Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m CalMatters reporter Wendy Fry.
Schoolyards are getting hotter, and too few trees mean there’s little to protect young students from a warming planet, CalMatters’ Alejandra Reyes-Velarde reports.
According to research by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, grass can reach 95 degrees on a typical 90-degree day under full sun, while asphalt can hit 150 and rubber-surfaced play areas can reach 165 degrees.
At the César E. Chávez Education Center in Oakland, students — many from low income families — used to play on a yard that was 90% asphalt. The school is surrounded by freeways and industrial factories, and students suffer with high asthma rates, said Eleanor Marsh, the school’s former principal.
“In lower-income areas the schools have more concrete,” Marsh said. “That is just the reality. And in higher income areas, kids have more natural play structures that have been fundraised for by PTA’s. It becomes an equity issue around mental health and access to core academics.”
About 2.6 million public school students in California attend campuses with 0 to 5% tree canopy. Only about 30,000 attend campuses with at least 30% tree canopy, according to an analysis by Green Schoolyards America — 30% is a recommendation set by the United Nations.
Researchers and advocates are pushing the state to allocate money for green schoolyards, which can include trees, grass, or gardens instead of flat asphalt or rubber play surfaces.
With the help of more than $121 million in state grants, 164 California schools are already on their way to either designing or building green schoolyards. But many more had applied for the school greening grants; requests totaled more than $350 million.
Some environmental groups are pushing for a proposed climate bond that would include $350 million for green schoolyards. They also are pushing for a $1 billion carve-out in a proposed $14-$15 billion school infrastructure bond that could go before voters this November.
DON’T MISS
Wage theft audit. A new audit of the state Labor Commissioner’s Office reveals a backlog of 47,000 wage theft claims that can take six times longer to resolve than the four months set in state law, CalMatters’ Jeanne Kuang reports. Workers often wait years to be repaid when employers fail to pay them minimum wage, overtime premiums or for breaks. Even those who get state collection help get all their money back 12% of the time.
Wage theft dollars. State officials just awarded $8.5 million in grants to 17 county or city prosecutors to crack down on wage theft. Awards ranged from $102,531 for the Napa district attorney, to $750,000 each for DAs in Orange and San Diego counties. Big grants also went to Los Angeles’ city attorney ($317,543), county counsel ($475,000) and district attorney ($733,351), to San Diego’s city attorney ($669,251), and to nine Bay Area prosecutors who split a total of $3.7 million.
Wage theft justice. Many of California’s bosses who steal workers’ wages don’t pay them back even after the state or a judge orders them to. San Diego County’s workplace justice fund pays local wage theft victims up to $3,000 while the county pursues the wage debt on workers’ behalf, KQED REPORTS. So far the fund has paid $100,000.
Racist threats and fire. As Harvey ‘Terry’ Williams, a professional dog walker, discussed with San Francisco officials the threatening, anti-Black packages someone twice sent to his home, he got a frantic phone call. His family’s home was on fire with his elderly parents inside. They were rescued and taken to a hospital with injuries. Police and fire officials are investigating it as a possible hate crime, while his neighborhood, where he has lived for decades, has held fundraising events for them and anti-hate rallies, including one next Saturday.
Painted Ladies disparity. California’s Proposition 13 — which ties property taxes to a home’s market value at time of purchase — has led to lopsided tax bills for owners of San Francisco’s famed Painted Ladies, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The iconic pastel-painted Victorians were built around the same time, but one is taxed at $1,100, because its owner has kept it for 50 years, while another has a $44,000 tax bill after it changed hands in 2020.
Deadly truck fumes? Residents in south Fresno live an average of 843 feet from heavy-duty truck traffic, thanks to decades of industrial development and roads placed near neighborhoods. A new UC Merced study links the resultant air pollution there to a 44% jump in infant mortality risk and an 11% rise in preterm birth risk, Fresnoland reports, but a 2-year-old plan to reroute the trucks “hardly touches anything but the paint on road signs.”
Pesticide bill. California’s state Assembly voted for a moratorium on the use of paraquat, a toxic herbicide some studies linked to Parkinson’s disease in farmworkers and nearby residents. Several farm and industry groups called AB 1963 an “unscientific ban” not supported by federal regulatory reviews. The bill, authored by Assembly member Laura Friedman, a Burbank Democrat, is headed to the state Senate.
Safety net gaps. The San Diego region has the highest poverty rates in the state among undocumented Californians, 44% versus the statewide average of 37%, Food for All reports. Statewide 6 in 10 undocumented immigrants live in poverty or close to it, and 4 in 10 undocumented children are impoverished in California. Anti-poverty and immigrant advocacy groups denounced cuts and funding delays for safety net programs in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent state budget proposal.
A guaranteed income. Applications open June 17 for 250 Pomona families to receive $500 monthly grants. The 18-month-long household universal grants program (called HUG) will send $2.4 million in total to parents or guardians of children under age 4. More than 14% of Pomona’s population lives below the poverty line.
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The California Divide Team