Deputy Chief of Staff of the California State Assembly, Rick Simpson, visited SJHHS this past November to speak to government students about his role in our state government.

Simpson says that hearing from the opinions of students is a refreshing change from his interactions with state legislators, lobbyists, and statewide organizations. He assured students that he takes the information they tell him back with him to Sacramento.

Simpson then opened the floor to questions from students who attended the meeting. The questions ranged anywhere from the topics of institutionalized racism in classrooms to SBAC testing.

“He spoke pretty quietly at first, but he warmed up to the audience and he’s a pretty funny guy. He may have been a little boring, but he definitely knew what he was talking about,¨ said Ketan Singh (12).

Although his time was limited, his answers were unbiased and informative. As one of the creators of the law that transitioned California into common core curriculum, he was able to offer special insight on the impact of the system on high school students.

He explained how high school students are less prepared when it comes to the  Common Core curriculum since it was implemented into high schools with the assumption that they already had been taught common core curriculum in elementary school, which is not the case.

“It was incredible to have someone who affects policy in California come to speak directly to students. I know most of my students walked away from his visit with a better understanding of why our state government has made certain education policy decisions,” said Mr. Baker, AP Government and Economics teacher.

Another topic he was able to address was how most of the legislature passed had the support from both the Republican and Democratic parties, unlike in Washington DC.  Even though the Democratic party composes about 65% of both the State Assembly and the State Senate, most of the laws have around 80% total support with votes from both sides.

“Something new that I learned about our state government was that although California seems to be a Democratic majority, that is not actually the case and Mr. Simpson discussed how Republicans and Democrats are  able to easily work with each other on various issues being circulated throughout the state assembly,” said Sophia Faulkner (12).

Simpson also took the opportunity to survey students on issues that he would bring back to Sacramento such as the amount of effort they put into the SBAC test, and whether or not it should have any role in judging teacher performance or college admissions.

Mr. Briggs was the teacher who organized the event at the school. He heard about it from PTA Sacramento Safari Chairman Kim Anderson, who sent the message through the chain of PTA in South Orange County schools.

¨Once  I saw that it was an opportunity for our students to participate,  I immediately took her up on it because I knew that it would be a great experience for our government students to see,¨ said Mr. Briggs.
In the future, he hopes to have a Republican representative, in addition to Mr.Simpson,  to have more political balance.