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  • California should emulate states posting gains on ‘nation’s report card’

    California should emulate states posting gains on ‘nation’s report card’


    Credit: Alison Yin for EdSource

    Once again, California’s scores on the National Assessment for Educational Progress — often called the ‘nation’s report card’ — were disappointing across the board.

    Most news coverage, locally and nationally, focused on the stagnant post-Covid recovery nationwide. But this discouraging coverage overlooks a more positive development: Some states are continuing to see growth in student learning. And it’s happening because of focused, visionary state leadership — something California’s leaders would do well to learn from.

    A recent analysis by the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University identified states that successfully leveraged federal Covid recovery funds to fuel academic improvement. It’s no accident that states like Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky are on the list of places where students have made gains over the past two years. These are all states that set a clear vision for how to improve curriculum and instruction in schools, are giving schools the necessary tools and resources, and are tracking outcomes to fuel continuous improvement.

    For example, in Louisiana, the state Department of Education first set a high bar for curriculum and instruction. Then it identified curricula that met that high bar; incentivized districts to adopt those curricula; identified effective curriculum implementation partners and provided funding for districts to hire them. While this may sound like a top-down reform effort, it was anything but: It included input from teacher leaders from the start, leading to changes like providing each district a single contact person for all state programs and working with teachers to develop Louisiana’s own literacy curriculum. Now, Louisiana is one of only two states where students’ scores have exceeded pre-pandemic results.

    Source: Edunomics (red arrows pointing out CA added by Jennie Herriot-Hatfield)

    California, unfortunately, has set no such vision for curriculum and instruction. The state creates lots of frameworks, but it’s unclear how those massive documents affect what’s happening in classrooms. (In my five years of teaching, I never heard about or used any state framework documents.) The state spent billions of dollars in Covid recovery funds, but didn’t use the funds to pursue any particular instructional improvement strategy, and failed to systematically track outcomes from different spending strategies.

    The states that have pursued instructional improvement with positive results seem to have two common characteristics: a visionary state education leader who makes this work a priority over the long term; and a willingness to learn from other states that have done this work. California hasn’t had either recently, but perhaps that could change, if parents, teachers, and other advocacy groups work together to influence current leadership or find new leaders willing to prioritize this work.

    California is a leader in so many fields — but not in education. Hopefully, that will change soon, with statewide elections less than two years away. With more purposeful state leadership, future NAEP score releases could someday highlight better results for California’s students too.

    •••

    Jennie Herriot-Hatfield is a K-12 education consultant, former elementary school teacher and public school parent in San Francisco.

    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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  • California school districts are weighed down by new costs of old sexual assaults

    California school districts are weighed down by new costs of old sexual assaults


    Credit: Julie Leopo / EdSource

    School districts’ costs for compensating students victimized by sexual assault are escalating by billions of dollars. Many cases date back decades and were revived by a 2019 state law that widely expanded liability exposure to schools and other public agencies for past child sexual assaults. 

    An independent analysis of that law indicates a severe impact. Litigation will siphon tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars from general funds. Adverse jury verdicts and settlements could cost districts millions, potentially forcing layoffs and program reductions. Most districts will face record assessments to sustain shared insurance risk pools they contribute to. 

    In the worst case, districts will seek costly emergency state loans or bankruptcy protection — unless, the study said, the overall liability burden is spread “to protect the stability” of school districts.

    California’s elementary and secondary school system “will survive the challenge presented by the claims of childhood sexual assault. But individual school districts, charter schools and other agencies may not,” concluded the sober assessment of the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), a state agency charged with preventing districts’ financial meltdowns.

    Troy Flint, chief of communications for the California School Boards Association, said FCMAT’s report should prompt action. “We have called upon the state to develop a safety net to defray costs that threaten school districts with insolvency. The report is another opportunity to reiterate this request,” he said.

    The report doesn’t name districts or describe how they’re coping. But one district that might not survive is Carpinteria Unified, a 1,900-student district south of Santa Barbara with a $42 million budget. 

    Next year, it’s scheduled for trial for four claims of sexual assault from the 1970s. The district lacks historical records, and the insurance company at the time went out of business, leaving the district on the hook, said Superintendent Diana Rigby. The abuser, a principal convicted of sexual assaults, has died, as have potential witnesses and the then superintendent, she said. Legal costs over several years will force budget cuts, she said. 

