Candidates for California’s First District Assembly Seat Face Off On Education

Bruce Ross sported a blue suit and his signature cheerful optimism on Thursday night, January 11, as he moderated a forum between the four candidates running for a soon-to-be-open seat in California’s Assembly.

Ross, a local school board member who works for Megan Dahle’s husband, Senator Brian Dahle, showed no preference during the forum for the Dahle’s endorsed candidate, Heather Hadwick, a small business owner and farmer from Modoc County who currently works as the Safety and Communications Specialist for Modoc County’s Office of Education.

Hadwick was joined on the stage by Tenessa Audette, also a small business owner and Redding Council member who was recently appointed mayor. Audette began her campaign for Assembly just six months after she began serving her four-year term on the Council. She’s worked for Brian Dahle as a district representative for the last four years.

Melissa Hunt, a former teacher turned realtor who serves on the Anderson City Council, and Mark Mezzano, a former California Highway Patrol Officer who’s been on Redding’s Council for the last three years, also participated in the forum.

The four candidates are competing in the March 5 primary for a single open seat in the California State Assembly, part of California’s legislative body. The California Assembly works alongside California’s Senate and governor to create laws and make the state budget. While California senators serve four-year terms, assembly-members serve two-year terms.

Many of the questions posed to candidates came from those who attended in person or virtually and were focused on the topic of education. Here’s what the candidates had to say; we have eliminated several of the questions and paraphrased all questions and answers for space and clarity.

In your view, what’s the highest priority shortcoming in the education system that can be addressed at the state level? What would you fix?

Hadwick: I think mental health is a huge problem and something that we’re not focused on enough. I think the state is trying, they finally have some funding for it in our community schools programs. But it’s a huge hole, especially in our rural schools where they don’t have the funding to have a counselor on site. We have more trauma kids in schools than ever. And as a previous trauma kid there, I have a heart for that. And I really want to make that one of my priorities.

Hunt: We need education, we need a budget for education, and we need more for our teachers. This has been a lifelong thing. Teachers have never been paid enough. Mental health is another thing. We need mental health facilities. This is also one of my solutions for the homeless. We have to put on some sort of a marketing campaign for our teachers and public safety workers when it comes down to it, because they have such a bad rap. Nobody wants to go into those professions.

Mezzano: We have a shortage of teachers. My top priority is to focus on finding a way to bring teachers into the rural communities. We have to incentivize it for them. If it means giving them a low-interest loan so they can have housing in the community, then that’s what I want to do.

Audette: I think with anything as complex and dynamic as our education system there’s not going to be one thing that’s going to fix everything, but I do think if we systematically created competition in education, then I think we’d probably be able to solve a lot of issues. So I would say school choice. I think the cream would rise to the top if we actually created an environment where there was competition for great teachers and we could increase what they were paid because there are plenty of private schools and charter schools that are doing really well. 

There’s been a lot of talk in the media and at school board meetings lately about parents’ rights. Do you believe California today has the right balance in allowing parents to shape their children’s education? And if not, what would you change? 

Hunt: Parents’ rights is a big subject. And you know what, for whatever reason, there’s a lot of talk about the student, a child, making their own choices. And we know that as we train our children in our home, they can’t make the right choices all the time, they need that guidance. That’s why they are placed in our care. Over the years, slowly but surely, things have been chipped away from parents, and pretty soon you don’t have any rights. And I will fight for parents’ rights.

Mezzano: I couldn’t agree more. But I think it starts in the classroom with the teacher, and the relationship that they develop with their students. If they have good relationships, the students love the teachers, the teachers care for the kids and the parents tend to stay out of the way. 

Audette: So as long as I have had kids, I’ve been involved in parent-teacher associations and there’s always just been the constant drumbeat that parents need to be more involved, because every right comes with responsibility. At the state level, when we’re discussing this, I think it’s important to remember it is in the child’s best interests to always have their parents involved in every aspect of their life. Even if it’s, you know, not the best of situations, it doesn’t mean that those parents aren’t going to be there and need to continue to try. So I think anything that would create division between parents and children, anything that would keep secrets from them, is certainly nothing that I would ever support.

Hadwick: I think that education is a partnership between the parents and the schools. And we cannot do it without one or the other. I fully back parental rights, parents should be the ultimate voice for their children, they should advocate for them, and be the loudest voice in the room. And we have to stand up to some of these mandates that are coming down. Because the state needs to hear it. They need to hear that parent voice and they need to listen. I think that we need to keep social and political agendas out of our classrooms.

