Read stories from media across the county, state and nation on issues affecting the health, education and economic success of Marin’s children.

 

 


MarinKids in the News

  • 10.23.12

    Spirit of Marin Award to MarinKids Leadership Committee Chair

    Cecilia Zamora, President of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Marin, announced the board selection of Dana King to receive a Spirit of Marin award for her ongoing commitment to help bring the MarinKids movement to our county.   “Our board knows that all kids deserve to be safe, healthy and educated, and that kids from [...]

  • 10.23.12

    MarinKids In the News: Assembly & Congressional Town Hall Style Debate

    MarinKids, League of Women Voters of Marin and Dominican University of California co-hosted a town hall style candidate forum for state assembly and U.S. congressional candidates on October 8. Attended by over 200, the debate focused on issues for children and families. The debate was streamed live to CBS Channel 5 and local access TV.  Dana King, MarinKids Leadership committee [...]

  • 09.29.12

    Marin Voice: Help make opportunity for all children a priority in Marin by Dana King

    Marin Voice: Help Make Opportunity for All Children a Priority in Marin By Dana King 4/15/12   I HAVE an invitation for you. I invite you to be a part of a community that prioritizes children. Not just your kids or my kids, but all our kids. I invite you to commit to the notion [...]

  • 08.18.11

    Changing Policies: MarinKids Joins the Children’s Movement of California

    As part of its advocacy agenda to ensure the voices and needs of Marin’s children and youth are heard in state and federal policymaking circles, MarinKids, joined Children Now as a leader and partner in the Children’s Movement of California. Much like MarinKids’ priority goals at a county level, the Children’s Movement of California has [...]

  • 08.18.11

    A Local Movement for Kids in Marin

    MarinKids, the new voice for children and youth in Marin, aims to inform, educate, and mobilize Marin residents to advocate for solutions to improve conditions for all children and youth in Marin County. Launched in November of 2010—partly in response to the state fiscal crisis that has already negatively impacted a range of educational, extra- [...]

  • 09.28.10

    MarinKids Press Release

    This is placeholder text. MarinKids will add the Launch Press Release when it is ready

Policy Issues in the News

Education

  • 04.16.13

    Inside Out: Facing the Educational Opportunity Gap

    A unique Dominican service learning project, Inside Out: Facing the Gap, seeks to raise awareness about educational inequity in Marin.  Dominican University Service Leaning Director, Julia Van der Ryn and art professor, Lynn Sondag, guided students from Domincan University, the Canal Alliance Youth Scholarship Program and mothers from the Marin Young Mom’s group in creating [...]

  • 10.23.12

    MarinKids Data & Action Guide to Be Released in Early November

    Did you know even as Marin County ranks high among other counties in California on measures of child well being, up to 60% fewer children who are poor or racially diverse meet state targets in math and English. Fewer graduate from high school on time, attend preschool, or are at a healthy weight?  The MarinKids [...]

  • 10.23.12

    A Public/Private Partnership Saves Child Care Programs

    The 2012 state budget cut nearly $1.2 million to child care funding in Marin County, on top of the $2.3 million lost last year. These devastating cuts impact the most vulnerable children in our community and the quality early care programs they attend. Child care subsidies help low income working families afford quality child care and preschool [...]

  • 10.23.12

    Vote for Kids on November 6

    MarinKids encourages everyone to vote on or before November 6. To learn more about where the candidates stand on issues important to our kids, visit our Online Candidate Forum. Learn more about the issues, in our Voter Education Guide . Two key issues on the ballot that will impact children are Propositions 30 and 38. To learn [...]

  • 10.23.12

    Heroes Stand Up for Kids

      Before a rapt audience at First 5 Marin’s Annual Breakfast, Delaine Eastin, former California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, charged those attending with the responsibility to stand up for kids with our policymakers. “Heroes are those who stand up for our kids,” she said.  “The people we elect must use our values in making [...]

  • 07.17.12

    California’s State (Contingency) Budget: Will Voters Approve New Revenues or Will the Governor Pull the Trigger? [Extended]

    On June 27th, 2012 Governor Brown signed the main budget bill presented to him by Democrats in Sacramento, just hours before the deadline to sign or veto the bill.  This newly approved budget and its companion budget bills, which were also signed along with some $154 million in line item vetoes, develops solutions to a [...]

  • 07.17.12

    California’s State (Contingency) Budget: Will Voters Approve New Revenues or Will the Governor Pull the Trigger? [Abbreviated]

    On June 27th, 2012 Governor Brown signed the main budget bill presented to him by Democrats in Sacramento, just hours before the deadline to sign or veto the bill.  This newly approved budget and its companion budget bills, which were also signed along with some $154 million in line item vetoes, develops solutions to a [...]