    “We all believe that victims deserve their due justice and compensation. Of course we do,” said Rigby. But “an unfavorable verdict would be catastrophic.”

    Among its 22 recommendations, FCMAT proposes the state create a voluntary victims’ compensation fund like the one for victims of the Sept.11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Victims would generally be compensated in a nonjudicial setting based on the crime’s severity and victims’ experiences. Legislators would decide if the state would share the funding burden.

    The Legislature unanimously passed Assembly Bill 218, which precipitated the surge in lawsuits, in October 2019. The law:

    • Extended the statute of limitations to file a child sexual assault lawsuit from age 26 (eight years after turning 18) to age 40.  
    • Extended the statute of limitations for those over 40 to within five years of when victims reasonably should have discovered repressed memories of a sexual assault.
    • Enabled victims of assaults whose statutes of limitations had expired to file lawsuits by Dec. 31, 2022.

    In 2023, the Legislature took the next step and passed Assembly Bill 452, which eliminated any statute of limitation for new lawsuits for sexual assaults filed after Jan. 1, 2024.

    AB 218’s just intentions, unknown costs

    The Legislature acted after a decade of shocking revelations and massive settlements, including by the Boy Scouts of America and the Catholic Church, as well as the $169 million that Los Angeles Unified paid on 150 claims of sexual abuse by one teacher at Miramonte Elementary. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has acknowledged paying more than $1.5 billion from various settlements. 

    The Legislature signaled in AB 218 that schools, county offices of education, cities and public bodies with programs for children should be accountable for lifelong harm caused by sexual assaults under their watch.  The author, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzales, D-San Diego, said it would “confront the pervasive problem of cover-ups in institutions, from schools to sports leagues.”

    The Legislature’s fiscal analysis cited “unknown costs” but projected higher insurance premiums.

    Dave George, CEO of the Schools Excess Liability Fund (SELF), a public agency that provides school districts with catastrophic insurance coverage, added that districts had difficulty convincing legislators there would be “real money out of the pockets of districts” from rising costs of insurance and settlements. “The general response was, ‘Don’t worry about it — it’s just insurance,’” George said. 

    Hard information on claims is unavailable because there is no database on sexual assault outcomes. Creating a central repository is FCMAT’s first recommendation. The most recent data is from 2023.

    FCMAT’s best estimate of the dollar value of claims filed because of the law was $2 billion to $3 billion for school districts, including about $500 million facing Los Angeles Unified. Other public agencies’ costs will significantly exceed that value, the report said. 

    But with many claims still in the courts, the final damages are unknown. Mike Fine, FCMAT’s CEO and coauthor of the report, acknowledged they might be higher than estimated. The average claim is about $2.5 million per victim, Fine said.

    The estimate doesn’t include the cost of insurance, which has risen an estimated 700% — to about $255,000 for a 10,000-student district since the passage of AB 218, the report said, plus coverage now required of nonprofits and day care providers working in districts. It also doesn’t include new lawsuits being filed daily, said Fine. 

    George said SELF had two sexual assault claims open in 2020 and has received 400 claims for 600 plaintiffs since. SELF provides catastrophic insurance for claims up to $55 million for about 500 school districts. It notified them to expect $300 million to $400 million in supplementary assessments for ongoing and new AB 218 claims.

    George said that districts settled all but two recent lawsuits before going to trial. One that didn’t — and paid a stiff price — was Moreno Valley in Riverside County, the state’s 23rd largest district. A jury found it responsible for failing to protect two middle school students from a teacher’s sexual abuse in the 1990s. The jury levied $135 million in damages.

    Moreno Valley negotiated the price down to $45 million in order to pay a lump sum. SELF covered $15 million; Moreno Valley paid $30 million from its budget reserves.

    But the district isn’t out of the woods. The teacher remained on the payroll for two decades, and the district still faces four more potentially expensive lawsuits. The district declined to comment for this story.

    Adding to small districts’ financial vulnerability, said Fine, is that “a jury doesn’t distinguish between the size of the district and its ability to pay. Jurors can’t be told that information.” 

