APALA's leadership convened in Washington D.C. for our National Executive Board meeting from April 16-17, 2010.  Board members met to set priorities for the upcoming year, receive legislative updates and engage with national allies on labor and community priorities. 

APALA leaders were addressed by AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker (pictured above), Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Kiran Ahuja (pictured right), Special Assistant in the Office of Public Engagement for the U.S. Department of Labor Cindy Chen, and Senior Economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research John Schmitt.  Finally, board members attended a book signing for Organizing on Separate Shores, authored by APALA Founding President Kent Wong, featuring former APALA President Maria Somma.

  

The Berger Marks Foundation was founded to bring the benefits of unionization to working women and assist organizations that are committed to these principles.  The primary objective of the organization is to provide financial assistance to women who are engaged in union organizing and to assist working women who want to organize other women into unions through training, research and other resources.

 

A recent report published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research clearly demonstrates that Asian American and Pacific Islander women comprise close to half of the AAPI union members.  However, there are few leadership development opportunities targeting this specific demographic.  As a result, APALA applied for and received a grant from the Berger-Marks Foundation to implement the first Organizing Institute targeting Asian Pacific American women. 

 

The Organizing Institute is an intensive three-day training program designed to provide leadership development opportunities for rank and file Asian Pacific American union members to develop organizing skills as well as provide an opportunity for young Asian Pacific American women and recent college graduates to become union organizers.

 

APALA thanks the Berger-Marks Foundation for their generous grant!  We plan to implement this project during the summer, so keep an eye open for this opportunity!

  
Asian Pacific Americans stand to benefit greatly from the education provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.  "Congress deserves praise for increasing access to education at a time when higher education is becoming ever more important for success in the global economy," said Matthew Finucane (NEA), APALA 2nd Vice President." APALA especially thanks Rep. David Wu, Rep. Mike Honda, the entire Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and the Hill education committees for ensuring long term funding of AAPI serving institutions."

The bill will help expand college access and increase graduation rates for Asian Americans in three main ways. By making higher education more affordable, more APAs will be able to earn a college degree. The law raises the maximum Pell Grant, makes loan payments more affordable for students with unmanageable debt, increases investments in community colleges, and extends support for institutions of higher education that have a high minority student population.

Increases Pell Grants: The law allows for $40 billion in Pell Grants so that all students have a chance to afford tuition. It also ensures that the maximum Pell Grant will be tied to the cost of living so as to keep pace with rising college costs. By 2020, the Department of Education estimates 40,000 additional Pell Grant awards would be made to Asian American students due to the changes in the law.

Expands Income Based Repayment: Because of the high cost of college, about two-thirds of students take out college loans with an average student debt of over $23,000. This high debt burden prevents graduates from taking on careers in the public service. Beginning in 2014, graduates will be allowed to cap their student loan repayments at 10 percent of their discretionary income and have their balance forgiven after 20 years of steady repayment. This is in addition to current law which states that public service workers will have student debt forgiven after only 10 years. According to Department of Education estimates, of the 1.2 million borrowers projected to qualify and take part in the expanded IBR program between 2014 and 2020, approximately 48,000 are expected to be Asian American.

Increases Support for Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs):

The bill provides $50 million to Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs) in mandatory funding over ten years, and additional monies to other historically minority-serving institutions. This money relieves some of the budget pressures on schools that have large AAPI student populations to ensure that students can reach their maximum potential.