Charter schools are the focus of pretty intense legislative arguments in Sacramento, and the legislature recently gave school boards more authority to reject charter applications if, for economic reasons, they will heavily impact the district. Do you believe there are too many charters, too few, or are things just right?

Mezzano: I don’t think there’s too many of them, they fill a need. But there’s room for some oversight. I think one of the main differences between a charter school and a general public school is that it’s my understanding that charter schools don’t have individuals with mental disabilities. (Ed Note: According to the state, charter schools have the same responsibility to students with special needs as all other public schools.)

Audette: I think that depending on the community, you know, the mix of charter and non-charter is going to be different. Charter schools play a great role in diversifying options. My kids go to a charter school. We’ve gone to many different public schools, they’ve gone to private schools, and they are now in a charter school, and it’s been a great fit for us. No two children are the same. They’re different, they learn differently. And so I think it’s important in the community that we actually support as much choice as possible.

Hadwick: I served as the president of the school board for a charter school, New Day Academy, for almost five years. It’s a homeschool-based program. Charter schools serve a great gap in our education system. And they give kids options because every child learns differently. A lot of charter schools have great programs that public schools aren’t able to fit in, they can be more tailored to specific interests, like STEM schools, or art schools, or project-based learning. And all our kids deserve to be in an environment that fits their learning style and makes them succeed. That should be our main focus for education in California, to make every child shine the way they should be able to and have the skills to be productive adults; that’s what we’re going for, we want productive citizens.

Hunt: Ditto. I completely agree with both of these ladies, charter schools are filling a need in our communities. And if something needs to be attended to in a local public school, if they’ve got a charter school, they’ve got a choice, and they can go there instead. It causes competition. It puts pressure on the regular public school to shine like charter schools do. They fill a need.

First Five funding for early early childhood services in California has a shrinking funding base. Do you think these services should be maintained? 

Audette: If you can catch things early for children, the chances of them actually growing out of the issue are much greater. My son was on an IEP. They caught him when he was three, and we were able to get him ready for school by kindergarten. When it comes to education, we have to be talking about the things that are working, the programs that actually set them up for success. And interventions within the first five years really do set them up for more success.

Hadwick: First Five funding seems to be the first thing the governor likes to cut. And we need those earlier interventions for our children. It’s not just support for the kids, it’s support for the parents, often young parents that don’t have parenting skills. First Five is often a hub for the community that’s setting parents up with every resource they need to be successful parents, which then makes their kids successful students . . . and that makes teachers happy, and their job easier. And then we’re producing the adults that we want in our society. I think that First Five should always be funded, those interventions are huge.

Hunt: First Five is so needed for parents. They need that mentoring process. This is a vital program. And it’s very important that we keep it funded.

Mezzano: First Five will survive. It’s just going to be reduced a little bit as far as funding goes. And that’s unfortunate, because it does fill a need in the communities with some of the kids that are most needing it.

Our rural communities in our state suffer some serious workforce shortages. How would you work with high schools and community colleges to improve job skills for today’s workplace?

Hadwick: When I was at the sheriff’s office, I started a public safety elective program with our high school because we were short staffed. So we started this class, I still get to teach it even though I’m at the County Office of Education now. We have thirty-four kids in this class that are interested in law enforcement, fire and emergency services. We have hired many of them in our county and sent them off to other counties including Shasta, Lassen and Siskiyou. So I think we have to make those partnerships in our schools. And we need to connect with our experts. The kids need to know what’s possible, because most of the time they just don’t know how to get there. So we need to make those connections for them.

Hunt: We need to be offering classes in the trades. They could be in charter schools, they could be in our high schools, they could be in our public schools, I think we need to bring back more of those shop classes, engineering classes, agriculture classes, to serve that need in our communities.

Mezzano: Not everybody wants to be a rocket scientist. You can learn all kinds of skills now in our junior colleges, because so many people want to learn different things. If we can provide them that training in high school, and then in junior college, they immediately become a productive member of society. And that’s important. 

Audette: So we have some great examples here locally of collaboration between high schools and our community college. There’s a lot of our high school students that are dual enrolled, so they’re actually getting college credit. Community colleges are an incredible asset to any community, because every generation is usually present on campus. I think there’s lots of good programs that we are currently working on for the trades locally that are important to our workforce. So I would say I would continue to collaborate, continue to do what they’re doing. The Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Corporation have both been checking in with businesses to find out what they need as far as skill sets. And that’s the type of collaboration that we need to continue because once we get the ideas, our community colleges are an incredible resource to be able to develop those programs.