    Rising costs of ‘social inflation’

    The report said that the $100-plus million settlements contribute to “social inflation” — rising costs because of more lawsuits, plaintiff-friendly verdicts and larger jury awards.

    These factors also have created a “perilously unstable” commercial insurance market, which public agencies like SELF rely on for additional coverage, the report said.

    Fine said that districts are already issuing “judgment obligation bonds” to make restitution. No district has sought an emergency state bailout as a last resort, but Fine said that will happen.

    “Generally speaking, the smaller the district, the higher that risk,” Fine said. 

    The report suggests that the Legislature revise statutes to lengthen payoffs and settlement deadlines. It urges lawmakers to immediately study a victim compensation fund. But the focus is on creating “zero tolerance” of sexual assaults by mandating student training to promote awareness, expanding work history verification and increasing staff training.

    Fine will present the report at legislative hearings. Leilani Aguinaldo, senior director of government relations for School Services of California, which advises districts, welcomes that opportunity. “It’s an excellent report. Schools have no resources for claims from decades ago,” she said. 

    Flint added, “The fears of schools are real.”





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  • Lawsuit charges misuse of arts education funding at LAUSD schools

    Lawsuit charges misuse of arts education funding at LAUSD schools


    EdSource file photo courtesy of Oakland School for the Arts

    Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.

    Vicky Martinez feels cheated that her children haven’t had much exposure to the arts at their Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD) schools despite state funding through Proposition 28, the state’s landmark arts education mandate. She believes access to the arts could help them cope with their anxiety and ADHD, conditions that have spiked post-pandemic. 

    “I had more arts than my kids do,” said Martinez, mother of three LAUSD students in the Highland Park area. “That’s not right. It makes me angry that our kids are being denied the arts when there’s been so much research about how it keeps kids engaged in school. We should be making progress, and instead we are lagging behind.” 

    Many parents share her outrage. The families of eight students, including Martinez’s three sons, 12, 15 and 17, and the author of the arts proposition have joined forces to file a lawsuit against Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest school district, and its superintendent, Alberto Carvalho. The lawsuit, filed Monday afternoon in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges misuse of funds as well as misleading the public in its rollout of Proposition 28 that sets aside roughly $1 billion a year statewide for arts education. 

    “LAUSD has willfully and knowingly violated the law,” said former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner, who authored the proposition, “and as a consequence, is harming hundreds of thousands of students by depriving them of the arts education that they are entitled to under law.”

    The suit also claims that LAUSD’s mismanagement of Proposition 28 funds, particularly at low-income schools , has disproportionately impacted Black and Latino students, deepening inequity. The thrust of the law, says Beutner, is that all students, not just privileged ones, deserve access to the arts.

    “We have not received notice, nor have we been served with any lawsuit regarding Prop 28,” an LAUSD spokesperson said in a statement to EdSource. “That said, we have sought to clarify any misunderstandings regarding Prop 28, and we continue to follow implementation guidance as provided by the state of California to ensure that we are fully complying with the requirements of Prop 28.”

    The suit is the latest push for accountability on arts education funding. Beutner and a group of major unions, including UTLA, the local teachers union, SEIU Local 99 and Teamsters 572, wrote a letter to education officials last year demanding the state hold districts responsible for their spending. LAUSD was allotted roughly $77 million for arts education in the 2023-24 school year. 

    The unions are helping pay for the lawsuit, which comes at a time when the district is already facing mounting scrutiny over its handling of three large cyberattacks exposing sensitive student information and the appropriateness of its response to recent catastrophic fires.

    “LAUSD has done exactly what the law prohibits,” the suit argues; “it has eliminated existing funding sources for existing art teachers, and replaced those funds with Proposition 28 funds, thereby violating the requirement that the funds supplement rather than supplant existing sources.  Moreover, LAUSD has made no meaningful effort to recruit or hire new art teachers as required by the law.” 

    Given extensive research that arts education has key academic and social benefits, the law was designed to hire new arts teachers, and most schools are required to spend at least 80% of funds on staff. The plaintiffs allege that the district has been willfully misinterpreting the law and misleading families and teachers. 

    “Bottom line, there’s been rampant misuse of the funds,” Beutner said, “and the guidance and oversight has been insufficient.” 

