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  • California’s $115 million investment in zero-textbook-cost program at risk of falling short

    California’s $115 million investment in zero-textbook-cost program at risk of falling short


    Credit: Julie Leopo / EdSource

    As California’s 1.8 million community college students begin the term, many are forced to make a difficult choice — whether to spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks required to help them earn a degree, or to pay their rent or buy meals for their families. This is a choice that no one should have to make.

    Thankfully, this choice could soon become obsolete with the establishment of zero textbook-cost programs throughout the California Community Colleges. Zero-textbook-cost programs are degree and certificate pathways in which students do not pay extra for course materials.

    These programs largely rely on openly licensed materials that are free for faculty and students to use, edit and share. In 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom appropriated $115 million for the state’s community colleges to implement zero-textbook-cost programs and develop open educational resources, paving the way for more affordable education for millions of students and positioning California as a leader and model for other states, stating the need to “deal with the racket … that is the textbook industry.”

    However, this unprecedented $115 million investment may fall short of its potential.

    More than two years have passed with no coordinated effort to determine what zero-textbook-cost programs exist or are being developed, assess gaps in available openly licensed resources, or implement meaningful ways for colleges to share resources to complete their pathways. In addition, no efforts have been made to develop a process for supporting resource co-creation across the system as required by ​​California Education Code 78052, which states: “The chancellor’s office shall ensure that a grant does not result in the development or implementation of duplicate degrees for a subject matter to avoid duplication of effort.” Clearly, the legislation requires statewide coordination in order to “maximize impact for the benefit of the greatest number of students.” To date, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office has done little to encourage the collaboration necessary to realize the legislation’s intent.

    Despite the lack of coordinated preparation, a memo issued by the Chancellor’s Office on Aug. 21 specified an extremely short deadline of Sept. 15 for colleges to submit applications to access $88.55 million in Acceleration Grants, the balance of the available program development funding. Even with a provision for a six-week extension, this turnaround time would be problematic at any point in the year — but even more so when introduced without notice, at the beginning of an academic year, and with minimal guidance. These conditions make it nearly impossible for colleges to conduct the planning required to prepare a quality application. Additionally, while the colleges have received initial funds to plan and establish at least one zero-textbook-cost pathway by fall 2025, this timeline interrupts the Oct.  31 deadline for initial planning that colleges have underway.

    Furthermore, the guidance and communication about these grants has been vague. The universal response across colleges has been dismay and frustration. Why would so little time be provided for the development of the application? How will applications be evaluated? And why is nothing being done to establish statewide coordination of the zero-textbook-cost work — as is necessary to achieve the intent of the legislation?

    There are ways to fix this. First, the deadline to apply for Acceleration Grants should be extended, encouraging colleges to take the time to optimize plans to use the funds effectively — rather than pushing colleges to apply that may not be prepared to do so. Additionally, funding should be set aside for a subsequent round of grants, providing colleges with an incentive to engage in long-term planning.

    Second, guidance should be provided to ensure that colleges do not simply use the funds to purchase textbooks — a quick but temporary fix to an ongoing problem. Further, accountability mechanisms are needed to encourage long-term solutions and the application of lessons learned from implementation efforts. Lastly, the Community College Chancellor’s Office needs to support coordinated resource development and tracking that would provide an easy way to see zero-textbook-cost pathways being created, as well as a means to identify resources that could be shared to maximize the impact of the funds — ensuring that money is not spent reinventing the wheel.

    Open educational resources and zero-textbook-cost programs can have tremendous, positive impacts on the lives and success of students. But for that to happen, the state’s investment in these programs must be used wisely and coordinated effectively. If the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office amends its process, encourages collaboration among colleges, and gives colleges the time they need to plan, California students can reap the benefits of a more affordable, engaging education that leads them to better lives.

    •••

    Lisa Petrides, Ph.D., is CEO and founder of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education and president of the San Mateo County Community College District board of trustees.

    Michelle Pilati, Ph.D., is a professor at Rio Hondo College and project director, Academic Senate for California Community Colleges Open Educational Resources Initiative.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors and not of EdSource or their organizational affiliations. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Allison Gamlen’s journey from actor to arts educator

    Allison Gamlen’s journey from actor to arts educator


    Allison Gamlen’s drama class forms a power circle.

    Credit: Courtesy of Allison Gamlen

    Allison Gamlen has always believed the show must go on. During the depths of the pandemic, when schools were shuttered and many children were suffering from fear and isolation, the arts educator fought to keep her students engaged. 

    When she realized some kids were turning their cameras off and playing video games during her Zoom drama class, she decided to hold some rehearsals in person, in the park. It was important to her that her students keep learning about the arts, but it was even more important to give them a space to connect. These outdoor rehearsals were entirely optional. Students kept their distance and wore masks, but they still found great comfort in that bond.

    “It was a hard time for the kids, for all of us really,” said Gamlen, visual and performing arts coordinator for the San Mateo County Office of Education. “I just wanted to give them some people to connect with. I could cry right now just talking about how moving it was. We made a community, and I wanted to keep that community intact.”

    Gamlen, a 45-year-old single mother, brings a chipper, can-do attitude to her work, particularly the need to be there for young people amid the escalating youth mental health crisis. Giving children a chance to voice their deepest, darkest feelings is at the core of the therapeutic powers of arts education. That’s a key reason Gamlen and other arts educators are cheering the advent of Proposition 28, which guarantees funding, roughly $1 billion this year, for music and arts education in TK-12. 

    “The need for arts education has never been greater,” said Jill MacLean, the director of American Conservatory Theater’s Young Conservatory. “I’ve witnessed many times over, especially these past few years, the transformative power of even the simplest theater-based experiences can be a lifeline to a child. For those who are struggling with anything from discovering their identity and interests to dealing with trauma – having a medium that celebrates uniqueness and grants permission to be creative while rewarding collaboration and focused effort – is exceptionally beneficial. The very foundation of acting is connecting to another human being, to share stories as a way to find meaning and relationship to others in the world.”

    Like many in the teaching arts field, Gamlen is an educator, but she’s also an artist. She first fell in love with the theater at age 3 when her grandmother took her to a Japanese puppetry version of “Macbeth.” Some little kids might have been intimidated by the Scottish play, but she was entranced.

    “I remember this intense feeling,” she said. “I remember the colors, red and black, and I remember feeling like there was no disconnect between me and the performers. I felt immersed in it, and it was so terrifying and so exciting and so unlike anything I had ever seen. I knew that was for me. That world.”

    She cut her teeth as an actor and dancer. In addition to her work in the schools, she also teaches musical theater at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater’s youth conservatory. She also recently appeared in the company’s campy revival of “The Wizard of Oz.”

    In traditional showbiz fashion, she paid her dues waiting tables, auditioning for parts and barely scraping by, until one fateful day in LA, watching her toddler, Anna, flap around the backyard in butterfly wings, tall green boots and a bug antenna. She found herself confronting the reality that she needed a stable income and health insurance to raise her child. Being a starving artist wore out its welcome.

    “I couldn’t even go buy a cup of coffee. I had negative money,” she said, in a typical light-hearted quip about a heavy subject. “There were definitely times I was on food stamps, to be honest with you, for the early part of my life. Diapers alone will kill you.”

    That day, Gamlen decided to move back home with her parents in the Bay Area, go back to school and pursue a teaching credential in arts education. Everything fell into place after that. She considers her current role as visual and performing arts coordinator for San Mateo County to be her dream job.

    “Arts education access is a student right,” she said. “I love getting to work with students, teachers, and school leaders to improve student outcomes through increasing arts equity.”

    That may be one reason Gamlen radiates optimism. While some in arts education circles have focused on the complications of implementing Proposition 28, which will put the arts back into classrooms after decades of cutbacks, she prefers to keep her eye on the upside. For example, there will soon be thousands of new jobs for arts educators, many of whom, like Gamlen, have long struggled to get by as artists. 

    “I am so stoked,” she said.  “I know we’re hearing there’s a lot of questions and challenges, but it’s phenomenal. It’s so fantastic. So I can deal with the waiting. I can deal with the uncertainty.”

    Like most arts educators, she sees her work as an avocation rather than a job. She believes in the power of the arts to elevate the educational experience and many say that commitment shows in her work.

    “She is one of our newest and most active county arts leads and has made a great impression on me,” said Letty Kraus, director of the California County Superintendents’ statewide arts initiative. “She is very energetic and engaged in her work supporting arts education in her county, and very collaborative in her interactions and contributions to our network.”

    She’s also a practical soul, often encouraging students to pursue media arts so they can snag a high-paying Silicon Valley tech job if they want to afford to live in the Bay Area. 

