Archive | February, 2026

Public School Profiteering in Stockton

21 Feb

By Thomas Ultican 2/21/2026

There is always drama in Stockton, but the public schools are doing surprisingly well. The latest tempest in a tea pot involved Stockton Unified School District (SUSD) approving the Amelia Ann Adams Whole Life Center’s $130,000 contract for student trauma counseling. SUSD Trustee Kennetha Stevens who also serves as an unpaid board member for Amelia Adams voted for the contract. Davina Hurt at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics stated, “Even when conduct is technically legal, undisclosed dual loyalties can create the appearance of hidden influence, which erodes confidence in democratic institutions.” This complaint looks a little weak in comparison to billionaires funding a multidecade long effort to privatize public education in Stockton. However, if she did not do it, Stevens should have noted her board participation at Amelia Adams.

Stockton, founded in 1849, is California’s farthest inland deep-water shipping port. It was named after famed Mexican-American War Commadore, Robert F. Stockton, and was the first city in California whose name is not either Spanish or Indian in origin. The city is located on the northern end of the San Joaquin valley and is home to about 325,000 people of surprisingly diverse races; 16% White, 11% Black, 23% Asian, 45% Hispanic, 5% Other. Originally established to supply gold rush miners, it is now where produce and grains from America’s largest agricultural valley start their trips into local and world markets.

Stockton’s Public Schools

Almost 83% of Stockton Unified’s students are listed by the state of California as “Socioeconomically Disadvantaged.” Standardized testing results are significantly tied to the economic situation of the students’ families, so it is not surprising that most Stockton Unified schools do not test well compared to wealthier communities. However, the multiple evaluations presented on the California Department of Education dashboard paint a picture of Stockton’s schools being successful in their mission.

This dashboard shows that Stockton is struggling with chronic absenteeism and they have horrible results in mathematics. On the other hand, the 25% of students who are English language learners are making good progress. Having a graduation rate of 88.9% means that over the 12 years students spend in these schools, they graduate at a rate that is 1% better than California’s average graduation rates. SUSD gets high marks for meeting all of the state’s professional standards. With their large number of language learners and socioeconomically disadvantaged students, these are results for which teachers and school administrators can legitimately take pride.

SUSD has been doing a professional job of educating students for a long time, but the district has struggled with top management turnover. Between 2012 and 2023, John Deasy was the longest serving Superintendent in Stockton. He served for two years and two weeks.

Today, it seems this administration turnover problem has been righted. The 2023 hiring of Michelle Rodriguez has put a professional star in charge. She is in the midst of her third year leading Stockton’s schools. Not only have many nagging management issues disappeared, Rodriquez has been gaining positive national notice. Last year it was reported by Stocktonia News, “Michelle Rodriguez, who has served as Stockton Unified School District’s superintendent since July 2023, took home two national awards celebrating her more than three decades as a school administrator: Finalist for Superintendent of the Year and the Power Leadership Award.”

Rodriguez studied at Chico State University and upon graduation went to Spain for further study. She is fully bilingual. Rodriguez earned a PhD from University of Southern California, was a principal in San Diego, became chief academic officer in Santa Ana and was Superintendent of Pajaro Unified School District in Watsonville for 7 years prior to accepting the Stockton job.

Unfortunately, this stellar public education district is being torn apart by ruthless billionaires.

Charter Schools in Stockton

Understanding the impact of charter schools on the local public schools takes a little digging. From San Joaquin County’s list of schools, it can be learned by checking with the state of California’s school profiles that there are 23 charter schools in Stockton. There are also three school districts operating in the city; Stockton Unified, the much smaller Lincoln Unified and four schools from Manteca Unified. Eighteen charter schools were authorized by SUSD, one by Lincoln, three by San Joaquin County and one by the New Jerusalem school district in nearby Tracy, California.

Putting all of this data together produces the following table.

The table above shows that of the 38,452 students that are served by SUSD and the charter schools it authorized there is a 17.9% charter school going rate. However, when the charter schools authorized by San Joaquin County and the New Jerusalem school district are taken into account, the percentage of charter school going students in SUSD jumps to more than 34%. In all of Stockton, the charter school going rate of students is 28% or put another way, 28 of every 100 students are attending privatized schools.