    In an Aug. 15, 2024, memo to the board, Carvalho acknowledged spending new Proposition 28 money to pay for existing staff, which is not allowed. 

    “Given historic staffing challenges in filling Arts educator roles and because 80% of Prop 28 must be spent on labor, the District prioritized the use of Prop 28 funds to cover existing staff as well as hire new staff.” 

    The district argues that the law only requires an increase in arts funding for the district as a whole. 

    “The law requires that non-Prop. 28 arts expenditures at the district level are higher than previous years and does not factor in differences in spending at a school site level,” according to an LAUSD fact sheet.

    Beutner has long objected to this interpretation. The law requires that every school to increase its arts offerings, he maintains, so that all students have access.

    Cecily Myart-Cruz, the president of UTLA, the union representing about 35,000 LAUSD educators, claims the district has not been honest about its use of Prop 28 funds.

    “The superintendent pulling out a bulletin saying, ‘Oops, my bad,’ doesn’t work,” Myart-Cruz said. “If you have arts in school, you will change lives. … And so, I’m exasperated by the district’s lack of response and responsibility to providing arts educators for our babies and the communities in which we serve.”

    To be sure, similar issues have arisen across the state. Facing budget woes, some schools have used creative bookkeeping maneuvers to pay existing staff with the new funds, instead of actually adding arts teachers, experts warn. 

    “The temptation to redirect these funds can arise when schools face financial pressures in other areas,” said Allison Gamlen, visual and performing arts coordinator for the San Mateo County Office of Education. “This is a clear violation of the intent of the proposition and, unfortunately, not an isolated incident.”

    However, many other districts across the state, from Pacifica to Long Beach, have successfully used the proposition funds to build robust new arts ed programs, experts note.

    That disparity explains why many parents and teachers have been calling for greater transparency in how schools use the arts money, which landed in schools in February 2024. 

    “We want real support for the hiring of folks who can provide arts instruction, and I think that this is the righteous thing. This is the legal thing,” said Nicolle Fefferman, a veteran LAUSD teacher, who also co-founded the Parents Supporting Teachers advocacy group. “Who does this money serve sitting in a district bank account?”

    Families want a seat at the table. 

    “At many schools, there was no conversation about Prop. 28,” said Martinez. “Parents had no input.” 

    Make no mistake, the impact of any misspent funds on families can be severe. Martinez said that her 15-year-old son, going by the alias Julian in the suit, suffers from severe anxiety and feelings of despair, conditions she believes could be alleviated by the therapeutic influence of the arts. When her oldest son got his hands on a guitar, she says, he started to thrive. 

    “Arts improves learning, especially for low-income students,” said Martinez. “We are hurting them by not providing it.”

    Another plaintiff’s mother, going by the alias April T.,  says her son, going by Lucas, 9, only gets one hour a week of art class, the same as before Proposition 28. She says she pays for private music classes because none are available through LAUSD.

    Accountability is among the most critical issues facing the Proposition 28 rollout, according to a recent report by Arts for LA, a key arts advocacy organization. 

    “Teachers, parents and students should know whether, how, and when Prop 28 decisions are being made,” said Lindsey Kunisaki, who wrote the report. “They’ll be the ones to directly experience the impact of those Prop 28 decisions in practice, and moreover, they’re the experts in the realities of their own classrooms and communities.”

    Carvalho’s August memo also acknowledges that the district did not “consult with school communities specifically about Prop 28 Arts funding,” but will encourage principals to solicit feedback going forward.

    Many experts recommend an independent oversight committee of administrators, teachers, families and community partners to make sure that arts education funds are properly spent. Some may assume that county offices of education provide oversight, but that is not within their purview, experts say.

    Arts education advocates have long urged the California Department of Education (CDE), which is administering the new funding, to step up enforcement of the rules. Many have complained that the department has not provided enough guidance to schools already struggling with myriad post-pandemic issues.

    “The structure of the proposition did not include any provision to ensure adequate CDE staffing to address questions and the overall confusion that has been a common thread,” said Allison Cagley, executive director of Friends of Sacramento Arts, an advocacy group. “There was no one or two people at CDE that could adequately address the questions.”

    CDE officials could not be immediately reached for comment. 

