Over the past month, PICO affiliate PACT: People Acting in Community Together in San Jose organized two town hall meetings focused on the connection between the rise in crime and violence in the city and its low-performing public schools.

On March 18, more than 150 community members attended a town hall meeting with Trustees of the Santa Clara County Board of Education. At the meeting, PACT members pointed out that, while the county's high school dropout rate has increased 215 percent since 2002, the county's alternative education programs have been slashed 65 percent during this same time. Meanwhile, violence has been on the rise in San Jose with this year's murder rate double the rate this time last year.

PACT leaders called on the Trustees to make solving the dropout crisis a priority and to hire a new Superintendent with a proven track record of success with alternative education programs. The Trustees agreed to PACT's proposals.

On April 1, 600 community members attended PACT's candidates forum for the District 2 County Supervisor seat. The open seat represents downtown and East San Jose, the scene of nine homicides over the past eight weeks.  All four candidates agreed that low-performing public schools are a major cause of violence and committed to working to reduce the dropout rate.

Each of the candidates signed a "covenant" with PACT, committing to support district-sponsored new, small autonomous schools and charter schools as key solutions to the dropout crisis and to provide leadership to make Santa Clara County a model immigrant-friendly community.

For more information, visit www.pactsj.org

More information
Watch segments of the town hall meetings on PACT's You Tube channel

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