Excerpts from City Council Member and Mayor candidate Sukhee Kang’s newsletter to residents. This is what leadership looks like.
Council Approves $1 Million Financial Aid for Irvine Schools
This last month, I had the pleasure of taking the lead on an issue that City Council voted unanimously to support – financial aid to Irvine schools.
In May City Council voted to contribute $1 million of financial support to Irvine schools to help cover the financial troubles caused by California’s $4 billion cut in state-wide school funding. Over the years, the City of Irvine has worked hard to provide Irvine residents with the highest quality of life. This work has included the provisio n of millions of dollars of public resources to help ensure the long-term success of Irvine’s school children.ÂÂ
Proud of my commitment to educational excellence, mindful of the City of Irvine’s historic support for Irvine schools, and recognizing the crisis facing our schools, teachers, and students, I pledge to continue the City’s long-standing tradition of supporting our local schools.
The City’s $1 million dollar gift will be matched by other donations and will be allocated towards maintaining class sizes in grades 4 to 12. If you are interested in matching the City’s donation to Irvine schools please visit the Irvine Public Schools Foundation website.
In the beginning of this year I proposed the development of the Irvine Children’s Health Program (I-CHP) Initiative in order to promote health care access for Irvine children through community partnerships and collaboration. I am happy to report that at this last meeting in June the City Council voted to fund the I-CHP Initiative!
This is an important issue because according to the “Condition of Children, Youth and Families in Irvine” report there are 1,760, or 4.2%, of Irvine children who currently have no health insurance. As a community leader I believe that we need to promote the health and wellness of the community by ensuring that all Irvine children have access to affordable health services.
The success of I-CHP will be vested in key factors such as marketing and outreach, enrollment and re-enrollment programs and developing community partnerships with medical providers and funders which will provide longterm sustainability of I-CHP.
By allocating City resources to the outreach, assessment, and enrollment of uninsured children in Irvine the I-CHP’s goal is to make sure that no child in Irvine is left without health insurance!