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Teacher Mentoring Program Receives James Irvine Leadership Award

Leaders at Oakland-based Reach University, Dr. Elizabeth Baham and Héctor Camacho Jr, have been honored with the James Irvine Leadership Award for their work on addressing California’s teacher shortage through job-embedded curriculum and credential programs. With the award, each organization receives a grant of $350,000 and additional resources.

Published

2 years ago

April 19, 2024

Oakland Post

Dean Hector Camacho, Candidate Tysha Hayes, and the Reach University Admissions & Partnerships Teams at Jefferson Union High School District. Photo courtesy of Reach University.

By Magaly Muñoz

Dr. Baham and Mr. Camacho, who have been at Reach for nine years and two years respectively, have been instrumental in attracting and recruiting future educators who otherwise would not have a clear and affordable path into teaching or leadership positions.

Established in 2006, Reach University has served as the nation’s first and only accredited nonprofit university, dedicated to advancing undergraduate and graduate degrees and credentials.

“To be recognized for this work so publicly, has given me more strength to keep [fighting] because it’s a lot of work. I’m super honored and appreciative of [the James Irvine Foundation] for giving me this new burst of energy because it’s a tough field,” Camacho said.

Baham echoed Camacho’s sentiments and is grateful that the work they are doing is being recognized by a larger audience.

“It’s an acknowledgement of the work that I’ve put in and it’s an acknowledgement that teachers matter, that education matters. I think that at the end of the day, people see both Hector and I representing Reach University and they walk away with a sense of teaching matters,” Baham said.

The university primarily partners with K-12 school districts to provide potential teacher candidates who specialize in subjects such as liberal arts, math, science of reading, and computer science.

Camacho, Dean of Admissions and SVP of Workforce Development, praised the university’s methodology in allowing candidates already employed in a school either part or full time, as a teacher-aides or paraprofessionals, to earn college credit while mastering the art of teaching.

Camacho highlighted the challenges that many face when seeking higher education, such as taking a break from school to work and afford their degree or going directly into college and amassing large amounts of debt to solely focus on their studies.

“Let’s honor and recognize the work that they’re doing in the schools right now. Give them some college credit and then give them the other coursework they need to finish it because we know you shouldn’t have to choose anymore,” Camacho said.

Students at Reach University are paid to earn a degree, and undergraduates take on zero student debt. After grants and institutional scholarships, the out-of-pocket contribution for all full-time undergraduate candidates is $900 per year, or $75 per month, with no student debt, according to Reach officials.

Half of the program candidates are made up of people of color, matching the demographics of the schools they are working in. The large majority are also first-generation college students and some from low-income backgrounds.

Baham, Provost & Chief Academic Officer, stated the importance of having educators of color in classrooms because it not only allows for students of color to see themselves in authority positions, but also integrates what the world looks like for those who are not surrounded by diversity in their everyday lives.

She added that diversity at all levels of academia results in success and encouragement for everyone to strive for more.

“It’s important for [students] to see us occupying spaces where they will want to see themselves,” Baham said.

Reach students are taught in group setting classrooms twice a week and through one-on-one mentoring to better assist with individual needs. This approach allows students to network with other classmates to problem-solve similar obstacles and receive personalized coaching to refine their teaching skills.

With job-embedded curriculum being the set form of learning for Reach, many of the students have a clearer transition from degree to career pipeline. 84% of California alumni are still in the classroom five years after completing the graduate program and nearly 91% are still working in a school.

Tysha Hayes, a Reach student, works as a bus driver for Jefferson Union High School District and part-time in the classroom as a part of her degree program. She entered the university in fall 2023 and is hoping to graduate by 2027.

Hayes shared that the non-traditional learning aspect of Reach is what drew her to enroll, as she herself has had an unconventional journey from being a bus driver for 27 years to pursuing a career in education.

The job allows Hayes to be involved in her students’ lives in a more personal way. She explained that her face is the first and last one they see on their way back and forth to school, often prompting them to share their classroom frustrations and struggles with her.

“The bus has been my classroom with the students, so I get the best of both worlds. I get to see them in different elements throughout the whole day,” Hayes said.

Post-graduation, Hayes intends to work in health and wellness so that she can help guide and assist students who are feeling overwhelmed or unmotivated in their education to work through their struggles and strive for more.

Hayes says although she got a late start in life, the prospect of building interpersonal relationships with her students in and outside the classroom excites her to keep working towards her degree.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

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1 week ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

1 week ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke