On October 6th, Senator Mark Miloscia had a meeting with more than 40 Asian Americans at Newcastle Library. Mr. John Carlson, who led a successful campaign that passed Initiative 200 in 1998, gave a speech at the meeting. Mr. Carlson praised Senator Miloscia as “hero for the cause of individual liberty and civil rights.” Senator Miloscia talked about the value system he grew up with: “study, hard work, and take care of family”. People attended the meeting could not agree more. Senator Miloscia discussed I-200, safe injection site, fiscal responsibility, and education with attendees.

After the meeting, donations started to pour into Senator Miloscia’s campaign. People also attended Senator Miloscia’s fundraising event on Oct. 24th.  As of Nov. 1st PDC report, Asian Americans have donated more than $10,000 to Senator Miloscia’s campaign and accounted for 7% of his campaign’s individual contributions.

People also started to organize volunteer efforts for Senator Miloscia. Volunteers came from as far as 45th District to doorbell for Senator Miloscia. They doorbelled weekdays, weekends. Whenever they can find time, they would show up at Senator Miloscia’s office. The more doors they knocked on for Senator Milosica, the more they learned about Senator Miloscia. His community supports him. They want to re-elect him.  Volunteers also did phonebank for Senator Miloscia.

Tonight, we’ll be waiting for the results with Senator Milosica’s team. Re-elect Senator Mark Miloscia!

The post Asian Americans Rallying Behind Senator Mark Miloscia appeared first on WA Asians For Equality.

47th District Senator Joe Fain met with a group of more than 40 Chinese Americans on Saturday, September 22nd, at Newcastle Library. Senator Joe Fain was elected in 2010, has served two terms, 8 years in senate, and is Senate Minority Floor Leader and member of Senate Republican Caucus.

Education is an important topic to many people attended the meeting. Senator Fain talked about the importance of helping students from low income families. He also said that college admission should not based on race alone. Other factors such as family income, first in the family to graduate from college, two parents family, should all be considered in college admission.

Tax is another hot topic. Senator Fain said that if Capital Gains Tax is passed, people selling houses or stocks will have to pay 7% Capital Gains Tax. He is not in support of that. He believes that government should tax based on needs, not to collect tax first and figure out how to spend later.

During the meeting, people asked about government transparence. Senator Joe Fain mentioned the Washington Public Records Act, which was originally passed as a ballot initiative in 1972 by voters. Ironically, legislators tried to exempt them from Washington Public Records Act by passing a bill early this year. Senator Joe Fain was one of the seven senators that voted NO on that bill. The bill was later vetoed due to huge public outcry.

47th District represents part of Kent, Covington, and Auburn. 14% of the district’s population are Asian Americans. Senator Fain values inputs from Asian American community, and said that he would like to attend similar meetings in the future.

Senator Joe Fain is a moderate Republican. Seattle Times endorsed him on September 4th. Stand for Children also endorsed Senator Joe Fain. Senator Joe Fain’s website is Joe Fain For Senate.

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My-Linh Thai abused her BSD Board president power, and blocked parents’ rights to speak at board meetings (see below tweet from a frustrated parent). She now wants to abuse her political campaign power to scare people away from speaking up for the truth? It remains to be seen if  My-Linh Thai, with thousands of money in the bank, and backing of Democratic party, will be able to obstruct freedom of speech.

My-Linh Thai is running for 41st District State Representative, and she is trying so hard to hide her true political agenda, and prevent people from finding out who she really is. Voters of 41st District deserve to know the true My-Linh Thai, and should NOT vote for Thai.

Update, PDC ruled on September 27th, “Based on these findings, PDC staff has determined that in this instance, no evidence supports a finding of a material violation warranting further investigation.”

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Several LWSD superintendent candidates from across the country clearly thinks that education equity is about helping students based on their individual needs, about helping students from lower social-economical status. A 2011 Stanford University study confirmed the correlation between income and academic achievement. The study states “the income achievement gap (defined here as the average achievement difference between a child from a family at the 90th percentile of the family income distribution and a child from a family at the 10th percentile) is now nearly twice as large as the black-white achievement gap. Fifty years ago, in contrast, the black-white gap was one and a half to two times as large as the income gap. ”

Thai obviously is aware that it is wrong to push for racial equity. She hid her racial equity agenda when running for BSD school board. She is hiding her racial equity agenda from 41st LD voters again. In another careful crafted article, she said she “wants to ensure that everybody in the district, regardless of race and socioeconomic class, is guaranteed access to a quality education. ” However, as we pointed out in our article, while My-Linh Thai singlehandedly pushed racial equity at BSD, and wasted millions on racial equity programs and trainings,  BSD Equity team did nothing to help low income students, the group of students that really need help. Low income students’ graduation rate dropped from 83.3% in 2014 to 76.5% in 2016!

