
The California Attorney General's Office ultimately obtained a $1.1 billion judgment against Corinthian for its misconduct.
The California Attorney General's Office was instrumental in moving the Department of Education to implement a borrower-defense process to grant widespread, expedited loan relief to defrauded Corinthian borrowers.
Based on a joint investigation with the California Department of Justice, the Department of Education under President Obama announced that tens of thousands of former Corinthian students were entitled to federal student loan relief.
The department announced a streamlined process by which former Corinthian students could apply for that relief.
Former Corinthian students can log on to https://oag.ca.gov/corinthian to find out if they are eligible to use this streamlined process.
Attorney General Becerra’s complaint was filed in parallel with a separate lawsuit by the Attorneys General of Massachusetts, Illinois and New York.