    “What makes Allison stand out, aside from her own skill set and artistry, is her keen interest in providing students with concrete tools they can take with them for their future experiences,” said MacLean.

    There’s certainly a treasure trove of knowledge and nuance to be mined in a comprehensive arts education. Theater classes combine learning the craft of the actor with a deep understanding of how to best interpret the text. Actor training often taps into disciplines as diverse as history, literature and movement in order to make the leap from page to stage. If you are studying a scene from Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold … and the Boys,” for instance, you must take a deep dive into the legacy of colonialism, race and apartheid as well as the art of ballroom dancing.

    “Allison’s knowledge about the process of acting, and her ability to break it down and make it accessible to young actors, is a gift,” said MacLean. “She understands the value of creating scaffolding to build a strong foundation when working with students. From a teaching standpoint, we are only as strong as our ability to effectively communicate the tools of trade.”

    The lessons Gamlen hopes to impart go far beyond acting, however. She also hopes to help create a nurturing environment for a generation of students living through tumultuous times. 

    “It’s our job to create a safe space for them,” she said. “Students in this generation are living through the craziest times I can remember. I was there with them for that spooky orange sky day, and the insurrection and the inauguration too. The arts absolutely can be a place to process those things.”





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  • Fresno Unified’s plan for keeping schools open if teachers strike: Pay subs $500 a day

    Fresno Unified’s plan for keeping schools open if teachers strike: Pay subs $500 a day


    Credit: Julie Leopo/EdSource

    Back in May, the union representing over 4,000 educators in Fresno Unified gave the school district an ultimatum: Agree on a new contract, which expired the following month in June, or face a strike of thousands of teachers by October.  

    Since November 2022, the Fresno Teachers Association and Fresno Unified School District have negotiated contract terms without avail, even going before the Public Employment Relations Board and declaring an impasse on issues.  

    The union’s proposal includes requests for pay raises, lifetime benefits, better working conditions for teachers, plus multi-million dollar investments for students, such as free laundry service as well as clothes and school supplies for students in need. Such student investments, which also include proposals for free universal after-school programs and district-sponsored food pantries, reflect FTA’s vision of ways to address students’ social-emotional needs. 

    While pay increases may be attainable, the district insists that demands centered around student support do not belong in the contract language, but can be areas for collaboration and implementation with individual schools, notably  the district’s community schools. 

    Now less than a month remains before the union’s Sept. 29 deadline to reach an agreement ahead of an Oct. 18 strike vote. The union and district are still at an impasse following a July 24 state mediation that didn’t reach a breakthrough in negotiations. Informal meetings and fact-finding sessions with a neutral third party are seemingly the last hope for bridging the gap between the two. 

    If there’s no compromise and a strike is called, Fresno Unified has a plan: Pay thousands of substitute teachers $500 each day of the strike. 

    “We are committed to keeping our schools open, safe and entirely available for the critical learning of our kids,” Superintendent Bob Nelson told families in a back-to-school message addressing the possible strike. “After the pandemic school closure, we know our kids can’t afford to lose any more learning time, and we’ll ensure that doesn’t happen.” 

    But is that feasible, considering the costs to the district, the uncertainty of how long a strike will last and the number of subs that are needed? 

    Increased sub pay would be offset by not paying striking teachers 

    A $500 daily pay rate is much more than subs usually make. Currently, substitute teachers within Fresno Unified are paid around $200 a day. The increased pay is necessary to recruit subs to work during a strike, Nelson explained in a late August interview with EdSource. 

    And the costs to the district will balance out because the district won’t be paying teachers while they are on strike.  Many of the Fresno Unified teachers average daily pay of $490, according to district spokesperson Nikki Henry. 

    “That’s not the point,” said Manuel Bonilla, the teachers union president. “The point is, you’re willingly spending $2 million a day (for 4,000 subs) in order to avoid being a leader and coming to the table and actually addressing issues that your teachers feel are important to the sacrifice of students.” 

    Nelson disagrees, stating that Fresno Unified and the Fresno Teachers Association have continued to meet. 

    So even as Nelson said he is doing his “absolute best” to avoid a strike, Fresno Unified must also do “whatever it takes in order to not tell families they can’t send their kids to school again.” 

    “Post-pandemic, we can’t shut our schools to the kids that we serve,” Nelson said.

    The last time Fresno Unified teachers went on strike was in 1978, 45 years ago. Then, the district also offered substitute teachers a higher rate during the strike. But even with increased pay for subs, the district was unable to cover all the classrooms, retired teacher Barbara Mendes recalls. The district placed administrators in the classrooms and sometimes combined classes.

    “We talked to them about that (in 1978): You won’t give us a pay raise, but you’ll give them (substitute teachers) a pay raise?’” Mendes said, echoing the union’s current leadership. “It doesn’t make any sense.” 

    Mendes, 84, was the FTA representative for Lane Elementary and had been teaching for only three years when she and others went on strike in 1978. 

    Still, Mendes said she understands and doesn’t doubt the district’s determination to keep schools open. 

    “So they have to do what they can,” she said. 

    Does Fresno Unified have enough subs if about 4,000 strike?  

    Bonilla said the Fresno Teachers Association hopes that all educators who belong to the union join the picket line if the strike happens. 

    That’s around 4,000 educators who could strike. 

    FTA represents about 90% of the district’s more than 3,900 teachers as well as nurses, social workers and other professionals, totaling about 4,000 educators.

    Other employees across the district could also strike. 

    In 1978, some administrators and employees working in the district office, including Mendes’ husband, Larry Mendes, joined the strike in support of the teachers they’d worked with.  

    In early August, at least 1,000 out of 1,100 FTA members who responded to a poll indicated their willingness to strike.  

    “Just a poll,” Bonilla noted, “but it gives a sense of where people are.” 

    Right now, the district has around 1,600 subs ready to work.

    But having enough subs is a lingering concern for Fresno Unified, Nelson admitted, especially because it’s difficult to estimate the number of subs needed.

    Since the $500-a-day plan went public in August, many retirees have expressed their intent to sub during a strike, Nelson said.

    He also expects the $500 pay rate will draw subs from neighboring school districts, such as Clovis and Sanger, as well as from across the Central San Joaquin Valley. 

    Even if the more than 1,600 current subs, retirees and subs from other districts can’t cover the number of striking educators, the district has a backup plan. 

    In 2017, when Fresno teachers voted to strike but didn’t, then-new Superintendent Nelson worked with the Fresno County Office of Education to get subs certified. He said the district would adopt a similar process this time if the strike happens.

    Subs must still meet district requirements 

    Bonilla questioned the district’s ability to complete the necessary background checks and requirements for possibly thousands of substitute teachers to be in the classroom by the time of a strike.

    In fact, he said he wouldn’t send his own kids, ages 11, 9 and 5, to school during a strike. 

    “I would not feel safe sending my kid into a space where I don’t know who they are,” Bonilla said. “I would do everything in my power, as a parent, prior to a strike and during a strike, to put pressure on district leadership to say, ‘Get this back in order so, that way, my kid can go back to the classroom with their teacher, somebody that I know and trust.’”

    To become a substitute teacher with Fresno Unified, individuals need a teaching credential or substitute teaching permit and must apply for the position, complete an interview, be fingerprinted and participate in mandatory training. 

    Even if the district is able to staff schools with qualified subs, Bonilla said, students will be learning from a packet, assuming that most subs won’t have the credentials to teach in the class they’re assigned to. 

    “It’s not someone who’s been prepared to teach,” he said. “It’s somebody who’s essentially there to babysit kids.” 

    Nelson acknowledged that some families may not send their kids to school because of the strike, but he said the district cannot be unprepared and will not close schools again. 

    “We cannot go to a place where our schools are not open, safe and available for learning,” he said. “That’s not OK. We are just getting back on track.” 

    Prior to the pandemic, the school district was making academic gains faster than the state even though Fresno Unified students were further behind, Nelson said. 

    Based on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, or CAASPP tests, the percentage of students statewide meeting or exceeding standards increased from 44% to 50.87% in English language arts and from 33.66% to 39.73% in math from 2015 to 2019. 

    The percentage of Fresno Unified students meeting or exceeding standards, from 2015 to 2019, went from 27% to 38% in English and 18% to 29.85% in math. 

    Whereas the state improved by 6.87 points in English and 6.07 in math, Fresno Unified improved more – by 11 points in English and 11.85 in math.

    “We are back on that trajectory two years after the pandemic,” Nelson said. “Any thought of taking that trajectory again in a negative direction by forcing kids out of school is not on the list of available choices for us. It’s just not. So whatever we need to do to keep schools open, we will.” 