If elected, what strategies would you use to learn about the needs within our local school systems that could be addressed by legislation?

Hunt: I’ll go to the schools. I’ll go to the administrators. I cannot do this job without being part of a  team. I need your input. 

Mezzano: You have to go to the people that are doing the job. I don’t have all the answers. You have the problem and most likely you have the solution. Give me the problem, give me your solution, and then I’ll fight for it. 

Audette: Well having worked on a legislative team, there’s a constant stream of interaction between staff and any of these industries, especially in education. But I would say one of the things that I’ve seen that’s most effective is actually getting the superintendents in front of our legislators to talk about what are the issues that are common and best practices that can be used, district by district.

Hadwick: I think being a good elected is based on building relationships. And I have a little bit of a leg up being at the County Office of Education, because I’ve already built a lot of those. I have an open-door policy. I’m not afraid to ask questions. And I want to go to the experts, I want to go to the people on the ground because those people that are closest to the problem are the ones that are going to have the best answers. And I want to find those people in every county because every county is different. We have many schools across the district and they’re very different, but I’m already the person that people call when they have issues. So I hope that I will continue that in Sacramento for you.

Do you consider Proposition 98 school funding to be a floor or a ceiling? 

Editor’s Note: Passed in 1988, Proposition 98 provides a constitutionally guaranteed minimum funding level for education. The amount of funding differs each year using a formula. You can learn about Proposition 98 funding from the California Budget Project.

Mezzano: I’m 100% transparent. I do not understand that section of the law.

Audette: It’s currently a floor because there’s a lot more funding than that. It’s always good to work within our means but the needs are ever changing. For example, I don’t think we ever anticipated anything like COVID to happen and that required a financial response. So maybe rather than a ceiling or a floor could it be a chair rail in the middle? 

Hadwick: I would hope that we would never put a ceiling on our children and the future of our state and our nation. We have stifled our local school boards, because they don’t have enough funding and support and resources to do their job. We have to adapt our education system to today’s needs of students. I hope to fight for that in Sacramento.

Hunt: As a former educator, this is not a sixty-second answer. It’s a conversation that we have to have. We need more funding in education, period. 

Would you support a state initiative for voucher funding?

Editor’s Note: School vouchers are not currently legal in California. In other states they’re used to provide direct funding to parents who want to pay tuition at private schools, including religious schools, instead of using public schools.

Audette: I would want to provide school vouchers because I think that choice and competition brings out the best in everybody. We have the funding and I think they would be a good addition.

Hadwick: I would be in support of vouchers, I think parental choice is a good thing. Sadly, in our district, there’s not a lot of choice so vouchers aren’t going to change things for a lot of our small towns, because parents only have one option, unless they want to homeschool. We need to have a paradigm shift, and stop thinking of the teachers as the workers and the students as the product. We need to start thinking of the students as the workers and their knowledge as the product.

Hunt: I absolutely encourage and like the idea of vouchers. I believe it goes hand in hand with parental choice. The competition it would provide is a good thing. 

Mezzano: It’s a way out for some parents. I think it’s a good program. But I don’t think it’s the answer. You’ve got educational problems in every one of our schools from grade school all the way up into the collegiate system. And we have to work on that. We have to fix that. And the voucher program might help with that, but it’s not the end-all solution for it.

What is your position on parental notification and the issue at Anderson High School and Attorney General Rob Bonta’s reponse?

Editor’s Note: In August, Anderson Union High School District voted to enact a new parental notification policy requiring credentialed staff to inform parents if students ask to be referred to by pronouns or a name different than that on their school records. California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta has said policies like these violate student’s civil rights. Learn more here.

Hadwick: I think we need to get back to local governments being able to oversee our local schools. Our school boards, our teachers and our parents know their kids, their communities, and their needs, they should be allowed to make those choices. I commend Anderson for standing up for that. Parents should always be involved in decisions with their kids, especially if they’re life-changing decisions. Parents always have the right to know.

Hunt: I was able to go to that Anderson school board meeting and speak up for the parents, the families and the kids. I encouraged the school board members to be brave and say no to the state. We as a council took that stand during COVID when the state was trying to push mandates on us. So we took a stand and said no mandates. We were free in the city of Anderson. Parents need to be communicated with; communication is always the key. 

