News and Notes

American Trails, a national nonprofit organization working on behalf of all trail interests, has named Tom the 2008 winner of the National Trails Award for Public Service.

The awards were announced on November 17 at the 19th National Trails Symposium in Little Rock, Arkansas. A local presentation of the award will be made to Torlakson at the Delta Protection Commission's meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 20, in Stockton at the San Joaquin County WorkNet Building Conference Room, First Floor, 56 South Lincoln Street.

The Delta Protection Commission nominated Tom for the national honor in recognition of his vision in the creation and initial planning stages of the Great California Delta Trail through his authorship of SB 1556, which was signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on September 30, 2006.

Tom thanks everyone who supported him in his race for State Assembly on November 4.

He is looking forward to getting to work in Sacramento to improve our public education system and our state budget process.

Prior to Governor Schwarzenegger's veto announcement about the California State Budget, Tom sent out an e-newsletter explaining his views on the budget situation.

In his note, Tom wonders if the "bare minimum" is the best for which we can hope for education and other vital social services. Tom is convinced we need to fight for budget process reform, like his proposals to end the two-thirds vote requirement, in order to ensure our schools and children have the resources they need to succeed.

As you know, there has been considerable controversy over the State Board of Education’s (SBE) recent decision to effectively require Algebra be taught in the 8th grade. The board is scheduled to revisit this issue today and Thursday.

I have attached below the text of a letter to the SBE I wrote with Senator Darrell Steinberg and Assemblymember Gene Mullin.

I want to let you know about a bike ride that my daughter Tamara and I are doing on September 6th. Tamara will be doing a 15-mile bike ride and I will be doing a 62-mile bike ride to benefit Best Buddies in its fourth annual “Challenge.”

Join Tom at his Tenth Annual BBQ and All-Star Chili Cookoff from 1-5 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14 at Waterfront Park in Martinez! For more information, please click here.

Contra Costa Times' Mike Dorsey wrote an article about efforts to update California's school curriculum. One of the bills mentioned in the article is Tom's SB 1097, a bill to create a system to update subject content standards. Click here to read the article.

Update: This July 31 MediaNews editorial endorses Tom's curriculum standards measure, saying the governor should "either support Torlakson's measure or set up a curriculum review panel himself."

Tom will speak at "A Gathering for Change in El Dorado County," an event to benefit the Charlie Brown for Congress campaign. The event will be in Shingle Springs beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 25.

The event will feature, and will support, Lt. Col. Charlie Brown (USAF Ret.) and his campaign for Congress. Assembly candidate Alyson Huber and Barbara Smiley will also speak. You can learn more about this event by clicking here.

On Thursday, May 8, I hosted an Education Town Hall meeting at Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek. Other speakers included Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools Joe Ovick and Assemblymember Mark DeSaulnier.

Public comment followed the prepared remarks, and included comments from teachers, parents, superintendents, and other people concerned about the education debate.

You can watch the video of the town hall by clicking here.

Tom wrote a commentary for the California Progress Report to explain why he has authored SCA 22, a proposed Constitutional Amendment to reform the state budget process to allow a majority vote to pass a budget.

Tom went to Emma Smith Elementary School in Livermore to join students, teachers, school employees, and his Senate Democratic Caucus colleagues to highlight the devastating nature of the Governor's proposed education budget cuts.

As Tom explains, these proposed budget cuts will harm California students not just for this year. They will last a lifetime. We should be talking about increasing funding for our schools—not cutting!