NCG Continues Push for Transparency in Medicaid Privatization & Greater Focus on Teacher Shortage Crisis

State legislators Senator Michael Robertson and Assemblymen Paul Anderson and John Hambrick listened as Marsha Rodriguez told her story about the fragility of independence as a senior. 72 years old, Rodriguez described waiting 6 months to get into a Nevada Medicaid waiver program, the Home and Community Based Waiver, which helps pay for non-medical services that are essential for some aging seniors to continue living at home. After seven years of receiving non-medical care, she fears that privatization of Medicaid services would reduce access to those services and push her into a nursing home. NCG leader Barbara Paulsen noted that the cost of at-home services for six or seven people is about equal with the cost of covering one person in a nursing home.
Read moreTMO Parent Leaders Defeat Unpopular Rezoning Plan

TMO Lyons Elementary parents won an 8 - 1 Houston Independent School District board vote against proposed boundary changes to their school. The changes would have sent students from one of the top ranked schools in the state to one ranked in the lowest 18% statewide. Parent leaders signed up 600 petitioners opposed to the change to convince board members that this was a bad idea.
Read moreLas Vegas Global Economic Alliance & 'Nevadans for the Common Good' Join Forces for $430M Business Tax Proposal

One week prior, 'Nevadans for the Common Good' met with the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in Las Vegas; both organizations voted to support the business license proposal. LVGEA cited a study it had commissioned on the impact of the business license fee proposal, which concluded that the "negligible negative impact" in Southern Nevada would be far outweighed by the benefits of improved public schools.
Read morePCIC Celebrates 25 Years of Battles Successfully Waged

In addition to enjoying a youth-led mariachi band and desserts, participants honored longtime and retired leaders Episcopal priest Paul Buckwalter, Methodist Pastor David Wilkinson, former PCIC/AIN Lead Organizer Frank Pierson, former Diocesan CCHD representative Joanne Welter, and deceased former Tucson Mayor and PCIC leader George Miller. Bishop Gerald Kicanas of the Tucson Catholic Dioceses chaired the event, which included stories from six younger leaders. Congressman Raúl Grijalva, Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, former State Rep. Ethan Orr and Southern Arizona Leadership Council Chair Lisa Lovallo from Cox Communications were among the speakers.
Read moreNearly 900 Valley Interfaith Leaders Celebrate 30th Anniversary

Gathering at the Pharr Events Center in the Rio Grande Valley, Valley Interfaith leaders celebrated their 30th anniversary with stories of historic achievements, blessings for recent VIDA graduates, and presentations of strategies for healthcare enrollment, education and comprehensive immigration reform. Veteran leaders like Fr. Alfonso Guevara lauded Valley Interfaith as a 'university of public life' that helps people do 'what politicians can no longer do' -- tapping into local relationships, learning what matters to people and developing people's capacity to achieve extraordinary things through collaboration with others. In photo, leaders bow head in prayer at start of celebration.
Read moreAlbuquerque Leaders Fight to Save Scholarship Fund

Parents Rally Around Lottery Scholarship, Albuquerque Journal
Read moreArizona IAF Assembles 800 to Address School Funding Crisis

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