Julian Castro’s Housing Reform policy

White House hopeful Julián Castro on Monday released a portion of his latest “People First” policy proposal focused on affordable housing and homelessness.

The “People First Housing” plan will be released in three segments, starting on Monday.

“Housing is a human right. But for too many people, affordable, safe, and healthy housing is out of reach—forcing them to pay 40, 50, or even 60 percent of their income in rent, and forcing others on the streets,” Castro, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary under former President Obama, said in a statement.

“I understand the challenges that Americans face in housing—from rising rents, to gentrification, to housing discrimination, to homelessness. We need a president who will match the urgency of this issue with concrete, bold plans. That’s why I’m proud to release my People First Housing plan to ensure every American can access safe, affordable housing for them and their families.”

Castro, who has struggled to gain any traction in early primary polling, proposes a four-pronged approach to strengthen affordable housing by expanding the housing choice voucher program, creating a renters’ tax credit for those not eligible for vouchers, investing in new affordable housing units and reforming local zonings which restrict efficient buildings.

Many of these would expand on the National Housing Trust Fund, which provided $173 million in grants to create affordable housing, that Castro established while leading HUD.

Castro says he would reduce America’s homelessness epidemic by setting new government housing targets, increasing assistance grants, establishing consistent government homelessness definitions and investing in a wide variety of programs designed to help individuals who are homeless or housing insecure.

The plan would also decriminalize homelessness and end laws that discriminate against those without homes.

The housing initiative ties in Castro’s other platform positions, including expanding Pell Grants and expanding Medicare, to address housing issues.

Homelessness has been a steadily growing issue for years. According to HUD’s most recent Annual Homeless Assessment Report, each night of 2018 roughly 553,000 people were experiencing homelessness.

Homeownership is often cited as a key component to wealth-building for American families.

Data shows that obstacles, both economic and social, have especially left minorities lagging behind in homeownership.

A recent report by the Urban Institute shows that black homeownership has declined 5 percent since 2011, compared to a 1 percent decline for white families.

The same report showed an increase in Hispanic homeownership during that period, though it came at a time when Hispanic families were digging out after being particularly affected by the Great Recession, with Latino households losing 66 percent of their overall wealth from 2005-2009, according to the Pew Research Center.

Castro’s policy platforms tackling issues including immigration, policing and the cost of college have so far not resulted in an uptick in polling, with the former San Antonio mayor frequently polling near 1 or 2 percent.

North Korea says US ‘hell-bent’ on sanctions despite Trump-Kim talks

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Mission to the UN complains after US sent letter urging other countries to send back its North Korean workers

North Korea has complained after the United States sent a letter urging countries to send back workers from the Stalinist state as President Donald Trump was inviting Kim Jong-un to hold talks.

The North Korean mission to the United Nations said on Wednesday that the letter sent to all UN member-states showed that Washington was “practically more and more hell-bent on the hostile acts” against Pyongyang, even though it is seeking dialogue.

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Brett Gadsden on Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Busing & Segregation

The most widely discussed moment from last week’s Democratic primary debates was Kamala Harris’s pointed critique of Joe Biden’s defense of southern segregationists and his stance toward busing. That encounter—in which Harris shared her own story of being a young girl bused from her working-class neighborhood on the majority-black side of town to a predominantly white school in Berkeley Hills, and in which Biden appeared visibly flustered and defensive—has set off a round of media coverage and conversation about desegregation efforts more broadly and busing in particular.

Source: Brett Gadsden on Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Busing & Segregation

“Charter schools were/are the answer to busing and integration. The first charter school were suburban and white along with Catholic schools that als started getting public money for text books. Now charter schools are also just a way to profit off of racism in general. As money gets sucked out of public schools, even Black-Americans are conned into sending their children to “academies” that claim to offer better education than the public school and are just “coincidently” is pretty much segregated.”

Julian Castro’s Education Policy

Presidential candidate Julián Castro unveiled an estimated $1.5 trillion education plan Monday that starts with what he’s most known for — early learning — but follows with detailed ideas for updating the nation’s public education system and making it more accessible, including college.

