Global Education and Funding School Budgets Discussed at Summit

Panelists that include experts in the field of education and school funding will gather today at 1 p.m. for the 21st Century Education Summit at De Anza College to discus global education challenges and the uphill battle of funding education here at home.

“Californians who support public education funding need clarity and purposeful action more than ever,” said Hoi-Yung Poon, executive director of the grassroots group Parents for Great Education.

Founded in October by a core group of volunteers who worked on a fundraising campaign last year for Cupertino Union School District, Parents for Great Education is a non-profit parent network that seeks “to educate and activate parents, students, and the community in support of high-quality public education.”

Today’s event is sponsored by KTSF, ABC KGO-TV Channel 7, Telefutura, Univision, along with local businesses and philanthropist organizations Cloud501, Ecrossland Organic Tea, The Lucile Packard Foundation and Sugarbowl Bakery.

Co-hosts include Parents for Great Education, De Anza College, De Anza Student Senate, De Anza College Institute of Community and Civic Engagement, KTSF, and Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association.

“We have to solve the immediate problem of the funding cliff before us. But we also have to forge on with a visionary plan for the direction of all of our public schools regardless of the funding picture,” Poon said.
Rep. Mike Honda (D-San Jose) is among the speakers, which includes Joseph Di Salvo, president of Santa Clara County Board of Education as moderator of one panel, and John Fensterweld of Educated Guess, Silicon Valley Education Foundation will be moderator of the second panel. Other panelists are Bernie Trilling, a 21st-century learning expert, advisor, author, and the former global director of the Oracle Education Foundation; Michael Matsuda, co-chair, California Coalition for 21st Century Education; Anne E. Campbell, San Mateo County superintendent of schools; Dale Jones, executive director/superintendent, Discovery Charter School; Lenny Goldberg, executive director, California Tax Reform Association; Fred Silva, senior fiscal policy advisor, California Forward; Phil Ting, San Francisco assessor recorder; and Cindy Chavez, executive director, Working Partnerships.

General admission is $35.