There is a recent failed ballot initiative, I-1644, to repeal Washington State Civil Rights Act, the law that prohibits racial preferential treatment in government, including education. The powerful labor union behind I-1644 endorsed Thai. Putting the two together, one can clearly see Thai’s political motivation. However, even the the organizations behind I-1644 are afraid to tell voters their racial equity agenda. On the initiative’s web site, they are misleading voters and saying I-1644 is for equality. Racial Equity/Racial Preferential Treatment is NOT Equality. I-1644 failed to get enough support to be put on this year’s ballot. For the same reason, My-Linh Thai has to hide her racial equity agenda from 41st LD voters. She first tried to run without even publishing her campaign issues . Now, she want to hide racial equity, her true political agenda, behind carefully crafted lies. We will keep our eyes on My-Linh Thai’s never ending lies and help voters of 41st District make informed decision.

The post 41st LD State Representative Candidate My-Linh Thai is Hiding Her Political Agenda from Voters Again appeared first on WA Asians For Equality.

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The initial SB 6614 bill digest states “Requires the state treasurer to transfer the sum of two hundred thirteen million dollars on July 1, 2018, and one hundred ninety million dollars on July 1, 2019, from the budget stabilization account (Rainy Day Fund) to the state general fund.” The problem was, in order to tap into the Rainy Day Fund, Democrats would need three-fifths super majority which they did not have.

Democrats creatively out-maneuvered the Rainy Day Fund’s three-fifth majority requirement by amending the original bill.  The final SB 6614 bill digest states “Redirects a certain amount of revenue, generated by the additional state levy, to the education legacy trust account in fiscal year 2019.” Democrats controlled Senate passed the bill on a 25-23 vote. Senator Walsh (R) was excused. Redirecting the money lowered state general fund revenues, as a result reduced the amount of money going into the state’s Rainy Day Fund by more than $700 million! State Treasurer Duane issued a statement “Senate’s Attempt to Divert Funds Sets Dangerous Precedent” and said the move to direct money away from the Rainy Day Fund could negatively impact the state’s bond rating, ability to pay down debt and flexibility to weather economic downturns. He called the move “short-sighted” and urged “the Legislature to not start a terrible precedent of diverting Rainy Day funding”.

In 2007, 68% of Washington voters approved SJR 8206 to amend the state Constitution and “to establish a Budget Stabilization Account (Rainy Day Fund). Each fiscal year, one percent of general state revenues are deposited to the Budget Stabilization Account.” Washington voters also deliberately made the money hard to spend by requiring “withdrawals from the Budget Stabilization Account may be made only by a three-fifths vote of the Legislature.” In 2011, 67% of Washington voters approved another ballot measure, SJR 8206, to amend the state constitution again by requiring “at the end of each fiscal biennium, three quarters of any extraordinary growth in state revenue is transferred to the Budget Stabilization Account. ” Both measures were approved by a majority of voters in every county.

By raiding the Rainy Day Fund without 60% super majority vote. Senator Patty Kuderer ignored the will of a strong majority of Washington voters. Kuderer betrayed voters’ trust, and she now wants voters of 48^th LD to trust her for another term? The answer is NO. Vote Patty Kuderer out!

The post Senator Patty Kuderer Raided our State Rainy Day Fund on Sunny Day appeared first on WA Asians For Equality.

My-linh Thai said on her campaign web site: “Helping Kids Succeed – As a Bellevue School Board Director and PTSA parent, I believe that Education is the key to opportunity. In Olympia, I will continue to advocate for investments in local schools, promote parent and community engagement, set high- expectations for excellence with culturally responsive curricula and instruction, and ensure an equitable and sustainable funding for our public school system.” However, Thai’s track records suggest differently.

Thai says that she will continue to “promote parent and community engagement”. Many BSD parents beg to differ.

