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GERRY ANDERSON

The CHANGE candidate for the CHANGE electorate (watch here)

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“ … Anderson rises above several other viable and promising options in this race.”
“ …offer(s) an insider‘s view of the system …”
“… adding welcome dimensions to the trustees‘ deliberation.”
“… Anderson is a better choice than incumbent David Vela, … head of his own political consulting firm …”

Justice. Mercy.

  • Typically, JUSTICE and MERCY are not two words you hear associated with community college. But, these are not normal times.
  • My name is Gerry Anderson.  I have been a business and entrepreneurship instructor in the LA Community College District since July 2010.  In fact, I first started college at West LA, after dropping out of Crenshaw High School, before transferring to Arizona State University and completing my MBA. 
  • The business and entrepreneurship series that I teach now at West LA and at LA City College started in the late ‘90’s as corporation seminars that were given at Simply Wholesome restaurant.
  • Currently, the ‘models’ for society have been broken – the model for employment, the model for childcare … and for healthcare, the models for the economy, for eating out in restaurants, even the model for our government and our governance. 
  • They ALL now have to be rebuilt.  If LACCD is to remain relevant, then this includes the model for ‘community college’ as well.  We need to work on re-tooling the District to be more responsive and more impactful to it’s two primary constituencies:  the students and the community. 
  • Communities across the region are hurting right now on multiple fronts, and only a multi-disciplined approach will make a timely restoration possible.  You cant just work on one or two of these pieces … Ever tried to fix one leg of a four-legged stool?  After, we get a handle on the pandemic then preparing the communities for their post-pandemic reality is paramount.
  • We can’t fix the economy until we fix jobs. We can’t fix jobs until we fix small business and childcare. We can’t fix small business and childcare until we fix schools. All of them have to be addressed, and none of them is more crucial than the others.
    • Students will need better access to those opportunities and better wrap-around services that will increase the likelihood of completion. 
    • Colleges will need new resources and technologies, and instructors will need extensive training to bring them all of the way into the 21st century.
    •  Industries will need new staffing, with workforces that will need new skills.
    • The local communities will need:
      • aggressive programs to develop local small business employers, as well as to develop
      • dynamic childcare and micro-schooling options.
  • And, all of these things will need to be delivered with fairness … in a way that insures that ALL communities served by LACCD are allowed to participate in the education and community development process. And, especially those communities hit hardest by the pandemic.  That’s the ‘justice’ part.  And, wouldn’t it be a shame if those hardest hit also end up excluded from the restoration as well?  That’s where we need mercy.

WATCH my video here. Please share liberally …

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