    Amid the controversy, many parents are anxious to see Proposition 28 funds put to good use to spark engagement at a time of chronic absenteeism and widespread disaffection at schools. 

    “This is an investment in our kids,” Martinez said. “Our kids deserve this. We all agreed on this. The state of California voted for this. So why aren’t we doing it?”





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  • How Compton Unified boosted its standardized test scores

    How Compton Unified boosted its standardized test scores


    A teacher leads fourth graders in a lesson at William Jefferson Clinton Elementary in Compton on Feb. 6, 2025.

    Credit: AP Photo/Eric Thayer

    Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.

    Ask anyone what they know about Compton, California. 

    Many would bring up tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams, who learned to play on Compton’s public courts, or the election of Douglas Dollarhide, who, in 1969, became the first Black man to serve as a mayor of a metropolitan area in California.  

    The city shown in these two stories was about hardship, rampant crime, and certainly not about academic achievement. 

    According to the Los Angeles Times, the Compton Unified School district struggled financially also. In 1993, it had incurred $20 million in debt and was taken over by California’s Department of Education.

    About two decades later, in 2012, the district was once again on the brink of entering receivership for financial hardship. 

    Today, Compton’s story is very different, and the school district has been applauded across the state and nation for how far it has come in boosting students’ standardized test scores and performance.  

    As school districts throughout the state and the nation continue to recover from learning losses resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, some districts have made especially noteworthy strides. 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSlYdhTeWb0

    Compton Unified School District, now home to about 20,000 students who attend more than 40 campuses, is among those achieving districts, despite the vast majority of its students being socioeconomically disadvantaged, according to Ed-Data. Nearly 95% of the district’s students are considered “high-need” under the state’s local control funding formula.

    “Compton Unified School District’s achievements are truly inspiring,” Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools Debra Duardo said in a statement to EdSource. “Their impressive graduation rate, coupled with significant academic growth and a strong focus on college and career readiness … demonstrate a deep commitment to student success.”

    Going Deeper

    The Associated Press analyzed data from the Education Recovery Scorecard, produced by Harvard’s Tom Kane and Stanford’s Sean Reardon, which uses state test score data to compare districts across states and regions on post-pandemic learning recovery. The AP provided data analysis and reporting for this story.

    After the Covid-19 pandemic set students across the country back, Compton Unified has managed to raise its scores significantly in both English language arts and mathematics, according to the Education Recovery Scorecard, released by the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University and The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, and published by the Associated Press. 

    “The progress we’ve seen in Compton Unified is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire educational community — from the students and teachers to the administrators and families,” Duardo added. 

    The data from the universities’ Education Recovery Scorecard combines state standardized test results with scores from the Nation’s Report Card. 

    The district’s results in the state’s Smarter Balanced assessments show a similar, positive trend — with the number of students meeting or exceeding English and math standards in 2024 increasing by more than 2 percentage points from the previous year. 

    Compton Unified remains behind the statewide average on Smarter Balanced assessments in English Language Arts in 2024, nearly 35% of students met or exceeded math standards, in comparison to 30.7% statewide.  

    And based on the Education Recovery Scorecard, Compton still remains behind state and national averages in both math and reading for third through eighth grade students. 

    Darin Brawley, Superintendent of Compton Unified
    Credit: AP Photo/Eric Thayer

    Between 2022 and 2024, Compton Unified has seen a steady rise in students’ performance on standardized tests in math, and their reading scores saw a jump post pandemic — an improvement that doesn’t surprise district Superintendent Darin Brawley, who has been leading the district since 2012. 

    Brawley attributes the district’s growth to ongoing diagnostic assessments in both English language arts and math, allocating resources based on students’ performance and aligning district standards to the state’s dashboard. 

    According to Brawley, some of the district’s specific methods include:

    • Having principals write and submit action plans based on the previous year’s Smarter Balanced assessment results by June 
    • Holding superintendent’s data chats every six weeks, so principals can meet and discuss their school’s data as it relates to the state’s dashboard indicators 
    • Having district administrators go through “instructional rounds” and walk through classrooms at various school sites to help campuses learn from each other 
    • Conducting diagnostic assessments at the start of every school year in math and English language arts, and following them up with other benchmark assessments throughout the school year
    • Having students complete five questions each day, from Monday through Thursday, related to the standards being taught, and evaluating their learning on Friday through a five-question assessment
    • Having more than 250 tutors in both subjects to work with students in need of additional support  

    Brawley emphasized the importance of getting students to better understand the type of language that appears on tests, especially in a district with a high percentage of English learners. 

