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By Donald H. Harrison
 SAN DIEGO—While freshman Assemblyman Marty Block (Democrat, San Diego) might take justifiable pride in authoring a first-in-the-nation bill protecting human egg donors, you can’t blame him if he is preoccupied at the moment with an educational crisis right at home. The crisis may affect the lives of many more people.
Faced with budget shortfalls that have already required sharp reductions in hiring as well as imposed furloughs for some faculty members, San Diego State University’s president Stephen Weber has announced that in order to stay afloat, the university now proposes to end guaranteed admissions for local high school students.
Block, in his capacity as chairman of the Assembly Select Committee on K-16 Articulation, Access and Affordability, promptly scheduled a hearing into the matter for Tuesday, October 20, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Room 1103 of Hoover Senior High School, 4474 El Cajon Blvd, San Diego.
Block spent 26 years as a professor, director and dean of various departments at San Diego State University, including SDSU’s National Higher Education Law and Policy Institute. When he retired from the university, he was presented a Distinguished Service Award by Weber.
The assemblyman has invited Weber to testify at the hearing along with other colleagues from his long career in education, which has included service on the boards of the San Diego Community College Board and the San Diego County Board of Education.
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In addition to those responsibilities, Block also found time during his career to serve as regional president of the American Jewish Committee and a founder of the Latino-Jewish Coalition.)
Other public figures invited to testify at the select committee hearing include San Diego Community College Chancellor Constance Carroll, San Diego City Councilmembers Marti Emerald and Tony Young, and Sweetwater Union High School District Superintendent Jesus Gandara.
While a get-together among these folks will likely be collegial, the hearings may also attract community members who are concerned—even agitated—that ending automatic admission
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for local high school students may adversely impact students of lower socio-economic brackets who have few other choices for four-year universities.
Ironically, the same budget crisis that has forced cuts at San Diego State University prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto a bill by Block that the assemblyman considered a first-step toward a longtime solution to overcrowding at San Diego State University.
That bill would have authorized an independent feasibility study for construction of a new state university campus in the Chula Vista area—a study that a foundation of the City of Chula Vista volunteered to pay for.
In vetoing the measure, Schwarzenegger indicated while he understands the need to continue planning for the area’s educational future, such a study ought to be conducted by the Trustees of the State College and University System.
The governor’s veto, in Block’s estimate, misunderstood that “while the CSU could conduct an internal study, that study would encompass the entirety of California and would require state funds.”
In addition to the egg donor protection bill, the governor signed five other measures introduced by Block in his freshman year in the Legislature – a year in which Democrats also made him their Assistant Whip.
According to Block, the egg donor bill was part of an effort to protect women’s health, by requiring “that a warning be posted on all advertisements for human egg donations for fertility encouraging prospective donors to seek medical advice prior to entering into a contract.”
“This new law is the first of its kind in the nation,” Block said.
Two other bills also dealt with health. One “insures that students in elementary school have greatly increased access to fluoride varnish treatments which can reduce tooth decay by 50 percent,” according to Block. Another permits podiatrists “to store engineered skin tissues for use on their patients” in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers.
Other Block bills were more technical in their application. One permits part-time faculty at community colleges to participate in the State Disability Insurance program in case of extended illness or injury. Another allows commuters on toll roads (such as SR 125 in Chula Vista) to receive a statement and pay their toll via mail without penalty. A third requires the California Board of Accountancy to post minutes of its meetings regarding licensure and regulation of Certified Public Accountants.
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