Press and Updates

September 01, 2022

[Excerpt from San Antonio Report] U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh heaped praise on San Antonio’s city government for its expansive workforce development program, often called the largest of its kind in the country.  He said he wishes the federal government could do more....

May 27, 2022

Virginia Mata, Sonia Rodriguez and Mike Phillips -- all key leaders with COPS/Metro -- make their argument: [Excerpt] In 2020, COPS/Metro proposed the concept to city of San Antonio officials of a locally funded workforce development program using redirected existing dedicated taxes, then conducted...

May 19, 2022

When the pandemic precipitated a massive unemployment crisis in 2020, COPS/Metro immediately pushed the City Council to pump $75 Million into support of displaced workers as they trained for higher paying jobs.  Leaders then engineered SA Ready to Work as a ballot initiaitve to help 15,000...

April 12, 2022

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March 16, 2022

[Excerpt] The book includes critical assessments of the status of Mexican Americans, none as important, in my judgment, as the emergence of “a professional and academic voice” among Latinos and the rise of major institutions to advocate for Mexican Americans and defend their rights....

December 21, 2021

[Excerpt] "Lawmakers have ordered Comptroller Glenn Hegar to wrap up Texas’s biggest corporate tax break program, but he wants to give companies one last gift: an end to public accountability. Activists, corporate relocation specialists and lawmakers are scrambling to comment on Hegar’s proposal that...

November 17, 2021

[Excerpt] Everyone in San Antonio knows about flash floods—“Turn Around, Don’t Drown” signs are familiar on certain roads. But in the West Side, a neighborhood established by Mexican Americans who were restricted from more resourced neighborhoods north of downtown, floods were far more commonplace. “I...

July 09, 2021

[Excerpt] City staff has moved at breakneck speed by self-imposing a timeline that does not consider their need to learn more broadly what works and what does not work. This massive initiative needs a true champion to lead it now. COPS/Metro calls on Mayor...

July 03, 2021

[Excerpt] As San Antonio’s job training program lags and officials try to suss out the details of its next phase, a key backer worries the initiative is in trouble. COPS/Metro, a grassroots advocacy group, aggressively lobbied city leaders to create an emergency program to...

June 30, 2021