    “The secret to getting better is using assessments to guide your instruction, to develop your intervention groups, to identify the students that are doing well,” Brawley said. “Don’t be afraid to do what we know works.” 





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  • New Stanford database tracks learning loss, gain in California and districts nationwide

    New Stanford database tracks learning loss, gain in California and districts nationwide


    A student writes math problems in a fourth grade classroom at William Jefferson Clinton Elementary in Compton on Feb. 6, 2025.

    Credit: AP Photo/Eric Thayer

    A unique database that enables people to compare standardized test scores among nearly all districts and states found that California experienced slightly less learning loss than the national average in the four years following the 2020 pandemic.

    The Education Recovery Scorecard, which researchers from Stanford University, Harvard University and Dartmouth College developed, also identified those districts that have escalated learning recovery and those that had fallen farthest behind. 

    Those whose test scores improved in either math, reading or both, include Compton Unified and Monterey Peninsula, both with high proportions of low-income students, as well as Chino Valley Unified and Bonita Unified, whose students gained nearly a half-grade level of learning compared with pre-pandemic 2019.

    The Associated Press, in conjunction with the researchers, published Tuesday a wealth of information from 43 states with 8,718 districts for which data was available, including the nearly 1,000 districts in California. They affirm what other analyses of states and the nation have found: The decline in scores in both reading and math, as a result of the pandemic, was severe.

    Although no state reached their pre-pandemic scores in both math and reading, many individual districts did. The scorecard found that 31% of California students attended districts scoring above 2019 levels in math, with 12% of students in districts scoring above 2019 levels in reading, and 10% in districts that have recovered in both.

    That’s significantly higher than the national average: Only 17% of students nationally in grades three to eight are in districts whose average math score on the scorecard was above that of 2019.

    However, keep in mind that California had much more ground to make up. In 2019, California’s average score in math was already half a grade behind the national average. While in 2024, the gap between California and the nation had narrowed to 36% in math, scores nationally and in California both had lost ground. As a result, California’s 2019 score in math was 82% of a year of learning below the 2019 national average.

    Some of the biggest districts, including San Bernardino City, Long Beach and San Juan remain more than half a grade equivalent behind in math from five years before.

    Reading scores followed a similar trend. In 2019, the gap between the nation and California was 29%; in 2024, it had narrowed to 22%, yet had dropped to 69% of a grade below the 2019 national average.

    As the state’s two largest districts with nearly 10% of California’s enrollment, Los Angeles and San Diego may have lifted the state’s overall average. Los Angeles in 2024 was within a few percentage points of its 2019 scores in reading and math; San Diego’s pandemic decline was significantly less than the state’s.

    The scorecard makes comparisons possible on a single scale based on percentages of an expected year of growth. It equalizes states’ scores by aligning them to their results on the National Assessment of Academic Progress (NAEP), the common test that a representative sample of students in all states take every two years.

    Going Deeper

    The Associated Press analyzed data from the Education Recovery Scorecard, produced by Harvard’s Tom Kane and Stanford’s Sean Reardon, which uses state test score data to compare districts across states and regions on post-pandemic learning recovery. The AP provided data analysis and reporting for this story.

    Researchers from Stanford, Harvard and Dartmouth created the Education Recovery Scorecard using a longitudinal database developed by the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Because states use different tests with different measures for determining what constitutes proficiency, apples-to-apples comparisons of learning losses and gains across the nation normally can’t be made. Some states’ scores for proficiency are “easier” to achieve than in other states.

    The scorecard affirmed trends that others have found by analyzing NAEP and California’s Smarter Balanced scores and results nationally. 

