By Jim Wright
WE'VE ALWAYS WONDERED what's considered news in the Old Pueblo. How about a grassroots gathering of 900 angry parents and youth announcing their "Youth Action Plan" to combat kid crime, violence and an out-of-control school drop-out rate?
News? The Arizona Daily Star /Tucson Citizen didn't think so. Neither did the electronic media. Why? Go figure.
The event, which took place two weeks ago at Sunnyside High School, was sponsored by the Pima County Interfaith Council. The council, a faith-based organization with a core of 48 mainstream Christian and Jewish groups, has been working for the past five years, attacking the systemic conditions which plague children and their families.
Invited guests at the mega-gathering included Tucson Mayor George Miller, Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry and Pima County supervisors Mike Boyd, Dan Eckstrom and Raul Grijalva. Supervisors Paul Marsh and Ed Moore were invited, but failed to attend.
PCIC unveiled its version of a comprehensive youth program to their "official guests." PCIC spokespersons told the officials their plan was hammered out with the involvement of hundreds of parents and students.
Among the main points of PCIC's master plan:
• Deepen commitments to before- and after-school programs and summer programs by eliminating waiting lists and adding school sites where needed.
• Implement quality improvements in selected after-school and summer programs.
• Develop youth programs in all middle schools and run these programs five days a week during the school year.
• Expand summer youth employment by at least 1,000 jobs and connect these jobs to parent/teacher outreach teams from the schools, churches and synagogues.
• Expand year-round youth employment to at least three high schools and create a total of 250 new jobs for youth.
• Develop a summer and year-round youth employment strategy targeted to specifically to Native Americans.
• Require all programs serving children/youth to have parent oversight teams within three years.
• Expand adult basic education to eliminate waiting lists for General Equivalency Degree, English as a Second Language and U.S. citizenship classes.
• Establish a family-friendly adult education center at the old Liberty Elementary School, which TUSD is currently trying to shut down.
The massive crowd cheered their approval of the plan. The pols smiled and nodded.
The pols were still smiling when PCIC leaders told the supervisors they wanted to sit at the table with (the supervisors) to negotiate the $5 million the county has earmarked for youth programs. All three supervisors agreed.
Boyd, a Republican, stood up and told the group how pleased he was to see the progress that was being made by their efforts. And after Boyd told the cheering audience he could support much of what he had reviewed in the PCIC proposal, Eckstrom, a Democrat, stood and applauded Boyd for making the supervisors' support bipartisan.
Huckelberry, who was introduced as the "most powerful man in the county" because he has control over the county's nearly half-billion-dollar budget, also agreed to negotiate with PCIC reps on how to spend the county's youth-program millions.
Supervisors Marsh and Moore, who, along with Grijalva, voted several weeks ago to deny $38,000 in county funds to support an overview study and a youth "action plan" by a group of New York consultants on behalf of the decidedly business-oriented We Care Coalition, would have loved this meeting. Not one hot dime of taxpayer bucks was spent to develop PCIC's plan.
Furthermore, the PCIC process was open and rigorous. And PCIC didn't hire a bunch of out-of-state consultants to help them hone in on what needs to be done to help our kids and their families. They did it the old-fashioned way. They involved parents, youth, school and agency officials in hundreds of meetings over the past several months.
Which brings us back to our original question: What's considered news in the Old Pueblo?
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