District 25 — California State Assembly
About this office
Candidates
- Education is an issue that is of a high priority for...
- Public Safety is critical to ensure our neighborhoods...
- I will work in prioritizing transportation infrastructure...
- No Excuses - Just Solutions - It is time a honestly...
- Greatly improve our educational systems. Our state...
- We have too many agencies that do not work well. We...
My Top 3 Priorities
- Education is an issue that is of a high priority for me. As a former member of the Berryessa Union School District Board of Trustees, I know first hand the positive impacts when the state makes a direct investment in education.
- Public Safety is critical to ensure our neighborhoods are kept safe. As your Assemblymember, I will work so that our communities are free from harm of any kind.
- I will work in prioritizing transportation infrastructure to reduce traffic congestion, provide alternative modes of transit, and reduce our carbon footprint.
Experience
Experience
Education
Biography
Assemblymember Kansen Chu was elected in November 2014 to represent California’s 25th Assembly District, which includes the Alameda County communities of Fremont and Newark, and the Santa Clara County communities of Milpitas, San José and Santa Clara.
During his first year in the State Assembly, Assemblymember Chu served as the Chair of the Human Services Committee, where he fought for the most vulnerable among us, including children, seniors and the disabled. Most recently he was appointed as the Chair of the Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media Committee by Speaker Anthony Rendon. Additionally, he serves on the Assembly’s Insurance Committee. In 2015, Chu led an important discussion on homelessness as the author of Assembly Bill 718, which would have prohibited the citation of individuals that have no option but to sleep in their vehicle. Assemblymember Chu also authored legislation which expanded CalWORK’s benefits for grieving mothers and improved safety for bicyclist and pedestrians—both of these were signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown.
Kansen Chu previously served on the San José City Council for seven years. He was the first Chinese-American to serve on the region’s City Council. During this time, he made public health and environmental issues top priorities, passing legislation to require citywide green building standards and championed a ban on single-use plastic bags. He also spearheaded the installation of automatic heart defibrillators across San José as a way to save lives.
While serving on the City Council, Chu worked with community members to create the North San José Neighborhood Plan, established the Berryessa Business Association, helped to start the Berryessa Farmers Market, and moved the long-awaited Commodore Park project forward. He served on 21 local and regional governing committees and represented San José on the League of California Cities and the Association of Bay Area Governments.
A long-time advocate for education, Chu was elected to the Berryessa Union School Board District in 2002. As a school boardmember, he worked to bolster public education materials, strengthen curriculum and improve public access to school board meetings.
Born in Taiwan, Chu moved to the United States in 1976 as a graduate student. He holds a Master's in Electrical Engineering from Cal State Northridge, and worked as a Microdiagnostics Microprogrammer at IBM for 18 years. In addition, he also owned and operated Ocean Harbor Chinese Restaurant for 16 years.
Chu and his wife Daisy have been married for nearly 40 years. They have two adult children, Ann and Walt, a son-in-law Steve, and grandchildren, Kimberly and Connor.
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My Top 3 Priorities
- No Excuses - Just Solutions - It is time a honestly address and fix the many problems facing our state. If we love our children and fellow citizens we must clean up our mess and pay off our debt
- Greatly improve our educational systems. Our state allocates 54% of its budget on education and much money is wasted. We must help our students and respect our taxpayers.. There are many ways to rimprove education without raising taxes
- We have too many agencies that do not work well. We can improve traffic, housing, schools, our justice system without raising taxes. It will take Creativity, Courage and Character. I can and will start fixing these problems.
Experience
Experience
Education
Community Activities
Questions & Answers
Questions from League of Women Voters of California Education Fund (4)
This is a complex problem with no one solution. However, I will introduce several ways to improve the situation.
1. I will ask that 2 cents of our current sales tax dollars go to the zip code that the buyer lives. This will help in several ways. Where you live costs the city money. yet you spend much of your money outside where you live. This will help reward citiies that have housing instead of just rewarding cities that are causing much of the problem such as Palo Alto or Sunnyvale
2. Often related to affordable housing are schools. Many citizens have told me of the great distance they drive to work. They live in one city, yet they work in another city. These parents often want their children close to their work for reasons of safety and communication. I will require that parents are given a choice to have their children go to school where they live or work and if the school district where they work cannot or will not accomodate them then a portion of the state and local school funding would be available to be used in a nearby school public or private.
We do have a major civiiity problen and the root of the problem is that it appears that all issues have become too political. My promise to you is that my focus is on Solutions - No EXCUSES. My promise is to be an ELECTED PUBLIC SERVANT - I have the best combination of private sector and public secttor experience of any of the candidates. To fix California will require the four C's - Communication, Creativity, Courage and Character. - I will seek your input and listen, And then Act. I have a track record of working hard, thinking independtly and coming up with solutions and then having the courage to do what I say I will do and take responsibility for my actions.
Civility starts with me and you will be treated with respect.
I took my children to the Space Shuttle Exhibit in Houston and during the tour the guide pointed out that there was no water shortage on the Space Shuttle that you could take showers and grow plants. How was that possible - They recycled water - Our water problems are fixable - the main problem is that water policy has become too political.
Our state has way way too many water and sewage districts and way way too little coordination between them. It is time to greatly reduce the politics of water and instead now focus on new water policies that refllect our current population, and water needs. The first question I would ask is What Changes are we unwilling to make to improve our water needs for our state?
I will add another related issue to this - It is good that California sets high standards for protecting the environment . Just as my father said during my first camping experience - Leave the site the same or better than you found it. We need now add protection of our fiscal condition. Our country and state has so much debt and the cost of it prevents the good use of our tax dollars.
CLeaning up our financial mess is the most importatnt matter facing our state for we have enough money to improve our state if we can instead use it to improve tommorrow instead of wasting it on yesterday,s indulgence.
Greatly improving our Educaional Systems is my highest goal. Our state allocates 54% of its budget on education yet too many are left behind and there is too wide a gap of edcuational opportunity for many of our students. Many of our students take too long to graduate, and many of them do not have the skills they need. In addtion Education today is Lifelong - As new skills are needed to stay productive during your life.
I served 12 years as a member of the Board of Trustees for Ohlone Ciommunity College and my children attended local public schools.
There are many ways to improve education in California. The question asked above addresses just one area. For this group I have several proposals.
1. Quality Education for our citizen students should be available regardless of the amount of money their parents make. I would greatly improve the Students and Parents Bill of Educatinal RIghts. This becomes the new basis that if a local school district cannoit provide a quality education to all then all contracts need to be redone to meet this very basic right.
2. I would re think what a local school means. Many parents have told me about the great distance that they drive between work and home. For reasons of safety and communication they would like to have their child go to school near their work. I would require that the school district that the parent works must consider enrolling therir student. If the local school district cannot or will not enroll that student then the state and local school funding would be split in three. With one third to the district in which the student lives, one third to the schoo district in which the parent works and one third to the parent to be used either in another school public or private.
3. At the college level I would make two changes. One require Common Course Numbering - for graduating credit classes. Example - Math 101 would have the same consideratrion regardless where earned ( provided of a standard of quality were met) Meaning public or private schools and regardless of earned at Community Coillege, CSU, UC. This would allow students to finish their degrees faster and with lower cost. The second change I would advocate for is more money to vocational education as we need to educate many more toda's job skills.
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