    Still, Fresno Unified has not yet reached the state percentages of students meeting standards. And because of the pandemic, students statewide, including those in Fresno Unified, experienced learning loss that dropped test scores, in some cases to lower rates than prior to the pandemic. In 2022, CAASPP tests showed 47.06% and 33.38 % of students statewide met or exceeded English standards and math standards, respectively. In Fresno Unified, tests showed 32.24%  and 20.82% met or exceeded English and math standards, respectively.

    But public data doesn’t yet show whether Fresno Unified’s students are again improving faster, as they were before the pandemic. 

    ‘We’re still trying’

    Even as both sides are hopeful that a strike can be averted, teachers say they are frustrated by the district’s plan.

    Bonilla, the teachers union president, said the district’s plan doesn’t address the issues head-on. 

    “It’s never about facing the reality that there are issues we need to address,” he said. 

    Such frustrations could inevitably lead to the strike and to even more educators striking, Mendes warned. 

    “The more upset teachers get,” Mendes said, “the more likely they are to strike.” 

    District leaders say they are frustrated as well. 

    Nelson said that although the district intends to avoid the strike, it’s difficult to negotiate with FTA’s “last, best and final” offer while still having ongoing talks about issues. 

    “You can either say, ‘This is our plan: Take it or leave it’ or you can say, ‘We want to have informal conversations with you about all that stuff,’” Nelson said. “But you can’t say ‘take it or leave it’ and then insist upon informal conversation.” 

    Nelson’s view of the union’s final offer is “disingenuous,” Bonilla said. 

    “Never once did we say take it or leave it,” he said. “What we said was, ‘These are the ways in which our educators feel we can improve this district. If you have other ideas, then bring those to the table so we can discuss.

    “He’s never negotiated. He’s never brought an idea back to the table.’” 

    Nevertheless, because the union issued its final offer in May, Nelson said it leaves the district to continue to go through the state mediation process.

    “We’re still trying,” he said. “We just don’t see eye-to-eye. It’s just that simple.” 

    So what’s next? 

    Both parties now await the outcome of last week’s fact-finding sessions, in which a recommendation report could either push the union and school district closer to a resolution or further apart. 

    “We started the week with two full days of mediation and had hope that we might be able to reach an agreement, but unfortunately that was unsuccessful,” Nelson informed families in a September 8 message about the sessions. 

    Following the failed mediation attempts of the fact-finding stage, FTA and Fresno Unified made presentations before a neutral third party. 

    Based on the presentations and on discussions during the sessions, the fact finder will make a recommendation in a report. 

    If the union and district still don’t agree on a contract 10 days following the fact-finding report, the district must release that report to the public, leaving the district with the option to impose a contract and allowing the union to vote to strike.

    EdSource reporter Daniel J. Willis contributed to this report.





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  • How these bills before Gov. Gavin Newsom could change education in California

    How these bills before Gov. Gavin Newsom could change education in California


    Senate Bill 1263 will be heard by the full Assembly if it makes it through the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

    Credit: AP Photo/Terry Chea

    Within the past week, the Legislature dispatched hundreds of bills, including several dozen affecting TK-12 and higher education.

    Important education bills heading to Gov. Gavin Newsom include extending the ban on suspending students for willful defiance in high schools, creating more training for bilingual teachers, requiring gender-neutral student bathrooms by 2026, and enticing retired teachers to return to the classroom for the next few years.

    We include one bill dealing with the Local Control Funding Formula that was withdrawn at the last minute but could find its way into next year’s budget. Newsom has through Oct. 14 to sign or veto bills he received by Sept. 14. Two bills to place a school bond before voters next year were also pulled; negotiations with Gov. Gavin Newsom will determine which moves forward next year. 

    Teacher shortage

    Retired teachers: Senate Bill 765 would temporarily increase the amount teachers can earn post-retirement so that they can return to the classroom to take teaching positions that districts otherwise can’t fill. If the governor signs the bill, retired teachers will be able to earn 70% of the median final compensation of all California State Teachers Retirement members who retired the previous year, instead of the current 50%. The temporary measure would start July 1, 2024, and end on July 1, 2026. 

    “California has a teacher shortage, and we must do more to get teachers back in the classroom,” said state Sen. Anthony Portantino on Friday. “This is the most critical investment we can make and one that our students deserve. SB 765 makes it easier for retired teachers to come back to their teaching positions, and I look forward to the governor’s signature on this important measure.” 

    The bill originally called for increasing the grant award for teacher candidates participating in the Teacher Residency Grant program from $25,000 to $40,000, but the increase was included as part of the state budget earlier this year.

    Teacher recruitment: Assembly Bill 934, authored by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, would require the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to spend up to $900,000 to contract with a public relations organization to develop a campaign highlighting the value of educators and urging people to become preschool to 12th-grade teachers. The campaign would also include information about the various pathways teacher candidates can take to earn their credentials.

    “Most districts have found teachers to be in short supply, especially for math, science, special education and bilingual education,” said Muratsuchi, in his author’s statement. “Most districts are filling hiring needs with teachers on substandard credentials and permits, reflecting a statewide trend of increasing reliance on underprepared teachers. AB 934 will support the state’s numerous efforts to recruit and retain high-quality teachers, by building public awareness about the exciting and meaningful career of teaching.”

    Assembly Bill 238, also authored by Maratsuchi, would have paid student teachers. The bill did not make it through the Legislature by Thursday’s deadline and was put in the inactive file. Legislators will consider the bill again next session, said Kerry Jacob, communications director for Muratsuchi. 

    “We will continue to work with the administration and stakeholders on solutions to pay student teachers, which will improve teacher recruitment to address California’s teacher shortage,” Jacob said. 

    School nurse shortage

    Vocational nurses in schools: Senate Bill 1722 will allow licensed vocational nurses to serve as school nurses when there are not enough credentialed school nurses. The licensed vocational nurses must be supervised by a credentialed school nurse.

    There has been a shortage of credentialed school nurses for years. Although school nurses often work fewer days than their peers in hospitals and clinics, they are paid less and must take additional classes and pay more fees to get the job, which requires a school nurse services credential. 

    School districts can only hire a licensed vocational nurse if they can not find a credentialed school nurse for the job and if their school board votes to approve the hire.

    “AB 1722 is a step toward enhancing the health and safety of our students in the face of a growing school nurse shortage,” said Assemblymember Megan Dahle, author of the bill. “This legislation recognizes the urgency of the situation — especially in rural areas of California, such as the 1st Assembly District — and provides schools with a viable solution to ensure trained medical professionals are available to address students’ medical needs.”

    English learners and immigrant students 

    Seal of biliteracy: In order to earn the state seal of biliteracy on their high school diploma, students must show proficiency in English and another language. Assembly Bill 370 gives more opportunities for students to show proficiency in English, including high school GPA, standardized test scores, college-level English language arts class, Advanced Placement exams or SAT scores.

    This is similar to what is required of students to show proficiency in a language other than English to obtain the seal. 

    Advocates say that many bilingual students, particularly English learners, have not received the state seal of biliteracy because there weren’t enough options to show students are proficient in English.

    Newcomer data: Assembly Bill 714 requires the state to report the number of newcomer students, defined as students who were born in another country and arrived in the U.S. within the past three years. 

    It would also require the state to consider including resources specifically for teaching newcomers in the next revision of the English Language Arts and English Language Development framework. Currently, the framework includes resources for teaching all English learners, but not specifically for newcomer students.

    In addition, the bill allows schools to exempt all newcomer students in middle and high school from some required coursework. Current law only exempts students enrolled in programs just for newcomers.

    “AB 714 will ensure that newcomer students are more visible in our education system and receive the support they need for success,” said Martha Hernández, executive director of Californians Together, an organization that advocates for English learners.

    Child care language surveys: Assembly Bill 393 requires child care centers and family child care homes that serve low-income children with state subsidies to ask all families about the languages they speak at home.

    The idea is to incorporate more of children’s home languages in the child care program, to help support them in maintaining those languages and learning English. The information will also be shared with the state to monitor how many children speak languages other than English at home.

    State-subsidized preschool programs have already been conducting the language surveys. 

    Bilingual teacher preparation: Assembly Bill 1127 re-establishes the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program to help prepare more teachers to work in dual-immersion schools or with English language learners.

    The budget included $20 million to re-establish the program for five years. School districts in California have struggled for years to hire teachers with bilingual authorizations — a specialized credential required to teach English language learners.

    In-state tuition for Mexico residents: Students who live in Mexico within 45 miles of the border would be eligible for in-state tuition at community colleges under Assembly Bill 91.

    The bill would apply to community colleges near the border — Cuyamaca College, Grossmont College, Imperial Valley College, MiraCosta College, Palomar College, San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College, San Diego Miramar College, and Southwestern College. Each college could enroll the equivalent of up to 150 full-time students.