  • 07.12.12

    From Sunset to a New Dawn: The Evolution of School Readiness in Marin

    After nearly 10 years of funding and supporting best practice programs to improve the school readiness of all children in Marin, including Summer Bridge, FLAGship, family advocates and school/community linkages, First 5 Marin is transitioning their resources to focus on grassroots capacity-building, advocacy and community partnerships to drive school readiness efforts.   According to Barbara Clifton [...]

  • 03.30.12

    Expert Says Early Childhood Development = Our Economic Success

    Economic development begins at birth according to Nobel Prize winning research from University of Chicago professor and economist James Heckman. The Heckman Equation details how investments in early childhood development yield significant returns, for individuals and for society.  The Heckman Equation says that investing in early childhood development builds the human capital we need as [...]

  • 03.30.12

    While Education in the Key to the Future, Many Have Fallen Behind

    While California’s Latino population is growing, and is likely to become the state’s largest ethnic group within a few years, only a tiny percentage of Latinos are seeking and receiving college educations, according to a new data compiled by the Campaign for College Opportunity. Many are not graduating from high school.  Graduation rates among Latino [...]

  • 08.18.11

    Education: Budget Cuts Hit Home

    Lawmakers cut the overall annual funding level for K-12 public schools by $6.3 billion, from $50.3 billion in 2007-08 to $44.1 billion in 2009-10. They also cut schools’ general purpose dollars as well as funds earmarked for specific school programs, often referred to as “categoricals.” Adding to schools’ financial stress, since 2008-09 the state has [...]

  • 07.16.11

    California Report Card, 2011

    Children Now Releases 2011 California Report Card grading well-being of the state’s children and providing policy changes that could address key concerns.

  • 07.13.11

    Affordability and Transfer: Critical to Increasing Baccalaureate Degree Completions

    Rising Costs Putting Community College Out of Reach for Some First-Generation, Low-Income Students Demand for community college courses as an affordable gateway to a baccalaureate is rising, but with no state help in sight to help cover rocketing tuition costs, too many students will never make it to graduation. That’s the sobering conclusion of “Affordability [...]

  • 07.13.11

    New state budget will strain Marin school finances

    For the second year in a row, the state Legislature has frozen more than $2 billion in payments to California schools, forcing Marin’s school districts to borrow millions of dollars in order to issue their paychecks on time. “This essentially means the public schools of our community will not receive the money they need to [...]

  • 05.18.10

    Report: Few Hispanic High School Dropouts Earn GED

    A report released last week by the Pew Hispanic Center found that one in 10 Hispanic students who drop out of high school go on to earn a General Equivalency Development degree.

  • 05.14.10

    State posts school rankings online

    Bay Area schools hit the highs and lows in California’s annual rankings…

  • 05.14.10

    California’s Painful Budget Revision

    Economic experts insist that the recession is ending, but that news hasn’t made it to Sacramento.

  • 05.14.10

    Schwarzenegger’s revised state budget at a glance (Associated Press)

    Here are details of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s revised budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

  • 05.14.10

    Final Budget, Familiar Battlelines | Capital Notes

    Opinion: The winners, if you can call them that: Republicans and big business… higher education…state parks …and his longtime favorite after-school programs….

  • 05.03.10

    Calif. Bill Seeks to Raise Age for Kindergarten

    As a group, California’s kindergartners are among the youngest in the nation, but that may change under a bill being considered in the state Legislature.

  • 05.02.10

    School funding leaves gifted students behind

    (05-04) 13:02 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — As California’s public schools have increasingly poured attention and resources into the state’s struggling students, high academic learners – the so-called gifted students – have been getting the short shrift, a policy decision that…

  • 04.30.10

    Americans ‘Fat, Dumb, Happy’ Lagging in Education, Broad Says (SF Chronicle/Bloomberg Business)

    Complacency about education has put U.S. workers at a disadvantage competing in a global marketplace…

  • 04.19.10

    $3.5 Billion in Assistance for Lowest-Performing Schools Boosts Pressure for Swift, Dramatic Action (Education Week)

    The largest-ever federal investment in fixing low-achieving schools is now flowing to states, raising the pressure on district leaders to make tough—and quick—decisions…

  • 04.09.10

    News Flash? California Expenditures Per Pupil Among the Lowest in the Nation

    Two recent reports show that California has fallen from being below average in spending per pupil to far below average.

  • 03.28.10

    The New Poor: Cuts to Child Care Subsidy Thwart More Job Seekers (The New York Times – Peter S. Goodman)

    Able-bodied, outgoing and accustomed to working, Alexandria Wallace wants to earn a paycheck. But that requires someone to look after her 3-year-old daughter, and Ms. Wallace, a 22-year-old single mother, cannot afford child care.

