Guitars and Ukes In The Classroom

After over 5 hours of public testimonies and councilmembers working through conflicts, this happened yesterday, now we await the final word...

Morning Report: Council Overrides Some Budget Cuts -- for Now The City Council unanimously approved a budget on Tuesday to send back to Mayor Todd Gloria. Gloria can now approve it, veto it or use his line-item veto.  Even though […]

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Everything listed is for adults serving in Education, or working with children, and community volunteers. The doors are open!

Our summer in person classes are still in formative stages. So please sign up for a virtual class today and make music a joyful part of your summer with us! https://www.guitarsintheclassroom.org/

San Diego Unified School District San Diego County Employees' Charitable Organization San Diego Community College District San Diego County Office of Education Head Start Make Music Day

Meet GITC partner and'friend, Executive Director of the San Diego Council on Literacy. Jose Cruz!
You can read about his life, and what inspired him to become a true champion for literacy in our community.

The San Diego Union-Tribune
(Thank you to C3 Communications)

Someone San Diego Should Know: Jose Cruz

As a youth he had trouble reading; now he's a literacy leader

By JAN GOLDSMITH
PUBLISHED: June 5, 2026 at 8:00 AM PDT

“On shelves in my bedroom are books I read in ninth,10th and 11th grade,” Jose Cruz said. “I keep them in alphabetical order and clean. They were my inspiration and now are my treasures.”

Reading eventually became his life’s work as one of San Diego’s leading advocates for literacy.

Born in 1955, Cruz was the third youngest of 10 children living in a small house in Logan Heights. His father worked as a cook, and his mother pressed shirts.

“They worked hard and were gone a lot,” he recalled. “My older sisters raised us.”

“There were no books in the house — books cost money — so no one read to us. Instead, they told us stories. My vocabulary came primarily from my brothers and sisters.”

Cruz said he grew up with a reading deficiency. “I had a problem putting words together, vocabulary and reading comprehension,” he recalled. “It was frustrating. I had things in my head and wanted to communicate, but didn’t have the words to express myself.”
He struggled with reading in school, but found encouragement with teachers.

“Being at the tail end of a big family, there wasn’t much encouragement at home. I plugged into what I could find — teachers. At first, reading books was to impress my teachers. Then I fell in love with books.”

Cruz progressed with reading despite some remnants of his early reading deficiency. By ninth grade, he was reading most of his free time, using money earned from a San Diego Tribune (now Union-Tribune) newspaper delivery route to purchase books.

By high school, Cruz wanted to become a writer. He wrote for the school newspaper and composed poetry.

Friends and family nicknamed him “the professor.”

Reading not only brought enjoyment, it helped insulate him from the neighborhood’s dark side.

“Many of the guys I grew up with ended up in gangs, in jail and on drugs dying young,” he said. “I just wanted to keep to myself in my space, reading. I would always have a book with me even if not required for homework.”

His focus on reading helped him become the first in his family to attend college, paying for his education through work, scholarships and loans.

He graduated high school in 1973, earned associate and bachelor’s degrees in English and teaching credentials.

He taught for three years before dedicating his career to literacy. In 1985 he was asked to train tutors in the National City library as part of an adult literacy program. While training tutors, he learned about an ambitious plan to create an organization that would spearhead a countywide literacy effort.

That organization, San Diego Council on Literacy, was formed in 1986. In 1988, Cruz became its first employee, rising to chief executive officer in 2006 and serving in that capacity ever since.

Today, the Council on Literacy supports 35 affiliated programs in San Diego County, providing direct help to adults and children. It has distributed 500,000 books, conducted outreach and community awareness programs as well as regular training for tutors.

Cruz said the effort is needed. “There are about 600,000 adults reading at the lowest level of literacy in San Diego County,” he said. “About 23% of the adult population is not reading above sixth-grade level. Too many people graduate from high school not able to read.”

Drawing from his own childhood experience, Cruz explained that low literacy skills often begin at an early age “when parents can’t or don’t read to their children, which is the best way to develop children’s literacy skills.

“And when there are no books in the home, fewer children are likely to be read to or read themselves. I knew early on what it feels like to lag behind. It isn’t a good feeling.”

Cruz said there is a lot of work needed to encourage literacy, but it’s worth the effort.

“Reading was the key that gave me confidence and motivation to attend college,” he said. “Reading is a beautiful and magical thing,”
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About this series:
Goldsmith is a Union-Tribune contributing columnist.
Donate Today | San Diego Council on Literacy

(Photo: Jan Goldsmith)

Finally some great news! Partial restoration of operational support for the San Diego Arts orgs is making its way toward inclusion in the City's 2027 budget. Until it's inked, we persevere. But great organizations and people have banded together to bring this common cause forward! Bob Lehman, Felicia Shaw, and San Diego ART Matters, thank you! Chrustine Martinez and Peter Comisky of Arts + Culture: San Diego,, thank you! To our most dedicated Councilmembers,, thank you for speaking out and working hard to advocate for the Arts! Thank you so much to the Conrad Prebys Foundation for stepping up with both feet! Today, thanks to collective action and individual integrity, we are breathing a little easier, What an historic day for the Arts!

Friends, you should be able to read the article without a paywall.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/06/05/san-diego-restores-10m-in-arts-funding-reversing-proposed-budget-cuts-heres-how/?share=ntiutso0eorvedtonnee

To my pals, yes, the person holding up that colorful sign in the background probably looks familiar.

NAMM Foundation AERO San Diego (Arts Education Resource Organization of San Diego)

San Diego restores $10M in arts funding, reversing proposed budget cuts. Here’s how.

Welcome to Guitars and Ukes in the Classroom, Teachers at Valley View Elementary School and Murphy Elementary School in the West Contra County School District! Your joy, enthusiasm, and dedication to learning yesterday were epic! We hope you are singing your way through the morning. Thank you, Bill Graham Memorial Foundation for the support to bring GITC's work to these phenomenal public school educators and leaders!

Saga Musical Instruments NAMM Foundation Ukulele Magazine Amplified Impact Partners