Palacio Podcast
Dr. Juan Benitez on K-12 Education: It’s Complicated but Fixable
Dr. Juan Benitez is the Executive Director of the Center for Community Engagement at California State University, Long Beach and an Associate Professor in the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies there. He also represents the Third District on the Long Beach Unified School Board.
Dr. Benitez has a long history in education as both an educator and an advocate. We were curious as to how he would grade K-12 education in Long Beach and what we discovered was the answer was as complicated as the question was simple.
“Not to avoid the question but I think I’d answered it in three different ways.”
The first was the issue of funding.
“If we’re talking about funding toward public education, I would give it a low grade.”
Dr. Juan Benitez on Funding
According to Dr. Juan Benitez, today’s funding is nowhere near what it was 30-40 years ago. (For an explanation of school funding in California, visit HERE) According to the Public Policy Institute of California:
” Per pupil funding has increased dramatically but remains below the national average. After falling during the Great Recession, overall
The Interview
PalacioMagazine.com sat down with Dr. Juan Benitez in his offices at the Center for Community Engagement at California State University, Long Beach for the Palacio Podcast. The lengthy interview was a reality check about the complexity of K-12 education in the State of California, its challenges, and what we all can do to improve it.
The Biography
Dr. Juan M. Benitez is a father, educator, and community leader dedicated to Long Beach. He serves as the Executive Director for the Center for Community Engagement (CCE) and as an Associate Professor of History at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB).
With over 20 years of experience in higher education, Dr. Benitez heads university-wide community engagement projects, programs, activities, and initiatives. He has helped raise nearly $3 million in funding for projects in the region, working with over 100 nonprofit organizations and community groups as well as thousands of students and community members.
Dr. Juan Benitez, through his work with the CCE, helped to implement The California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities initiative in Long Beach, a 10-year effort to improve neighborhood conditions that contribute to good health. He also worked with AmeriCorps and community groups to create a collaborative vision to address youth development, parent engagement, equity, and opportunity gaps, and school discipline issues in Long Beach schools. Dr. Benitez currently serves on his campus’s Highly Valued Degree Initiative Student Engagement Task Force and ReLAY Institute team, focused on improving education, employment, housing, and health opportunities for disconnected youth. He has also served as Co-Chair of the Committee for Community Collaboration, which hosted an annual Long Beach Community Issues Forum that brought thousands of students, educators, and community members together to engage in dialogue that improves outcomes in key areas such as college preparation completion rates, community health, and homelessness.
A product of public schools, Dr. Juan Benitez earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is the proud and dedicated parent of a daughter who just started kindergarten in Long Beach Unified School District.