  • 05.29.07

    Middle School: The Critical Years (NY Times)

    At Briarcliff Middle School, almost any minute of any day can become a lesson in weathering the turmoil of adolescence.

Healthcare

Obesity

  • 07.12.12

    Spotlight on Obesity Prevention: HBO’s Weight of the Nation

    MarinKids is dedicated to raising awareness about the dangers and costs associated with childhood obesity.  Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions throughout the Country – with disproportionate effects on low-income children – and Marin is no exception.  According to First 5 Marin’s Marin County Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Plan, 30.6% of low-income children in the County are [...]

  • 03.30.12

    Study Finds California Fifth Grade Students More Obese Every Year But Increase is Slowing

    Dr. William Bommer at the University of California, Davis, examined the state’s Physical Fitness Test (PFT) data of more than 6 million students in the fifth, seventh, and ninth grades from 2003-08. The researchers found the obesity rate is slowing down when compared to annual increases in prior decades and in other national studies. In [...]

  • 03.30.12

    Marin Obesity Prevention Plan Unveiled

    A new report Marin County Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Plan published by First 5 Marin, supports approaches to preventing obesity early in children’s lives. The plan developed over 18 months of development with a wide range of partners identifies a need for a holistic approach that incorporates policy changes to reduce health inequities, promote health, [...]

  • 08.18.11

    Childhood Obesity: Summer Time is Critical

    In their California Report Card 2011, Children Now says childhood obesity is one of the leading health risks facing California’s kids today, and estimates that roughly one in three California children (31 percent), ages 10-17, are overweight or obese. Locally, 27 percent of seventh graders in Marin do not meet healthy weight guidelines. Seventy-five percent [...]

  • 07.16.11

    California Report Card, 2011

    Children Now Releases 2011 California Report Card grading well-being of the state’s children and providing policy changes that could address key concerns.

  • 09.30.10

    Extreme Obesity Affecting More Children at Younger Ages

    12 percent of black teenage girls, 11.2 percent of Hispanic teenage boys, 7.3 percent of boys and 5.5 percent of girls now classified as extremely obese…

  • 08.01.10

    Obesity costs Marin millions, report says (Marin IJ)

    That extra helping of spaghetti and decision to watch TV after dinner instead of taking a walk comes with a hefty price tag attached, according to the California Center for Public Health Advocacy.

  • 05.17.10

    Thin school lunch funding producing fat kids (SF Chronicle)

    Trimming the fat from America’s youth will require completely changing how America eats, and a good starting place is school lunch.

  • 05.14.10

    Taking Toys Away to Fight Obesity (NY Times)

    In their quest to fight childhood obesity, California politicians have required chain restaurants to post nutrition information on their menus…

  • 05.14.10

    Michele Obama Moves Against Childhood Obesity

    A prime objective of the Let’s Move! project, First Lady Michelle Obama’s initiative to fight child obesity, is reforming America’s school lunch programs.

  • 05.14.10

    Combating childhood obesity may start in the womb (Rueters)

    Children whose mothers developed diabetes while pregnant are at increased risk of being overweight by age 11, a new study shows.

  • 05.03.10

    Studying Oregon’s Low Childhood Obesity Rate (CBS News)

    Overall Picture is Grim, Especially for Poor and Minority Children, but Experts Seek Clues from Healthiest States

  • 09.21.09

    Oversight questions fuel school pay-to-play lawsuit

    It’s a nagging question that won’t go away: When local school officials and their district-level administrators charge fees for classes and extracurricular activities despite a statewide ban on such practices, who is responsible for stepping in?

Media

  • 10.23.12

    Spirit of Marin Award to MarinKids Leadership Committee Chair

    Cecilia Zamora, President of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Marin, announced the board selection of Dana King to receive a Spirit of Marin award for her ongoing commitment to help bring the MarinKids movement to our county.   “Our board knows that all kids deserve to be safe, healthy and educated, and that kids from [...]

  • 10.23.12

    MarinKids In the News: Assembly & Congressional Town Hall Style Debate

    MarinKids, League of Women Voters of Marin and Dominican University of California co-hosted a town hall style candidate forum for state assembly and U.S. congressional candidates on October 8. Attended by over 200, the debate focused on issues for children and families. The debate was streamed live to CBS Channel 5 and local access TV.  Dana King, MarinKids Leadership committee [...]

  • 10.23.12

    7 Tips for Getting Your Story Covered

    Ever wondered how to get your issue or story in front of reporters? At a MarinKids sponsored discussion at KCBS studios in San Francisco, Dana King and Ken Bastida, KPIX, CBS 5 News Anchors and Dory Culver, managing editor, KCBS radio gave advocates tips on how to get their stories covered on radio, print and [...]