    In order for the bill to go into effect, however, the governing board of the California Community Colleges would have to enter into a similar agreement with a university in the state of Baja California, to allow California residents to attend there with in-state tuition as well.

    Dream resource centers: Assembly Bill 278 would establish a grant program to help more high schools set up Dream Resource Centers. Dream Resource Centers provide counseling on financial aid, immigration law, and other resources to help immigrant students and children of immigrants.

    There is no funding in the budget for this grant, however, and the bill would not go into effect until the Legislature funds it.

    School finance and funding

    School facilities bonds: Given the choice of two very different bills to place a large school facilities bond issue before state voters in 2024, the bills’ authors and legislative leaders chose to hold back both in the final days of the legislative session. It will be up to the Newsom administration, through negotiations, to determine which version — or a blend of the two — makes the ballot.

    Assembly Bill 247, authored by Assembly Education Committee Chair Muratsuchi, calls for a $14 billion bond issue for TK-12 and community colleges. Muratsuchi said it would include money for renovations and new construction, including transitional kindergarten facilities; seismic retrofits and safety repairs; improvements to adapt to climate change, reflecting the dangers of extreme heat, fire and flooding; and abatements from lead in water. The bill doesn’t say how the money will be apportioned. Senate Bill 28, authored by Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, would be for $15 billion, and would provide $9 billion for TK-12, including $500 million for charter schools and $500 million for career education, and $6 billion for UC, CSU and community colleges. It would be similar to a Proposition 13 that voters defeated by 47% to 53% in March 2020.

    Advocates for a TK-12-community college bond will point to Proposition 13’s rejection as evidence that including higher ed bonding reduces the odds of passage. But others argue there were other reasons for the loss, including confusion over the number 13: a previous Proposition 13, still much in voters’ minds, was the 1978 anti-tax initiative. What’s clear is the need. Voters last passed a state bond, for $9 billion, in 2016, and there is already a nearly $4 billion backlog of school projects waiting for new money.

    Raising LCFF funding: Legislation that would aim to increase funding for the Local Control Funding Formula by 50% over the next seven years almost made it to Newsom’s desk. But uncertainty about whether Newsom would sign it led the author of Assembly Bill 938 to pull the bill in the last week of the session.

    The bill would re-establish a long-term funding target that was a feature of the 2013 law phasing in the funding formula. Since reaching the target amount in 2018-19, two years early, the Legislature has annually increased LCFF based on the cost-of-living (last year being an exception, with several billion dollars beyond the growing cost of living). AB 938 would increase base funding by 50% by 2030-31, while encouraging districts to use the new money to increase staff pay by that percentage over that time.

    The author, Muratsuchi, said he would continue talks with Newsom’s finance team with the intent of incorporating the bill in the 2024-25 budget. He said it is needed to address staff shortages, although critics say districts should decide, without state pressure, how to balance the need for higher pay with other priorities, like reducing class sizes.

    Instruction and testing

    Textbook and library book censorship: Pushed by Newsom after a confrontation with the Temecula Valley Unified school board, Assembly Bill 1072 states that school boards would be committing censorship and discrimination if they refused to include materials or removed library books or textbooks that would interfere with California’s FAIR Education Act. The Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act, passed in 2011, requires instructional materials to accurately portray the history, viewpoints and experiences of California’s diverse and underrepresented racial, ethnic and other groups, including LGBTQ+ Californians.

    The bill, authored by first-term Assemblymember Corey Jackson, D-Perris, would enable parents and others to file a complaint charging a violation with their county superintendent or directly with the state superintendent of public instruction, who could order a remedy, such as the purchase of a library book or instructional material. If a school district refuses to update a curriculum or textbook intentionally to avoid FAIR Act compliance, the state superintendent could order a FAIR Act-compliant textbook for students, charge the district, and impose a one-time penalty of about $95 per student or $950,000 for an average district with 10,000 students.

    Passed with an urgency provision, AB 1078 will take effect as soon as Newsom signs it, which is expected any day.

    Reporting Smarter Balanced results: The California Department of Education will face a deadline to release Smarter Balanced results and other state testing data by Oct. 15 each year, starting in the fall of 2024, as a result of legislation that Newsom signed earlier this month.

     Senate Bill 293,otherauthored by Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, comes one year after EdSource challenged the department’s decision to delay the release of the statewide test results until December 2022 to coincide with the release of data measures, such as chronic absentee data, in the California State Dashboard. EdSource argued that there was no legal justification for withholding test results because school districts and schools receive their numbers in late summer.

    The Association of California School Administrators agreed in its letter supporting the bill. School districts will use the earlier release “to make informed decisions on many issues, including how to effectively distribute resources to maximize support for students,” the group wrote. “Parents and guardians will better understand how well their children are performing and how best to help them.”

    Eliminating willful defiance: Senate Bill 274 would prohibit teachers from suspending fifth- through 12th-grade students for willful defiance until July 1, 2029. It would also extend the ban on willful defiance suspensions for sixth through eighth grades until July 1, 2029. 

    Willful defiance, as defined by the bill, involves disrupting school activities or the “valid authority” present. 

    The bill would expand on current California law, where students in first through fifth grades cannot be suspended for willful defiance, and first through 12th grade students cannot be expelled for the same reason.  SB 274 would retain a teacher’s current authority to suspend any pupil in any grade from class for willful defiance for the day of the suspension and the following day, as long as the student is under supervision during an in-house suspension. 

    Basic Needs 

    CalFresh eligibility: Under Assembly Bill 274, grants, awards, scholarships, loans and fellowships will not be considered as income when determining eligibility for CalFresh. 

    Additionally, lump sums would only be considered for the month it is received, with the exception of social insurance payments such as veteran’s benefits, social security income, railroad retirement benefits and disability insurance. 

    Income from the U.S. Census Bureau and other government entities – along with federal pandemic unemployment aid – would also not be considered.   

    Mental health access: AB 665, authored by Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles, would allow children 12 years and older to consent to mental health treatment or counseling without the involvement of their parent or guardian. Under existing law, children 12 and older are allowed to consent to mental health treatment or counseling without the involvement of parents, but only after they demonstrate that they are in danger of serious physical or mental harm to themselves or to others, or be the alleged victim of incest or child abuse.

    This bill, which would take effect July 1, 2024, would require the mental health professional to consult with the child before determining whether involvement of the child’s parent or guardian would be appropriate.

    Lead in school water: California would expand its testing and treatment for lead found in public school water with more stringent standards under new legislation.

    Water companies serving schools receiving federal Title I funding would be required to test all water outlets by Jan. 1, 2027, and report the findings to the state and school districts. Districts would be required to shut down the contaminated outlet immediately, notify parents within 30 days, and then replace the outlet or take measures other than running the water before school to dilute concentrations of lead, a standard remediation until now.

    Assembly Bill 249, authored by Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, would cover all outlets, not just some, as a 2017 law requires, and also cover all pre-schools built on public property. The standard for taking action would be 5 parts per billion instead of the current 15 parts per billion. A 2018 analysis by EdSource estimated that 4% of outlets in schools had more than 15 parts per billion and 1 in 5 school outlets tested between 5 and 15 parts per billion. Scientists have concluded that tiny exposures to lead could damage children’s nervous system and organs and cause learning and attention difficulties.

    State analysts project significant one-time costs for districts to do the remediation — money that might be reimbursable as a state mandate or funded through federal or perhaps state construction bonds.

    Narcotic abuse treatment: Assembly Bill 816 would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to consent to replacement narcotic abuse treatment that uses buprenorphine by a medical professional or other medication-based opioid use disorder treatment by a licensed narcotic treatment program without the consent of their parent or guardian. Buprenorphine, one of the active ingredients in Suboxone, partially activates opioid receptors in order to reduce withdrawal symptoms in opioid addicts as they wean off of the drug.

    LGBTQ students

    Gender-neutral bathrooms: Senate Bill 760 requires all public K–12 schools in the state to provide gender-neutral restrooms for students to use during school hours by 2026, as long as they have more than one male and female restroom for students.

    State law already allows students to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. However, some students who identify as non-binary require gender-neutral bathrooms, and some students who identify as transgender feel safer using a gender-neutral bathroom. This bill was written after meetings of an ad hoc committee on safe school bathrooms that was created by State Superintendent Thurmond in response to a 2021 proposal by Chino Valley Unified School District that would have required students to use the bathroom of their biological sex. That proposal did not pass.

    According to a 2019 National School Climate Survey, 45% of LGTBQ+ and nonbinary students avoid gender-segregated school bathrooms because they feel uncomfortable and unsafe using them. Thurmond, who sponsored the bill, said providing an all-gender restroom at every public school is a “critical step toward preparing California students to succeed by ensuring the necessary steps of having a safe foundation to rely on: having a safe and inclusive place to use the restroom.”