My-Linh Thai’s push for racial equity met strong resistance from BSD parents. Instead of engaging in conversations with parents, BSD engaged many dirty tactics to suppress parents the voice, including inviting activists from outside of school district to dominate discussions at community cafes. Frustrated parents had to take their voices to Bellevue Reporter. Almost every week, there is a letter to editor complaining about BSD’s dirty tactics and failure to engage in parents and community.

Thai says that she will continue to “set high-expectations for excellence”.  However, quality of BSD has deteriorated since Thai became BSD board member in 2013.

OSPI data show that BSD 4 year graduation rate steadily declined from 91.6% in 2014 to 89.5% in 2016. BSD failed to lift up low income student graduation rate miserably. Low income students’ graduation rate dropped from 83.3% in 2014 to 76.5% in 2016! In the meantime, non-low income students’ graduation rate also declined from 94.2% in 2014 to 93.5% in 2016. To understand how Thai drove a top performing school district’s performance into this downward spiral, we need to exam what My-Linh Thai’s true agenda is to serve on BSD board.

My-Linh Thai’s true agenda as BSD board member is to advance her political career at the price of BSD students.

We published an article back in March about My-Linh Thai’s secret racial equity agenda .  Under Thai’s push, BSD established an Equity Department. In 2016 fiscal year, the Equity Department had a budget of $404,759, and only $49,500 was spent on Student Success. In other words, only 12% of the entire Equity Department’s budget was spent on improving student success. If you think that was bad, things have been getting even worse. $0 was spent on Student Success in 2017 and 2018 fiscal years.

Web site District41Election pointed out  “She (My-Linh Thai) pushed to establish an Equity Team of 14 employees, and after spending over one million dollars, Bellevue School District failed their promises to students: graduation rate is down, and absenteeism rate is up. From 2014 to 2016, 62% more black students, 41% more white students, and 30% more Hispanic/Latino students could not graduate.”

Why have an Equity Department that costs around $250K per year + staff salaries without budgeting a penny for improving student success? The Equity Department has built out programs that narrowly benefiting selected racial groups. A look at Thai’s political career explains everything.  My-Linh Thai has won many endorsements from organizations that promote racial preferential treatment throughout her political career. Most recently, labor union WALC AFL-CIO endorsed Thai. And on WALC’s web site, it clearly stated it “SUPPORT Initiative 1644 (to the people) and Initiative 981 (to the Legislature) — Repeals I-200, which prohibited affirmative action policies with regards to race and gender by state and local government. ”  Apparently, all those racial quota, racial preferential treatment policies that Thai has been implementing was not for the benefits of BSD students. Thai has successfully paved a political career path for herself. Praised as champion for racial preferential treatment, My-Linh Thai has bagged enough endorsements to run for 41st Legislative District State Representative. Racial preferential treatment is against WA state law. Thai can’t say it out loud on her campaign web site. However the organizations who endorsed Thai surely know that they can count on her to continue promoting racial preferential treatment under all kinds of covers.

Voters of 41st LD, on the other hand, should ask themselves “Can I trust My-Linh Thai?” “Can she truly be trusted to represent 41st District?” If you exam her entire political career, the answer is “NO”. My-Linh Thai has an honest and trustworthy problem.

The post 41st District My-Linh Thai’s Honest and Trustworthy Problem appeared first on WA Asians For Equality.

Rodney Tom is running for 48th LD State Senate. People from local Chinese American community have found that Tom’s views on education, taxes align with their views. To show their supports, more than 20 people attended a home fundraising event this past Sunday, and they raised $8,900 during the event for Tom’s campaign.

After a brief socializing period, Rodney Tom formally introduced himself. He started telling people that education was the reason that he got into politics. He had served in K-12 and higher Ed committees while in Olympia. As Senate Majority Leader, he lowered state college tuition for the first time in Washington’s history, making college more accessible.

When a lady asked Rodney Tom to name three things that differentiate him from his opponent, Patty Kuderer, Tom quickly pointed out three things that set him apart from Kuderer:

1. Student-focused education system (vs. teacher-centered). Tom wants to provide incentives to recruit the best and brightest to be teachers, and reward teachers based on their performance.
2. Limited-sized and responsible government (vs. giant government taking over everything).
3. No state income tax, no capital gains tax, no head tax. When he was the Majority Leader of the Senate, he balanced the state’s budget without raising taxes a single time.

