Students from Corpus Christi Parish in Corona, Notre Dame High School in Riverside and St. Louis Catholic Church in Cathedral City took early morning flights to Sacramento in order to meet other youth advocates at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament for Mass at 9:30 a.m. After Mass, the students attended workshops organized by their peers on the issues for which they were to lobby their representatives.
Legislative visits were scheduled for the afternoon. The students from Riverside and Corona lobbied State Assemblyman Jose Medina, Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang, Assemblyman Eric Linder and State Senator Jeff Stone. Assemblyman Medina took the group on a tour of the Assembly Room floor so that they could better understand the legislative process. The students from St. Louis, Cathedral City met with Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia and a legislative aid from the office of State Senator Ben Hueso. Assemblyman Garcia arranged for a private tour of the Capitol building for the group.
Some of the students were also able to attend a Senate Human Services Committee Hearing on Senate Bill 23, one of the pieces of legislation supported by the Church. The bill was presented to the committee by its author, State Senator Holly Mitchell.
Jeanette Rosas, who was chaperoning the group from Cathedral City, said this was the most exciting part of the day for her group as they were able to hear Senator Mitchell argue in person for her bill, which would repeal the Maximum Family Grant rule in California. Currently, state law prevents parents receiving assistance through the CalWORKs program from receiving a grant for the support of any child born to the household while a member of that household is receiving aid.
The other bills that the students lobbied their representative to support included SB 124, which would limit the number of hours a juvenile could be kept in solitary confinement to four hours a day; SB 3, which would increase the state minimum wage to $11 per hour beginning in January 2016, and $13 per hour in January 2017; SB 38 and AB 43, which both propose to implement an Earned Income Tax Credit in California; AB 337, which would allow new teachers to claim an individual tax credit for out-of-pocket expenses incurred from the purchase of educational materials or supplies to be used in the classroom; and finally, AB 1371, which would allow low-to-middle-income parents an individual tax deduction for certain K-12 education-related expenses incurred on behalf of their dependent children.
The students spent several months preparing for their legislative visits. They studied the document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” learned about the legislative process, and then read the bills in light of Catholic Social Teaching. As Notre Dame High School senior Ryan Moore said, “we must always ask what this bill will do to the poor, for the poor, and enable the poor to do for themselves.”
The students from the Diocese of San Bernardino who participated in Catholic Youth Advocacy Day were Leslie Villarreal, Melissa Diaz and Sarah Balthazar from St. Louis, Cathedral City; Blas Morales, Jason Ramirez and Sergio Palafox from Corpus Christi, and Claudia Alvarado and Ryan Moore from Notre Dame High School in Riverside.
The trip to Sacramento was made possible thanks to the generous financial support of Catholic Charities San Bernardino-Riverside, as well as the generous donation of time from Father Paul Schmidt, Molina Erb, Keith Davis, Maria Ramirez, Jeanette Rosas, and Daniel Rivera. Linda Warner of the California Catholic Conference helped organize the day.
Amanda Alexander is the Associate Director of the Office of Social Concerns for the Diocese of San Bernardino.