    Safe and supportive schools: Assembly Bill 5, authored by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Hollywood, would require public school teachers and credentialed staff to take online training in LGBTQ+ cultural competency starting with the 2025-26 school year. Previously, the state “encouraged” schools to provide training on these topics every two years.

    Zbur, in his comments supporting the bill, said despite progress, LGBTQ+ students still often experience harassment, violence and a lack of affirmation at school.

    “AB 5 will provide public school teachers and staff, who are on the front lines of supporting California students, with the training and support they need to better serve LGBTQ+ and all students,” Zbur said.

    Higher education

    Community college transfer – Assembly Bill 1291, which the Legislature passed last week, attempts to simplify the process of transferring from a California community college to a University of California campus. Under a new pilot program starting at UCLA, students who complete an associate degree for transfer in select majors would be prioritized for admission. The program would later expand to additional campuses in limited majors. 

    Proponents say it would streamline the state’s transfer system since students can get a guaranteed spot somewhere in the California State University system by completing an associate degree for transfer. But the student associations representing UC and the community college system are opposed to the bill.

    “The pilot ADT admissions program this bill would create does not contain any assurances for students that their hard-earned ADT can be used for admission at a UC or CSU of their choice. … Instead of attempting to pass a hastily drafted and last-minute legislation with no student input, we urge you to veto AB 1291,” the students wrote in a message to Newsom.

    EdSource reporters Michael Burke, John Fensterwald, Diana Lambert, Mallika Seshadri, Zaidee Stavely and Ali Tadayon contributed to this story. 

    Correction: Two competing bills to create a state school facilities bond did not move forward, as first reported; they were held back for negotiations to determine which version will go to voters in 2024.





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  • California leaders should focus on getting our money’s worth from public schools

    California leaders should focus on getting our money’s worth from public schools


    Credit: Julie Leopo/EdSource

    After years of promoting “local control” in education, the latest news is full of stories on state intervention in decisions being made by local school boards.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom has threatened the Temecula Valley school district with fines for exercising its local control. He disagrees with their decisions on curriculum. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond flew to Southern California to stand at the lectern during a Chino Valley Unified School District board meeting and lambasted the members over their policy change strengthening the rights of parents to be involved when their child is facing mental health challenges.

    State Attorney General Rob Bonta has even gone so far as to sue Chino Valley Unified for approving the parental notification policy, with the implicit threat this may extend to other districts that have passed or are considering the same policy.

    So much for local control.

    With all this state-level attention to local school districts, does it surprise anyone that none of that focus has anything to do with actually improving education?

    As we’ve seen in headline after headline, actual education in our state is doing nothing but getting worse. By every objective measure, there is — including NAEP scores, SAT/ACT results, and the state’s own CAASPP/SBAC testing system — our education system is doing worse than ever at its core function: educating our kids.

    In 2022, according to the Smarter Balanced testing, less than half of our kids (47%) were proficient in English, and a miserable 28% (fewer than one-third of students) were proficient in math.

    Results from the statewide CAASPP/Smarter Balanced standardized tests, which are administered to students in grades 3-8 and 11 each spring. No data available for 2020, when testing was suspended due to the Covid pandemic.

    Our educational system is clearly failing our kids.

    Meanwhile, districts are spending record amounts of money achieving those dismal results. In 2023-24 our state will spend $127.2 billion on K-12 education, more than any year in history.

    Since 2012, when California voters approved Proposition 30 to increase taxes on ourselves to “better fund education,” per-student funding has skyrocketed. Based on school district financial data published by Ed-Data, in 2012 the state provided $8,832 per student. In 2022 that number was $18,827.

    That means in the last decade, education spending has grown by almost $10,000 per student, which works out to an annual increase rate of 7.86% per year. During that same period, the state reports inflation averaged 2.97% per year. Education funding has risen at a rate over 2½ times faster than inflation.

    This doesn’t include one-time Covid mitigation funding, but does include the extraordinary post-Covid increase in tax revenue. This increase is not expected to continue, meaning districts that used that money to increase spending on ongoing expenses (like pay and benefits) will be facing decisions on what to cut from our kids when the expected “fiscal cliff” arrives.

    The California Department of Education appears to have stopped reporting class size data in 2019, but as of then, the average class size in the state was about 26 kids; $20,000 times 26 students equals $520,000 per classroom.

    Some may think over a half-million dollars a year per classroom should be adequate to provide kids with a good education, but not the education establishment. In a private business, having revenue rising at rates so far above inflation would result in the sound of champagne corks popping. In education, all we hear are continued complaints about “lack of funding.”

    To our education leaders, it’s not about how the money is spent, it’s all about insufficient funding. This is said to us by people who clearly benefit personally from those increases in funding.

    If we look at pay and benefits for education employees, the graph looks much more like the trend in revenue than the graph of academic performance.

    Data for 2022 is not yet complete, but in 2021 according to public pay data collected by Transparent California, the median total compensation for a K-12 administrator was $167,857, and for the certificated group (primarily teachers), $124,513.

    Now, as I said in my EdSource article on respect for teachers, I’m very happy we can afford to pay our education professionals well. But are we getting the results we’re paying for?

    The failure of education in our state is a crisis. For our kids and for the future of the state. The need for leadership to focus on improvements is clear.

    Why, then, is Superintendent Thurmond not showing up at the lectern of board meetings in failing districts and talking about that?

    San Diego Unified recently approved a bonus raise for employees adding tens of millions to future deficits. Funding this will require cuts to programs and services for kids. With only 53% of its kids proficient in English and 41% achieving state standards in math, why did Mr. Thurmond not stand up at their meeting and demand they use their funding to improve education, rather than improving their personal bank accounts?

    Los Angeles Unified is spending $18 billion dollars, with similar failing results. Why is Gov. Newsom not threatening them with fines, or having Mr. Bonta file lawsuits for misuse of government funds?

    Self-serving actions by politicians calculated to appeal to their base rather than improve government services are common in politics. But this is the education of our kids; shouldn’t that be different?

    Why do we accept this? Why do “We the People” not stand up and demand action, from both our local district and our state? An entire generation (and perhaps more) of our kids is at stake. Perhaps that should be more important to our state leadership than grandstanding on political issues that play to their base?

    •••

    Todd Maddison is the director of research for Transparent California, a founding member of the Parent Association advocacy group in San Diego, and a longtime activist in improving K-12 education.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • North Valley Military Institute shuts down amid widespread controversy

    North Valley Military Institute shuts down amid widespread controversy


    Cadet medics simulate taking a patient into a helicopter during an NVMI Summer Camp.

    Credit: Courtesy of Mark Ryan

    The North Valley Military Institute — a grades six-12 charter school founded in 2013 — voluntarily surrendered its charter and closed its doors permanently on Aug. 25, leaving nearly 800 students and 180 employees in the Los Angeles area without a place to learn and work.

    Both NVMI officials and community activists who called for the school’s shutdown have said the closure was months in the making.

    Officials of the charter school blame the closing on accommodation problems as NVMI relied on space at several LAUSD campuses. They told EdSource that their decision to surrender the charter at the Aug. 25 meeting — where five of its 10 board members also resigned — resulted from the school’s inability to secure a single, permanent campus location.

    Community advocates, however, cited a long history of problems, including letters from the Los Angeles County Office of Education detailing alleged misappropriation of funds, unqualified teachers and insufficient services for students with disabilities. The advocates have also pointed to poor standardized test scores and academic performance plus widespread written complaints of bullying and sexual assaults in the school.

    Community advocates who have called for NVMI’s closure over several years have also blamed the Los Angeles County Office of Education for having permitted the charter to continue operating, despite all the allegations. But LACOE spokesperson Van Nguyen said in a statement to EdSource that the county office is “committed to upholding accountability, quality education and maintaining a high standard of financial responsibility among educational institutions within our community.”

    Nguyen also said in a later email that the North Valley Military Institute is one of 15 charter schools authorized by the county office of education since 1997 that has been “revoked, non-renewed, terminated and self-closed.” Only 25 of the 40 charter schools remain open.

    It was not until Aug. 17 — four days before the charter school was scheduled to start the new year — that parents were notified via email that the school would be closed, but only for the 2023-24 academic year.

    “As the captain of the NVMI ship, I am responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen here, and ultimately, I am singularly responsible for not being able to overcome the challenges that we have faced,” said NVMI’s superintendent, Mark Ryan, in the email to parents. “An apology is so inadequate, but I am sincerely sorry for not being able to get us over the finish line and operate this school year.”

    More than 95% of students enrolled at NVMI are from underrepresented minorities, the bulk of whom are Hispanic or Latino, according to state enrollment data.