Tom’s answer apparently resonated well with this lady. Within minutes, there was a feed in WeChat quoting the three points Tom outlined. Half hour later, another feed showed up in WeChat from another attendee praised Tom’s views on education.

Other than education, taxes, people also asked Tom how he plan to engage people, especially Asian Americans, from his district. Asian Americans represent 24% of population in 48th District, Tom’s opponent, Senator Patty Kuderer, not only failed to engage Asian Americans in 48th District, she also showed no interest in listening to their concerns when they strongly opposed SB6406, a bill that Kuderer sponsored. Tom said that he would have coffee shop meetings or attend home gatherings to engage conversations with people from his district. Tom also gave out his email and phone number, and encouraged people to call him to discuss issues that they concern about.

Tom has been attacked for allying with Republicans in 2013 to take control of the state Senate. When asked about those attacks, Tom said “My positions have not changed. The parties have changed.” Indeed, in Mr. John Carlson’s 2013 article, Understanding Rodney Tom would teach Democrats a lot, he wrote “Other critics call him inconsistent, but his views — not on parties certainly, but on issues — line up today with where they were when he entered politics.”

Discussions continued on WeChat after the fundraising event wrapped up. As more people learned about Tom’s experiences and views, more people are convinced that he is the right choice for 48th LD State Senate. Donations continued to pour in after the event. Within 24 hours, the fundraising event reached its goal of raising $10,000 for Rodney Tom’s campaign!

To learn more about Rodney Tom, or donate to Tom’s campaign, please visit RodneyTom.com

中文链接

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Although the Bank of North Dakota is generally a well-run institution now, even its President and CEO, Eric Hardmeyer, advised against starting a state-owned bank in his article on New York Times. In Mr. Hardmeyer’s own words “Today, the bank receives many calls from people interested in starting a state-owned bank, and our response is consistent. We do not advocate the use of this model elsewhere.”

Mr. Hardmeyer said in his article “the Bank of North Dakota is successful because we are partners with North Dakota’s financial institutions, not competitors. However, according to the bill report of SB 5464, “The state bank would compete with private banks on a wide array of services that are offered and available by private banks, without having to pay taxes.” In other words, Senator Kuderer’s state bank would do exactly the opposite of what Bank of North Dakota has done!

Furthermore, when the government owns the banks, lending decisions become increasingly driven by politics, rather than economics. A 2002 paper from a Northwestern University economist found that areas with stronger political parties get lower interest rates from public banks.

The state is on the hook to guarantee all deposits in the state bank. When the first American public bank, the Vermont State Bank, failed after only six year’s operation in 1812, it costed the citizens of Vermont the equivalent of almost $3 billion in today’s dollars. Are Washingtonians ready for this kind of risk?

Update: A recent Bloomberg Businessweek article pointed out that startup costs of a public bank could be in billions. The Businessweek article said “The anticipated startup costs have derailed past attempts to found public banks. Massachusetts abandoned a proposal for one in 2011 after an analysis pegged the required capital at $3.6 billion. The chief legislative analyst for the L.A. City Council issued a report in February saying the costs there could be “exorbitant.” ” . On Nov. 6, voters in Los Angeles will be voting on a public bank. We will update readers on the result when it comes out.

Update: L.A. voters rejected measure to create public bank with  57.81% votes.

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Michael Appleby passionately outlined issues that he campaigns for at the kick off event:

Education:

Appleby wants to see results from our unprecedented $8 billion investment in Education.  In his own words “currently, the full benefits of this investment are not being realized, with non-optimal graduation rates and test scores.” Appleby wants to change it.

Fiscal Responsibility:

Appleby wants to stop government from spending Rainy Day Fund on sunny days. He opposes an income tax, a capital gains tax, and support a reduction in property taxes.

Transportation:

Appleby wants to easy traffic congestions. He wants an immediate halt to tolling on I-405 and stop tolling measures for South-405.  He wants Sound Transit Board of Directors to be elected by the people. Appleby also supports recalculating car tab fees based on real values, not inflated ones.

To find out more about Michael Appleby’s candidacy for 41st District State Representative , or to donate or sign up for volunteering, please visit Michael Appleby’s  campaign web site at VoteAppleby.com .

中文链接

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