ANDY IN THE NEWS
"Andy Levine said he never thought of putting his name on the ballot. With years of experience in community organizing, he was used to holding institutions and elected officials accountable for doing the right thing to support the most vulnerable.
'“But it was very clear to me in 2022 when this opportunity became available that this was the right one for me to lean into and to challenge myself,” he said. “I believe schools and districts like Fresno unified can do a lot more to provide broader and comprehensive supports for families in poverty.”'
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The Fresno Bee - Education Lab (September 30, 2024)
"For Andy Levine — co-director of the Center for Community Voices at Fresno State, the group that will lead program evaluation — seeing Fresno’s pilot come to fruition was a full-circle moment.
'The Guaranteed Income movement started here in the Central Valley and is now coming back to the Central Valley,' Levine said to The Bee.
Levine, a Fresno Unified School Board member, wants to see what kind of benefits the program could have on school-aged children. “Because this program is for families with young children, I’m absolutely interested from my Fresno Unified School Board capacity in what the evaluation findings and the participants themselves tell us about the impact it has on early childhood activities and investments,” he said. A recent study published in the academic journal Natural Human Behavior found that this type of program had a significant impact on the amount of time and investments families could spend on early learning activities for children."
The Fresno Bee (July 24, 2024)
The success of the program will be rigorously evaluated by the Center for Community Voices at Fresno State. However, evidence from dozens of similar pilots around the state and country leaves us confident this program will yield both short- and long-term benefits, as it provides families breathing room to be fully engaged with their children in their critical early childhood development and school readiness years.
The Fresno Bee - Valley Voices (July 23, 2024)
Special to The Fresno Bee by Devon Gray and Andy Levine
Read Full Opinion Piece Here
The state grant provides financial support and recognizes what has been happening for years when teachers and staff at schools have paid out of their own pockets to help children, said Fresno Unified Trustee Andy Levine. The dedicated coordinators who work to develop partnerships in the community, such as with churches and charities, also relieve the burden on teachers who used to make those connections in their own time.
The Fresno Bee - Education Lab (July 2, 2024)
“'It is our job; it is our responsibility to be proactive. It’s not just focusing on learning because we can’t if students don’t have a place to sleep or know where their next meal is coming from. For us to step up and say, ‘We’re going to take down these barriers’ is important.'”
The Fresno Bee - Education Lab (April 22, 2024)
"Credit [Dr. Amber] Crowell and fellow Fresno State instructor Andy Levine, who is also a Fresno Unified school board member, for working to make the guaranteed income project a reality.
They acted with doggedness after the local application for a state guaranteed-income program was denied.
The Fresno Bee - Editorial Board (March 22, 2024)
"Imagine being a first grader and finding out $500 has been deposited into a bank account to help with college. Fresno Unified is designing a campaign to ensure students see this opportunity available through a state program that helps motivate students to pursue a college degree or vocational training. More than 62,500 Fresno Unified students qualify for the $500, yet only 6.72% of eligible students have claimed the free money, data from the State Treasurer’s Office shows. That’s little more than 58,300 students missing out on the free money set aside to ease their financial burden.
“'I went to Edison High School, a lot of students in my class that were just as hard-working as me, just as smart as me, if not smarter and harder working, but just didn’t have the financial reality of being able to even consider higher education,' said Trustee Andy Levine, who introduced the CalKIDS program to the district in 2022, and recently advocated for the school board to develop strategies to promote the program."
The Fresno Bee - Education Lab (March 20, 2024)
“With help from trustee Andy Levine, [Fort Miller] was able to secure funding for a new washer and dryer for not only Fort Miller, but all middle schools throughout the district to give low-income students access to laundry equipment to keep their clothes clean"
The Fresno Bee - Education Lab (March 28, 2023)
In Fresno Unified, only 6.64% of eligible students have claimed their accounts — partly because the district has not publicized the program as it can and should, Andy Levine, a member of the district’s board of trustees, said during the board meeting.
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Levine proposed a resolution requiring the district to make a systemwide commitment to increase student awareness and access to the accounts.
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He cited studies indicating that having as little as $500 in a college savings account makes a student three times more likely to enroll in college and four times more likely to graduate than a student without savings.
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“I believe (it) is critically important to our city overall, with tens of millions of dollars collectively waiting for our students to utilize,” Levine told EdSource.
EdSource (March 19, 2024)
“'It would be shameful if we did not take advantage of this opportunity, given that we have one of the highest — if not the highest — rates of poverty in the entire state,' said Andy Levine, a member of the board of trustees for Fresno Unified School District.
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'It is our job; it is our responsibility to be proactive. It’s not just focusing on learning because we can’t if students don’t have a place to sleep or know where their next meal is coming from. For us to step up and say, ‘We’re going to take down these barriers’ is important.'”
EdSource (June 13, 2023)
"With his work for New Leaders and Faith in the Valley, Levine has rich experience in trying to improve conditions for low-income families. Fresno Unified serves some of the nation's poorest neighborhoods. As an instructor himself, Levine also knows the challenges teachers have to face, especially in the time of COVID. Additionally, he has shown skill in creating civil discourse, which is sorely needed at Fresno Unified board meetings these days. Yet Levine can state his position without being intimidated by any opposition."
The Fresno Bee - Editorial Board (March 14, 2022)
"Levine has also come to the conclusion that a more holistic approach is required to achieve lasting change in education. He cites such models as Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone that combine educational, social and medical resources. 'Education is the most critical piece,' he says, 'But it can’t be the only piece in this equation. It has to be viewed as one piece of the puzzle.'”