    Ryan said most of the charter school’s students will not be able to attend other schools — including ones they may have previously attended — because they have been suspended, expelled or have been in juvenile hall.

    Many expressed concern about how the students would fare in a different school setting.

    “They pride themselves with serving students that are at risk,” said Carl Petersen, a community activist. “And … I’m afraid those kids are going to fall through the cracks.”

    Despite concerns that not every student will find a school that will take them, NVMI hosted an enrollment and deployment fair for students and their families to help them determine the next steps.

    More than 25 schools, as well as LAUSD representatives, attended the event, Ryan said. The previous Tuesday, Aug. 15, NVMI held a virtual version of the event for those who were unable to attend in person.

    “We want to help! Los Angeles Unified has reached out on multiple occasions to support all families and students,” according to a statement released by the district on Aug. 18.

    “Given the school year has started for many students, the district reiterates our readiness to collaborate with families to ensure their children are in school immediately, and we call upon NVMI to do the same.”

    On Aug. 22 — several days before NVMI surrendered its charter and five days after parents were notified — the Los Angeles County Office of Education, which issued NVMI’s charter, sent a “notice of concern” to Ryan, Daniel Villanueva, the board’s chairperson and the rest of the board about the charter school’s noncompliance with both its memorandum of understanding with the county office of education and state law.

    The letter specifically states that NVMI’s vote to shut down may have violated the memorandum of understanding between the LA County Office of Education and NVMI, which states the charter would remain effective even if the school becomes non-operational and until the school completes the mandated closure procedures.

    It also stated that the agenda for the Aug. 25 special meeting was not provided with adequate notice under the Brown Act — which requires school boards to publicly an agenda for special meetings 24 hours ahead of the meeting time — and claimed that the Spanish translations “may not have accurately conveyed the intended meaning.”

    “We feel it is important to update NVMI concerning future advanced appointments for its school,” the letter reads. “Based on the action taken by NVMI’s Board, NVMI will not receive any further advanced apportionments for the 2023-24 school year, pursuant to a directive provided by the California Department of Education.”

    Abysmal academic performance

    During the 2021-2022 academic year, based on the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments, only 15.81% of NVMI students across all grade levels met or exceeded state standards in English language arts, while only 3.22% met or exceeded math standards. In science, 4.17% of NVMI students met or exceeded state standards, based on the California Science Test.

    Previously, in the 2013-14 academic year, the year the school opened, NVMI did not have any reportable SAT scores because of the low number of students who completed the exam, according to staff findings on the North Valley Military Institute College Preparatory Academy.

    In 2015-16, the same staff findings revealed that the average SAT score for NVMI students was 1,235 on a 2,400 point scale — below LAUSD, county and state averages. Only 11.1% of NVMI students tested above the median score.

    No students at NVMI completed AP exams during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years. In the 2015-16 academic year, 13 students took AP exams, but none passed with a 3, the staff findings show.

    Ryan said this is largely because the students who come to NVMI are already years behind their peers but that the school had a number of academic supports for students, resulting in about 90% of its students successfully completing a college course before graduating.

    “I would love to improve standardized test scores,” Ryan said. “But I do think that there are these other, you know, metrics that you can point to: the number of kids who are successfully completing A through G requirements, the number of kids who successfully graduate. You know, those are very, very important metrics that, ultimately, are much more important for a kid’s adult life than whether or not they did well on a standardized test.”

    Staffing concerns

    In a Dec. 1, 2022, letter from the LA County Office of Education to Ryan, Villanueva and the school board outlined a series of violations of the law and the Memorandum of Understanding under which the charter operates. Among the violations was an allegation that the school failed to provide evidence of 11 teachers’ credentials.

    “For 10 of these staff members, it could not be determined if they held any California teaching credential or English Language Authorization,” the letter continued.

    It also noted that seven teachers did not have the correct credentials; one had an expired credential, and six did not have the correct EL authorizations.

    The letter states that NVMI was notified of the concerns on Oct. 5 of the concerns, but that it failed to resolve them as of Dec.1.

    Ryan attributed the problem to a hardship in finding teachers. “Everybody, this most recent school year, struggled with finding fully credentialed teachers to teach in every single classroom, and NVMI was no exception.”

    But were the people the school hired qualified to teach? Ryan explained, “We absolutely struggled to find people that were fully credentialed. But … when we found somebody that we thought would be a good teacher — who had at least a bachelor’s degree, who had demonstrated basics … so that they would qualify for the equivalent of an emergency credential — we did hire multiple people in that situation.”

    Inadequate support for students with disabilities

    The Los Angeles County Office of Education also stated in the letter detailing a series of concerns about the school’s operations that 37 special education students at NVMI had overdue individualized education program meetings — and that there were “15 students with a total of 1,240 minutes of owed services.”

    Ryan said in response, that yes, NVMI occasionally had overdue IEPs or owed services, but not currently. “As of June 2023, when the most recent school year ended, there were no overdue IEPs and no owed service minutes.”

    Allegations of bullying and vandalism

    In a series of written complaints, community members alleged that there was widespread harassment and vandalism from NVMI students toward members of their host campuses, particularly the VOCES campus.

    NVMI “is a school that has subjected the communities in which it has tried to operate to chaos over the last year in particular,” alleged Hans Johnson, the president of East Area Progressive Democrats, which has called for action against the charter for years. “The pattern of misconduct … and neglect of its students … is extremely disturbing.”

    On Dec. 17, 2022, German Gurrola, the co-location coordinator at VOCES Magnet, wrote an email to county office of education officials detailing a series of incidents involving alleged harassment— a couple of which were against students with special needs.

    They ranged from verbal harassment to throwing trash to cases where NVMI allegedly threatened to take over shared spaces.

    “We tried really hard to not purposely, to not intermingle with the Valley Oaks Center for Enriched Studies’ community, not because we were trying to be separatist, but because we knew from co-location stories,” Ryan said in response, adding that students at both schools were “equally guilty.”

    “In every case where anything was ever reported to us, or we became aware of anything, even if it wasn’t reported to us, we [took] appropriate disciplinary action … and it’s not a fair statement to say that we somehow encouraged it.”

    Gurrola’s email said he was only aware of one incident where a VOCES student was involved, but that the student had been a previous NVMI student.

    “There is constant harassment by NVMI students towards our students and staff, including harassment by NVMI staff,” the email alleged. “This is creating a climate that affects our socio-emotional learning environment and places undue stress on our students, staff and families.”

    A separate 2017 lawsuit alleged that NVMI students were victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by the school, LAUSD and Brice Tschappat, an administrator hired to assist with the annual summer camp. The lawsuit also argued that LAUSD, which supervised and oversaw the charter at the time, allowed the sexual abuse of NVMI students.

    The sexual abuse accusations include alleged exposure to sexual language and pornographic images and a claim that an NVMI administrator “assaulted and battered at least one of the minor plaintiffs.”

    Alleged misappropriation of funds

    On March 7, the county office requested an audit of NVMI, which is still in progress, according to Nguyen. The county office did not, however, respond to questions about whether NVMI complied with the audit.

    “Based on our review of receipts and internal documents of NVMI’s recent leadership retreat, there is reason to believe that fraud, misappropriation of funds, or other illegal fiscal practices may have occurred,” the audit request reads, stating that the school “mismanaged and misappropriated” $90,000 of public funds to conduct a leadership retreat in Las Vegas.

    The letter also cites an internal staff bulletin that promises NVMI staff fully paid daytime family activities — ranging from bowling to trips to a water park — as well as group tickets to the “Tournament of Kings” show and “America’s Got Talent,” among others.

    A Dec. 8, 2022, email from Ryan to the county office of education admitted that NVMI “used one-time ESSER dollars for the staff well-being activities,” and that non-employees attended the events as well.

    The request letter further alleges that Local Control Funding Formula money was used to serve breakfast — with $2,300 being incurred by non-employees — and demanded that NVMI provide a complete list of its expenditures from the retreat.

    Ryan explained that the retreat was necessary for staff and that they spent most of the time at the retreat working.

    “This was a very sincere working retreat, where 100% of the people who were in attendance can attest … that this was not just some, you know, some junkets to Vegas for people to go gamble and enjoy themselves. This … was absolutely hard work.”

    Looking back

    Support for the charter has waxed and waned over the charter’s decade of existence, Ryan said, adding that several community members expressed apprehension about having a military academy in Los Angeles.

    “This school has served a very special niche,” Ryan said. “There is a population of kids who have simply not been successful in traditional public or private schools, kids who have been suspended, expelled, justice-involved youth, foster youth, homeless youth, kids with significant learning differences … for whom the traditional special education programs have not worked.”