Mezzano: Parents need to be involved in education. Schools need to inform parents. This isn’t a hospital, this isn’t HIPAA we’re talking about. We’re talking about the education of your child, and you better be involved and the teachers better be able to talk to you about it without any repercussions. My children are grown now, but I think that’s a fundamental right for a parent to know what’s going on with their children in their classroom.

Audette: I think parents need to be notified of anything that’s happening with their children. My son is in eighth grade. I understand the idea that children have rights and I’m fine with that. But along with rights come responsibilities and they are not responsible for what happens in their lives. I am. And so I do want to know, as a parent, what’s happening with my child, even if I don’t agree with them. I mean, I don’t agree with the grades that they get all the time. And I get very upset about that. But I still have to know what’s going on with them. There hasn’t been a generation ever that thought that their parents understood them, or that their parents, especially high schoolers agree with everything. But that doesn’t mean that we sever that relationship by keeping secrets.

With the rising involvement of extremist groups like Moms For Liberty on school boards, how will you protect and support public education and the rights of all children at school?

Editor’s Note: Proponents for Moms for Liberty says it’s a movement dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government. The Southern Poverty Law Center is among many organizations that refers to the group as extremist. Learn more here.

Hunt: They want to know what’s going on in the classroom. So what’s an easy solution to that? Communication. I don’t know what the deal is with the secrecy. Everything’s a secret. “They’ve got rights.” I’m sorry, they’re children and they cannot make good quality decisions for their life at that young age. So I would not necessarily call Moms For Liberty “extremist.” They are concerned. So start communicating. Ask how they feel, ask how you can help, ask what we can do to solve the issues. Don’t make assumptions about extremism. Just talk to them. Open up discussions. 

Mezzano: School board rules should be created locally and followed locally. Parents have a right to know what’s going on. So let’s have a conversation with Moms for Liberty and we can get along and make things better for our children. We all want more for our children. We want their lives to be better. We want them to learn from our mistakes. And we can help them do that through education.

Audette: When people have different opinions than, us we use language like “extreme”, or “crazy” or “insane” or “evil.” And I think that’s half the problem. Listen, we have a difference of opinion, the left and the right disagree on how we are handling parental notification, how we’re dealing with what’s happening with gender identities. So we should be talking about it, we should talk about the differences that we have, we should talk about a solution, because in the middle of it all are kids trying to find themselves and trying to express themselves like they do in every generation. Parents are never going to abandon their kids and teachers are never going to not care about what’s going on with students. So we need to have a greater dialogue about this. And I don’t think that calling a group of parents who care about their kids extreme is going to solve the issue.

Hadwick: I also hate that word. Often passionate people that are frustrated get lumped into that category and everybody deserves for their voice to be heard. That’s the beauty of America. I think having an open-door policy will be the best way to protect the rights of our children. I do not co-parent with the government and I will stand up for parental rights in Sacramento. I think that you have to learn from both sides, we have to be able to sit down and talk and be the adults in the situation for our kids and lead them. We need to learn about everything from every side and every angle and then weigh out what’s best for kids. 

What can you tell us about community schools? Do you think they will help? 

Editor’s Note: The State Board of Education approved the Community Schools Framework in 2022. The program supports schools’ efforts to partner with community agencies and local government to improve student outcomes. Learn more here.

Mezzano: I certainly think they would help because they relate to what’s coming out of each general area, each sphere of influence, within each community. I think it’s a great idea.

Audette: There’s a role to play for everything. We have an ever-evolving society and public education is really about preparing kids for what’s coming, for the jobs they will have, the issues they’ll face. We want to create resilient children that are able to learn and adapt. So, of course, when it comes to education, I think the more innovation, the more that we’re actually trying new things, the more that we are prioritizing funding towards programs and services that work, the better.

Hadwick: I’m the Community Schools Lead for Modoc County. I think they are what’s going to save education in California’s First District and in the state. It’s a movement, not a program, and the governor actually funded it, and it’s not siloed so much so we can actually fill the gaps that are happening in our schools. It’s bringing in advisory committees for every school site or district. It’s bringing in parents and having that shared decision making between students, parents, the schools and the communities. It’s about building relationships and hopefully solving some problems. It’s going to be really, really huge for our district. And I’m very proud to be a part of that.