This is egregious. Many young parents in Stockton have been fooled by the billionaires funding public education privatization. Instead of enrolling their children in professionally run and stable public schools, they are putting them in risky schools that are known for instability and profiteering.

Data drawn from the state of California’s Department of Education Data Quest is aggregated above. It shows the billionaire path to excess profits. They dump the most expensive students — the students with disabilities — on the public system. SUSD educates 5.2% more disabled students than the local charter school industry. This pattern is repeated everywhere charter schools exist. They do not just take fewer students with disabilities, but some of the more profoundly disabled students are extremely costly and charter schools notoriously do not take any of those students.

English language learners harm test scores while they are mastering a new language. Charter schools that claim to have superior education proven by test scores avoid them. The table above shows that SUSD educates 7.1% more language learners than the privatized schools.

The areas where charter schools significantly outperform public schools are marketing and administrative pay.

The city of Stockton has an excellent public education system but that system is being destroyed. In Oakland, California they previously had very convenient elementary schools in every neighborhood. With the influx of charter schools, some neighborhoods in the flats have lost that easy access to public schools. This is likely happening now in some Stockton neighborhoods.

The state of California should take over all charter schools and task the local school districts with managing them. The present charter school system has become a greed infested and destructive failure.

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Homophobic President Attacks Transgender Students

5 Feb

By Thomas Ultican 2/5/2026  

With our lying President, we don’t know if he is actually a homophobe or just plays one on TV. His Department of Education recently reported finding San Jose State University violated Title IX regarding a transgender volleyball player. The transgender player, Blaire Fleming, was on the San José State roster for three seasons after transferring from Coastal Carolina. Her status as transgender apparently became known when Southern Utah forfeited its match against San Jose State in September, 2024. It was Flemming’s third year on the team.

Shortly after this came to light, San Jose State co-captain Brooke Slusser and two former Spartans were incensed by the new knowledge about Fleming and sued the Mountain West Conference over its policies they claim muzzled them. While Slusser was the central figure among the three players that were outraged, it is very likely that a lot of that outrage was fueled by Brooke’s Christian Nationalist mother, Kim Slusser.

A dive into Kim’s Facebook page, shows that she is much more focused on being a mom supporting her kids than she is politics. However, she did recently post to Facebook “Let’s go Leigh Wambsganss for Texas Senate.” Leigh is the wife of a former Southlake mayor, co-founder of Southlake Family PAC and Leader of a Patriots Mobil PAC designed to take over public schools. Mike Hixenbaugh quoted Wambsganss in his book They Came for the Schools:

“… Leigh Wambsganas … said there was no hope of changing the minds of any Black Lives Matter activists. ‘Sadly, they need to die.’” (Pages 108 and179)

Besides politically supporting crazed right-wing religious zealots, Kim Slusser also posted a graphic encouraging people to listen to the Megyn Kelly show.

A Post in Kim Slusser’s Facebook

The President’s attack on transgender people is fueled by bigoted ideology.

Transgender Reality

A 2022 study by the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute shared that of the 1.3 million adults who identify as transgender, 38.5% (515,200) are transgender women, 35.9% (480,000) are transgender men, and 25.6% (341,800) reported they are gender nonconforming. The LGBTQIA WIKI defines gender nonconforming:

“Gender non-conforming is a term describing people who do not follow gender stereotypes and differ from their society’s conventional binary expectations of masculine men and feminine women. Gender non-conformity can encompass many things, such as gender expression, gender roles, or another aspect of gender. It is typically apparent in people whose gender identity is a binary gender, whether they are cisgender or transgender; for instance, a feminine trans man and a feminine cis man are both non-conforming with expectations of masculinity.”

From the 2022 study cited above, about 700,000 transgender people are between 13 and 24. Extrapolating from these numbers, I would expect less than 400,000 of them to be transgender women. It is a small but not insignificant number of people considering that there are about 350 million people in America.