    “This school was founded on the premise that military structure … and culture could really provide a place where students who haven’t necessarily been successful in other places, where they could be successful.”

    For eight years, NVMI administrators have relied on LAUSD campuses to house their school, Ryan said. And each year, they would have to go through a process outlined by Proposition 39, under which LAUSD would offer NVMI a space to locate the charter, usually within the campus of another school.

    Toward the end of the 2021-22 academic year, LAUSD made an offer that would place NVMI on two district campuses. NVMI filed a lawsuit against the district in response, alleging that the offer was illegal and that the charter school could have been housed on a single campus, Ryan said.

    The complaint accused LAUSD of “splitting our campus, upsetting the military culture of the school, causing us financial challenges, causing us operational challenges.”

    LAUSD declined to comment on the multisite offer or lawsuit.

    Ryan said he eventually convinced NVMI’s school board to accept LAUSD’s offer and do their best to operate on multiple campuses. During the split-campus operations, NVMI started each day with a gathering of all NVMI students at the VOCES campus in order to be able to engage in military formation, before busing students to the other locations for the rest of the school day.

    In the spring of 2022, Ryan said LASUD came back with their 2023-24 campus site offer that would require NVMI to operate its school from four different campuses, including three LAUSD campuses.

    NVMI’s board knew that a lawsuit would be costly, Ryan said, adding that they were “dipping significantly into our financial reserves” that had accumulated to nearly $3.8 million.

    “At that point, because we knew we had burned through so much of the reserve … I recommended to my board there’s just no way we can do this. We simply cannot operate another year the way that we operated in ’22-23,” Ryan said. “We went through way too much money, killed staff who were working terribly hard to be able to make this very complex operational plan come to fruition, and it was difficult on families. It was difficult on kids, and it was financially simply not sustainable.”

    As a result, the board made a decision this spring to suspend only the middle school for the 2023-24 academic year.

    Meanwhile, Ryan said the school board realized on July 5 that they didn’t have a campus site. In negotiations, they agreed to lease a five-story building from the Foursquare Church, costing the school $60,000 monthly. Rent at the LAUSD campuses, by comparison, was significantly lower, totaling more than $73,000, according to Ryan.

    Ryan said they submitted “a material revision” to the LA County Office of Education that would have amended the charter with the updated church location.

    “Almost immediately, there was more upheaval, and there was an outcry that, ‘Well, gee, you know, this is a public school … giving public money to a church,’” Ryan said.

    The city of Los Angeles said a public school could operate on the church site but that acquiring the necessary change of use permit could take years. These promises from the city, Ryan noted, were made verbally and not in writing.

    Ultimately, Villanueva, the school board’s chairperson, said deciding to close the school was the “biggest disappointment” of his life.

    “Our heart was always full,” Villanueva said. “{We thought): ‘Let’s give this one more try … to literally not only turn every stone but every pebble and every grain of sand in our house up until last week.’”





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  • California’s public charter schools — and their students — deserve equitable funding

    California’s public charter schools — and their students — deserve equitable funding


    A teacher and students at Aspire Inskeep Academy in Los Angeles.

    Courtesy: Aspire Public Schools

    In times of crisis, we should be looking for ways to help, not hinder. But in California, the inequities in public school education funding are only deepening the crisis for too many students.

    On top of the devastating social-emotional and academic effects of the pandemic, our communities have been dealing with widespread staffing challenges, culture wars and frequent unfair attacks on educators. And in cities across California, projections suggest that public school enrollment will continue to drop — creating a crisis for practically all schools across the state.

    Public charter schools face all of these challenges and more. At Aspire Public Schools, a charter school network serving more than 15,000 students in 36 schools across the state, our student population is more than 85% Black and Latino, and the vast majority of our students are experiencing poverty. Yet since the day we were founded, we’ve been forced to get creative with limited resources: Aspire students — like all public charter school students in California — receive less funding than their peers in traditional public schools.

    According to new research from the University of Arkansas, the problem remains severe. In the 2019-20 school year, Los Angeles public charter school students received $5,226 less per-pupil funding than their counterparts in traditional public schools. In Oakland, the gap is even larger, at $7,103. This is driven by a lack of public funding. In both cities, public charter schools receive less local, state and federal funding than their counterparts in traditional public schools.

    Why? While both public charters and traditional public schools receive the same amount of base funding under California’s Local Control Funding Formula, or LCFF, that doesn’t mean the total funding is equal. One reason for this is that schools receive additional funding for higher-need student categories and for higher concentrations of students in those categories, known as “concentration grants.” However, charter school concentration grant amounts are capped based on the average student demographics for the district in which they reside. This means that public charters are, in effect, penalized for serving a greater share of high-need students than their district. There are also a number of local, state and federal funding streams that are only accessible to traditional public schools —for instance, voter-approved local funding for operations or capital projects.

    I’m not writing this to complain. We are honored to serve our school communities and our wonderful, talented scholars. It’s hard work, but unequal funding makes it harder. The more time we have to spend fighting tooth and nail for basic resources, the less we can spend educating California’s next generation. Our scholars are the same students whom politicians claim to want to support, especially in the wake of the pandemic, but they are consistently left out because they and their families made the choice to attend a public charter school. Elected officials frequently speak about the importance of equity, and we at Aspire couldn’t agree more. But equity means all students getting what they need — and Aspire schools (as well as many other public charter schools) serve large numbers of historically marginalized students.

    This challenge is nothing new. If you talk to charter leaders across California, they’ll all tell you a similar story. Due to this systemic funding deficit, we have had no choice but to try to raise philanthropic dollars to fill critical funding gaps. But that is often turned into an attack against us, with critics saying that public charter schools are bankrolled by private investors. That is simply untrue. Trust me — I would love nothing more than to be able to operate our schools without fundraising. But it’s just not an option.

    And new challenges often emerge. Just two years ago we made the choice to go to Sacramento to advocate for all public charter students to fight against legislation that would have penalized charter schools — and not traditional public schools — for following the state’s guidelines for quarantining students who were exposed to Covid-19. While we were able to win that fight, it is illustrative of the larger issue: Charter students are treated as less than others.

    But here’s the thing: Despite these challenges, charter schools have been able to accomplish so much. According to new research from the CREDO Institute at Stanford University, California charter students have gained the equivalent of 11 days of reading and four days of math compared with similar students in traditional public schools. Black and Latino students and students experiencing poverty had even larger gains. At Aspire specifically, we were proud to have met CREDO’s “gap-busting” criteria in both reading and math, recognizing our ability to reduce opportunity gaps at scale.

    So many of our students are carrying so much. They are talented and resilient, and they work hard to achieve their goals. We believe in them, and we tell them that every day.

    But this funding gap tells them something different — that because they happen to attend a charter school, they matter less. It’s time that education leaders put childish politics aside and focus on giving all of our kids what they need. They’re all California students. They deserve to be treated as such.

    •••

    Mala Batra is the chief executive officer at Aspire Public Schools, a charter management organization serving 15,000 TK-12 students across 36 schools in historically underserved communities throughout California.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • AI, other education technology can infringe on rights of disabled, LGBTQ students, report warns

    AI, other education technology can infringe on rights of disabled, LGBTQ students, report warns


    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    The use of education technology in schools, such as artificial intelligence, digital surveillance and content filters, poses a threat to the civil rights of students with disabilities, LGBTQ students and students of color, a new report released Wednesday warns.

    Some technology used in schools to block explicit adult content and flag students at risk of self-harm or harming others have also created serious problems for already vulnerable students, cautions the report by the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that advocates for civil rights in the digital world.

    The report is based on a wide-ranging online national survey about the technology used by schools, students and teachers. This summer, the Center for Democracy and Technology polled 1,029 ninth- through 12th-grade students, 1,018 parents of sixth through 12th grade students and 1,005 teachers of sixth through 12th grade students in a sample the organization said was weighted to be “nationally representative.”

    According to the Center for Democracy and Technology, the surveys also indicate widespread confusion about the role of artificial intelligence in the classroom, with a majority of parents, students and teachers saying they want more information and training about how to properly use it.

    Report outlines education technology’s risks to students

    The report outlines how school technology can, often inadvertently, harm students. The Center for Democracy and Technology says these harms are felt most acutely by vulnerable students.

    Students reported incidents of LGBTQ classmates being outed by digital surveillance, a potentially traumatizing event of sharing their sexual identity or orientation without their consent.

    Students with disabilities said they were most likely to use artificial intelligence — and they were more likely to report facing disciplinary action for using it.

    One-third of teachers said content related to race or the LGBTQ community is more likely to be restricted by filters. The center said this “amounts to a digital book ban.”

    Some schools have faced pushback for the way they deployed technology. After the American Civil Liberties Union sued a school district in Texas, the district loosened a filter that had blocked the website of the Trevor Project, a website aimed at LGBTQ youth.