The broad plan includes proposals for pre-K to high school and into college or trade school.

Castro calls for creating a “universal, high-quality, publicly funded, full-day Pre-K” for 3- and 4-year-olds, through grants to state and local governments. He calls for eliminating tuition at public colleges, universities, community colleges and technical and vocational schools, and raising the maximum Pell grant to $10,000.

The plan seems to go into the most detail on ways to help students pay off debt, which he said now tops $1.5 trillion.

His plan is something of a critique of the nation’s education system, including the continued segregation that keeps opportunities out of reach for many.

“It’s not enough to just invest in our schools and hope that inequities are repaired — we need targeted approaches that ensure all students have access to a quality education,” Castro says in his plan, posted on his campaign website.

The nation has failed to adequately invest in students, teachers and schools, which disproportionately affects students of color, Castro said. He said his plan “21st century-izes” our education system, because we haven’t done that,” although a lot of local communities already are doing pieces of his plan, he said.

“Education policy doesn’t exist in silos, and I’m proud to put forward the first comprehensive education plan to invest in our students holistically and keep our nation competitive in years to come,” Castro stated in a news release.

Castro, the only Latino seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, released an in-depth immigration plan in April. It has been drawing praise, including from fellow candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., but Castro is still polling in the low single digits.

Castro’s plan echoes his personal story of having grown up poor, which he has told in speeches and his memoir, and his belief that educational opportunities helped him and should be available to all. Castro has said repeatedly in campaign stops he wants the country to be the smartest, healthiest, fairest and most prosperous on earth.

“There’s no question I was swimming upstream,” Castro told NBC News. He attended a school district with some of the most poorly funded schools in Texas, he said. But at the same time, “I had a mom who was determined I succeed and she had an education of her own,” said Castro who went on to graduate from Stanford and Harvard Law School.

“What I want is no matter what the circumstances of the child are, that he or she can get a great education wherever they go to school,” he said in a telephone interview.

Castro is a former mayor of San Antonio and former Housing and Urban Development secretary under President Barack Obama. As mayor, he persuaded more than half of the city’s voters to approve a one-eighth-of-a-cent sales tax increase to pay for a full-day, quality pre-K program that has received good performance ratings.

He also launched Cafe College, a one-stop shopping site for school-age children to introduce them to the possibility of attending college and help them plan and start the process. The idea was meant to help schools that don’t have enough counselors to give students personal attention.

Cal Jillson, a Southern Methodist University political science professor and expert on presidential politics, told NBC News in March that Castro was on the cutting edge when he pushed for the pre-K investment.

Boosting teacher pay, help with student debt

Castro’s plan includes “reimagining high school” by investing $150 billion to modernize schools by improving facilities, technology and infrastructure, and supporting teachers, the arts and foreign language programs.

Castro, whose wife was a teacher and is now an elementary instructional math coach at a San Antonio school district, proposes ensuring that every high school student has the chance to graduate with at least one year of college credit, at no additional cost, and wants to create trade programs that link students with schools and employers.

Castro also proposed investing $3 billion annually in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other minority serving institutions, to ensure more low-income students can attend.

According to his campaign, Castro would repeal the Trump tax plan and replace it with one that Castro plans to release at a later date. Corporations and more wealthy Americans would be asked to pay their fair share to support the education changes, his campaign said.

One provision that could draw backlash is a proposal to end public support for private for-profit colleges.

Castro also called for fairness, closing achievement gaps for children of color, protecting LGBTQ students, increasing diversity in higher education and ensuring that all students — regardless of criminal history or immigration status — have access to a quality education.

That part of his plan includes strengthening Title IX protections, some which the Trump administration has been proposing to rewrite.

It also includes protections for immigrant students without permanent legal status and ensuring they have access to higher education assistance.

Another potentially controversial measure: Castro calls for repealing Trump administration policies that allow educators to arm themselves in schools. Instead, he proposes “taking meaningful steps to address gun violence.”

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