Hunt: Community schools is about meeting the needs in our communities. Like, for example, trade schools. 

What are your thoughts on suspension as a consequence?

Editor’s Note: A pushback against suspensions comes from research that shows that suspensions occur more often for youth who are homeless, in the foster system, or racial minorities. Learn more here.

Audette: I’m sure that there’s going to be better consequences that we can think of. But the fact of the matter is, there have to be some consequences to action. And in society, when you break the rules, when you break the social contract, you can be removed from your environment. 

Hadwick: I think suspension as a consequence works for some kids. Every kid is going to be different. I think it should be a tool that we’re allowed to use because it does work for some kids. I don’t think that schools should be punished for having a high suspension rate, or put on their dashboard. Every school has their issues, every kid is different. We should not be lumping it all together and punishing a school for that.

Hunt: We are a state of no consequences. If you spare the rod, you spoil the child, if you don’t discipline them, you’re going to have a monster on your hands and suspension is just part of the consequences process at school. Our society is chipping away at the consequences with the closing of the jails and the homeless. 

Mezzano: It’s all about accountability. But I think before you get to the suspension, you got to find out what they did to deserve a suspension. But children need to learn that if they’re doing something that’s disruptive, that gets them suspended. They’re showing a lack of respect for their fellow students. That’s going to dovetail into society when they graduate and get out of school. So hold them accountable, make them play by the rules and keep them in school.

What legislation would you create to make transgender and LGBTQ students not feel ostracized?

Audette: Why stop there? I mean, every high schooler feels ostracized half the time. I don’t think you can legislate how people feel and I think there’s a danger in assuming that we can mandate people to accept. I just don’t think that it’s possible. And I think when we try, things fall apart very rapidly, and then we start calling each other extremists and all those types of things. So I don’t think that’s the role of the government to guarantee that people will feel good. Do I think safety is important? Absolutely. I have a nine on the ACEs score, I come from some pretty severe trauma. I was hungry at school, I didn’t feel safe at home. But I actually loved being in the classroom where they weren’t talking about any of those things. I loved the escape of actually learning and growing and feeling like my mind was doing something other than just avoiding. And so I do think that transgender safety is an issue? Yes. But is it an issue that is legislated into a better society? No. We have to educate ourselves, we have to grow by listening to one another. And I think that’s going to be the solution, not new law.

Hadwick: I think this is going to be a local decision. Every kid has a right to feel safe in their school environment and a right to an education.I hate that this generation wants labels on everything. We have all been through growing up. It’s difficult and we don’t think we fit. So I think that working with the school and the parents and the child to know what they want and then working to keep everyone safe is where we should focus. And those are local decisions. . 

Hunt: It’s not my goal to make legislation. We have too much legislation. My job is about meeting needs and being of service. Schools, parents and families have to meet the needs of students. It needs to start in the family unit, the community, and the school. Let’s just be kind and accept everybody. 

Mezzano: I think what you’re talking about is bullying. We’ve been dealing with that for years in society. And I don’t think you need to legislate that, I think you need to educate about it. We have programs to talk about bullying, and teaching our young children the right and wrong ways to do things. Let’s let the teachers handle it. It’s always wrong to bully another child, regardless of what their status is, and what they feel that they are in society.

How would you address the needs of students in our most rural communities?

Hunt: It takes a village to raise children. So let’s bring in the firemen. Let’s bring in the police officers, let’s bring in the baker and show the kids all those trades. So those children, if they want to, can go to college. But then they can also come back. Or if they choose to just stay here they can still be a productive citizen of the community. 

Mezzano: It takes about eight hours to go from one end of California’s First Assembly District to the other. The schools in our district are struggling. They need more money to hire teachers and get kids more involved. And we need to give our kids in rural schools more opportunities in agriculture, in science and beyond.  

Audette: Internet access is one of the biggest needs in our rural communities. There are lots of different organizations focused on rural communities that are identifying needs, identifying gaps and working on programs to actually bring rural communities the resources so these kids aren’t at a disadvantage. If you’re living in a rural community, it’s because you want to live there. You want your kids to grow up there. And so they shouldn’t be penalized by not having the assets of education that other students are afforded throughout the state. I would continue to work with organizations that are already supporting rural needs. And I would want to be connected to the schools and superintendents to really understand and have a full grasp of that so I can articulate the needs and uniqueness of our district in Sacramento.

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