The bottom line is that a small subset of human beings is born with gender-dysphoria, a mismatch between gender identity and their own personal sense of gender. Scientific American reported almost all major American medical groups have “policy statements and guidelines on how to provide age-appropriate gender-affirming care” and “find such care to be evidence-based and medically necessary.”

Columbia University Psychiatry reports:

“It is well documented that TGNB [transgender non-binary] adolescents and young adults experience anxiety and depression, as well as suicidal ideation, at a much higher rate than their cisgender peers. According to The Trevor Project’s 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, 54 percent of young people who identified as transgender or nonbinary reported having seriously considered suicide in the last year, and 29 percent have made an attempt to end their lives.”

Both homosexuality and gender dysphoria are naturally occurring phenomena. They are not a mistake and they are human beings worthy of maximum respect.

The PBS article “Why is the GOP Escalating Attacks on Trans Rights? Experts say the Goal is to make sure Evangelicals Vote” reports that “Survey after survey show that Americans support LGBTQ+ equality, and Republicans are no exception.” When Donald Trump first ran for office, he briefly vowed to be an ally to queer Americans. “In office, his administration made so many policy moves against LGBTQ+ Americans that advocacy organizations branded his leadership ‘The Discrimination Administration.”’

Even though the Evangelical community is a minority in the Republican Party, their strong unity on cultural issues has made them a must get for victorious GOP candidates. Our President quickly realized he needed them and apparently had no problem abandoning his vow to be an ally to queer Americans.

Respecting Life and Protecting People

Sixteen-years-old trans-student, Nex Benedict, was attacked in the girl’s bathroom at her Oklahoma high school. The attack was severe enough to require some medical attention, but she was well enough to go home that night. The next day she committed suicide. Caught in a web of ignorance and bigotry she was convinced that life was not worth living. She would be about the same age as San Jose State’s volleyball player, Blaire Fleming, if she had lived until today.

A new law, that took effect January 2025 in California, says teachers, counselors and schools are not to disclose a student’s apparent gender-dysphoria to parents without the student’s permission. The arguments in the Bill noted, “Unfortunately, not all young people are able to be their authentic selves at home safely, and, in those cases, schools can be a critical source of support.” It also highlighted the large tendency for trans students like Nex Benedict to engage in suicide. The bill claimed that students with “access to affirming homes, schools, community events, and online spaces reported lower rates of attempting suicide.”

The same January that the California bill was signed, President Trump signed many executive orders including:

“This executive order directs federal agencies and federal employees to interpret “sex” solely as an immutable binary biological classification determined at conception. The order also requires all federal agencies to enforce sex-based rights, protections and accommodations using this definition of “sex.”

A few months before Trump became President, a symposium organized by the National Human Genome Research Institute, an institute of the US National Institutes of Health completely rejected the Trumpian view. “Throughout the symposium, many speakers argued that any attempt to categorize sex runs into the same issue—human variation always provides an exception to the rule.”

An interesting case was presented by Physician Tucker Pyle, from Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. A person who was born in the 1980s was raised as a girl but felt like a boy. As a teenager, the patient received feminizing hormones but still experienced dysphoria. Years later, he learned doctors performed surgery on him as a baby to make his genitalia, which weren’t clearly a penis or a vulva, look like a vulva. But he ultimately identified as male and socially and hormonally transitioned.

A Personal Opinion

In a dialogue with youth, Daisaku Ikeda said:

“Everyone has a right to flower, to reveal his or her full potential as a human being, to fulfill his or her mission in this world. You have this right and so does everyone else. To scorn and violate people’s human rights destroys the natural order of things. We must become people who prize human rights and respect others.” (Faith into Action page 276)

This current attack on gay people is evil. Some gay people are not the sharpest tool in the woodshed and some are possessed of brilliance, but more importantly they are all human beings with a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They all deserve respect.

I think trans kids in sports is a made-up issue. Participating in sports with their preferred gender should be accommodated. There are more gender nonconforming females whose male side leads to sporting victories than any unfairness caused by the few transgender participants.

Should someone disagree with this position, we should listen if they have valid points. However, I do not think transgender athletes are the problem that needs reforming.

It is benighted bigots who must be reformed; whose ideology must be shunned.

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