    “There are certain groups of students who should already be protected by existing civil rights laws, and yet they are still experiencing disproportionate and negative consequences because of the use of this education data and technology,” said Elizabeth Laird, director of equity in civic technology for the Center for Democracy and Technology.

    Although schools often have dedicated staff and other practices set up to ensure that students’ civil rights are being protected, Laird said its survey indicates that schools have not fully wrestled with how education technology is affecting the promise of an equitable education, resulting in civil rights and technology being treated as separate issues.

    “I think they’ve been kept separate, and the time is now to bring those together,” Laird said.

    Civil rights groups call for more federal guidance

    While schools have been conducting more outreach than in previous years, the survey shows an increase in student and parent concerns about data and privacy over the past year. Survey data collected in previous years shows both parents and students need more outreach and engagement on how schools are selecting and using technology.

    Last October, the White House released a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, but civil rights groups — including the ACLU, the American Association of School Librarians, American Library Association, Disability Rights in Education Defense Fund and the Electronic Frontier Foundation — signed a letter accompanying the Center for Democracy and Technology’s report, petitioning the federal Department of Education for more guidance.

    “In the year since the release of the Blueprint, the need for education-related protections remains and, if anything, is even more urgent with the explosive emergence of generative AI,” according to the letter.

    Fifty-seven percent of teachers in the survey stated they haven’t had any substantive training in AI, while 24% say they have received training in how to detect inappropriate use of AI.

    The survey also found that 58% of students have used ChatGPT or other generative AI programs, and 19% said they have submitted a paper written using AI. Students report using AI both for school assignments and for dealing with mental health issues or personal problems with family and friends.

    Students with disabilities are more likely to use generative AI: 72% said they’ve used the technology. Parents of students with disabilities are more likely to say that their students have been disciplined for their use of artificial intelligence. The report calls higher rates of discipline among vulnerable communities “particularly worrisome.”

    These students and their parents — 71% of students with disabilities and 79% of their parents — express more concern than others about the privacy and security of the data collected and stored by the school.

    Licensed special education teachers are more likely to have conversations with students and their parents about student privacy and equity issues in technology, a “promising practice that could be extended to the rest of the school population,” the Center for Democracy and Technology recommends.

    School surveillance’s long arm

    The civil rights issues can go beyond the walls of the school. Some students, particularly students of color and those from lower-income communities are more likely to rely on school-issued devices when they are at home. Monitoring and tracking can therefore follow them home.

    “Their learning environment for those students is quite different than those who can essentially opt out of some of this tracking,” Laird said.

    Students who use technology devices to charge their personal phones may also find that this technology will scan and monitor these personal devices as well. Among students who have used their school device for charging, 51% said school software began syncing with and downloading content from their personal device.

    Monitoring technology became prevalent in the pandemic-era remote learning, but it has persisted, with 88% of teachers reporting their schools use the technology. The White House named preventing the unchecked monitoring of students a priority in its blueprint. The Center for Democracy and Technology says that the use of surveillance technology can cause a host of problems for students.

    Students with disabilities and LGBTQ students are more likely to report being disciplined as a result of technology that monitors them. Laird said that sometimes students are disciplined for something the technology flagged, but other times, they are disciplined because of their reaction to being flagged.

    Schools sometimes share data directly with law enforcement — even after school hours. Fifty-three percent of special education teachers and 46% of teachers in Title I schools said data was shared with law enforcement after hours. During an interview with the Center for Democracy and Technology, the parent of a ninth grader said that law enforcement was contacted even before she was notified when something on her child’s device was flagged by the school’s monitoring technology. Her son was questioned for an hour without her consent.

    “All of those things can result in students being removed from the classroom and losing instructional time,” said Laird. “And so if those students are being disproportionately flagged and being intervened in a disproportionate way, this could also be a potential violation of [a student’s right to a free and appropriate public education], which is specific to preventing discrimination on the basis of disability.”





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  • University of California to offer college classes to low-income high school students

    University of California to offer college classes to low-income high school students


    Student walk up and down the Promenade to Shields Library at UC Davis.

    Credit: Gregory Urquiaga / UC Davis

    The University of California is joining a national initiative to offer free online courses to students at low-income high schools across the country beginning next year.

    The university system is joining the National Education Equity Lab and beginning in the winter term of 2024 will offer two for-credit classes to students enrolled in Title I schools, a federal designation for schools with high numbers of low-income students, UC’s board of regents learned Wednesday. UC is hopeful that the program will allow students — who might not otherwise have access to college courses — the opportunity to take UC classes and get a taste of college.

    The classes are free to students, but the participating high schools will need to pay a fee of $250 per student to the equity lab to cover administrative and support costs.

    The specific classes that will be offered haven’t yet been determined, but they will be for college credit and are existing courses developed by UC faculty. Currently, 12 other universities participate in the national program. The classes available to students include a poetry course from Harvard, an environmental studies course from Howard University and a bioengineering course from Stanford.

    UC will be the second public university to join the partnership and also the second university from California, joining Stanford.

    The program will allow the university to expand access to low-income high school students who might not otherwise have a chance to take rigorous courses, said Rolin Moe, executive director of UC Online.

    “These courses are focused on establishing that love of learning and that opportunity to show people that they can succeed in college,” Moe added. “A student who gets to say, ‘I took a course from Berkeley,’ or ‘I took a course from Santa Cruz,’ what that means for somebody internally and intrinsically could be all the difference.”

    UC faculty will be responsible for creating the course syllabus and course materials as well as developing assessments. Teaching fellows, including UC undergraduate and graduate students, will help facilitate the courses by leading Zoom sessions, grading student work and answering questions. Teachers at the local high schools will also work with UC faculty to help facilitate the courses.

    Students across the country and in California can already access college courses through dual enrollment programs that are offered mainly by community colleges. One regent, Jose Hernandez, said during Wednesday’s meeting that he’s concerned UC is “late to the game” and that community colleges have already “cornered the market” when it comes to offering college courses to students still enrolled in high school.

    UC’s courses will be different from traditional dual enrollment courses, said Yvette Gullatt, UC’s vice president for graduate and undergraduate affairs, because they will be classes and subjects that students “can’t get in high school or community college.”

    She said the courses “resemble our university deep dive courses.  These are the things our faculty do so very well. This is their research in the classroom. This is their teaching. So this goes beyond our traditional A through G and our general ed and into those spaces where our faculty’s teaching and research come together.”

    The program will also be reaching different students.  The students who typically enroll in dual enrollment courses “tend to be a much more middle class constituency,” whereas the UC program will be targeted to low-income students, said Katherine Newman, UC’s provost and executive vice president of academic affairs.

    “And it’s that connection to the university world, the four-year university world that I think is going to make this particularly attractive,” Newman added.





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  • More college campuses leveraging the outdoors to support student mental health

    More college campuses leveraging the outdoors to support student mental health


    Students spend time at the turtle pond on the campus of San Diego State University.

    Credit: Noah Lyons/EdSource

    According to a 2018 study published by Frontiers of Public Health, spending time outdoors can aid people in a variety of categories: “attention and cognition, memory, stress and anxiety, sleep, emotional stability and self-perceived welfare or quality of life.”

    Monicka Fosnocht, an associate therapist at San Diego State University with a background in natural public medicine agrees. “For a lot of students that are struggling with mental health, or even students who don’t and are just stressed, it’s really helpful to get a nice, big dose of vitamin D and get outside so that we can get our brains functioning optimally.”

    SDSU has its own outdoor resources. One space in particular, the turtle pond, has become a popular destination for students seeking solace from their academic lives.

    The origins of the turtle pond date back to 1973. The campus community asked for more green spaces, and the school delivered. Koi fish dominated the scene at first, but red-eared slider turtles eventually became the pond’s informal namesake.

    Within this area, there are hammocks, slacklines, trees, ample seating and, of course, the pond itself, all providing students with a mental health boost. 

    The therapeutic effect of being in outdoor spaces is increasingly being noted by mental health professionals, including SDSU counseling and psychological services faculty member Tri Nguyễn. 

    “Therapists are moving a lot more outdoors.” Nguyễn said. “There are providers who do therapy outdoors, by hiking or going on a walk. It’s no longer just within the confines of an office space.”

    While individuals between 15 and 21 years old are significantly more stressed than older generations, they are more likely to report their struggles and seek help. Fosnocht is optimistic that young people can normalize conversations surrounding mental health and find unique ways to address it.

    “I’m really hopeful for Gen Z and the generations to come that are decreasing the stigma around mental health and also connecting it to very accessible things like being in nature, hanging out with the turtles, talking to other people and taking the time to connect with people in person.” 





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