    • Achievement gaps by income and race and ethnicity widened during the pandemic. The highest-income districts were nearly four times more likely to recover in both reading and math than the lowest-income districts. The disparity in math scores between students in affluent and low-income districts grew by 11% since the start of the pandemic; the disparity in scores between students in predominantly non-minority and predominantly minority districts grew by 15%.
    • High rates of absenteeism, especially in high poverty districts, have slowed recovery. One of the report’s recommendations is to recruit mayors, employers and other community leaders; total responsibility shouldn’t rest with schools, the report said. Help could include launching public information campaigns, funding extracurricular activities to draw students to school; and assisting with transportation, the report said.
    • Federal Covid relief for schools, especially $122 billion from the American Rescue Plan passed in 2021, appeared to stem even bigger learning losses in the higher poverty districts — by about 10% of a grade equivalent. But how districts spent the money mattered. In examining federal spending in California, which required more extensive reporting on expenditures, researchers found that spending on intensive tutoring and after-school and summer school programs tended to yield the most effective results. 

    “The slide in average NAEP scores masks a pernicious inequality: Scores have declined far more in America’s middle- and low-income communities than in its wealthy ones. The good news is that it could have been worse: The federal investment in public schools during the pandemic paid off, limiting academic losses in high-poverty districts,” professor Sean Reardon, faculty director of the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford and a lead researcher on the scorecard, told the AP.

    Along with Compton Unified, whose impressive improvement started before Covid and was undeterred by it, Bonita Unified, a 10,000-student district where 36% of students are eligible for free or reduced meals, raised both reading and math scores to a third of a grade level above 2019 results. In a letter to parents, Bonita Superintendent Matt Wien praised “the sense of purpose that is felt throughout the district and drives our students and employees alike.” He also pointed to hiring elementary school intervention teachers and comprehensive instruction during summer programs.

    Chino Valley Unified scores rose in 2024 to 43% of a grade above 2019 in math and 34% in reading. Deputy Superintendent Grace Park cited the collaboration of teacher teams that developed an essential set of learning standards in every grade, followed by designing lessons and assessments, then monitoring their effectiveness. She also noted that the district was the first in San Bernardino County to return to the classroom when the pandemic eased.

    Economist Tom Kane, faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard and a collaborator on the scorecard, said it is essential for districts to apply lessons of the recovery. He and Reardon stressed focusing on which of the “science of reading” reforms that districts have tried most improved early literacy.

    “The rescue phase is over. The federal relief dollars are gone. It is time to pivot from short-term recovery to longer-term challenges such as reducing absenteeism and addressing the slide in literacy,” Kane said.

    One advantage California has is a $6.8 billion pot of state money that is replacing the expired federal Covid funds. Distributed based on districts’ low-income enrollment, districts can use the Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant through 2027-28 on tutoring and other research-proven strategies, along with mental health and student well-being. The funding is a second chance.





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  • It hurts not to have access to affordable health care

    It hurts not to have access to affordable health care


    Credit: Liv Ames / EdSource

    I provided quality child care and early education to children from birth through 13 years old for over 29 years. Throughout my tenure as an early educator, the reality that I literally could never afford to become ill has haunted me.

    As a home-based, licensed provider, I never had the luxury of affordable health care. Over the years, whenever I felt a sniffle that lasted far too many days or a pain that became problematic and persistent, the dread of scheduling a doctor’s appointment was always present.  

    My body needed a doctor’s attention on numerous occasions. While sitting in the waiting room to see a physician or getting wheeled into an emergency room, my mind was not able to focus on my health. Instead, all I could think about was how much this was going to cost and please, Lord, don’t let the doctor say I had to be admitted to the hospital. The absolute terror of the mounting cost of health care services was overwhelming. 

    Fast-forward and following my recuperation or recovery from any doctor’s visits or hospital stays, the anguish did not ease. Like clockwork, the hospital bills started arriving weekly. Whenever I saw the Kaiser return address on each envelope as I had done so many times, my stomach would knot up and my mood quickly soured. Eventually, I became numb to the arrival of each new bill and the reminders to pay the old bills. 

    It is painful to work in a field where my services did so much good for the economy and families, yet my family and my health suffered. Child care is essential. Child care workers have been and will always be essential workers. Family child care providers are independent contractors and, for most of us, access to an affordable health care plan is limited or nonexistent.  

    While Obamacare did open the doors for providers to access health care — especially those with pre-existing conditions, like myself — the cost is still too high.

    Through Covered California (the state’s version of Obamacare), I was able to receive health care services under the Bronze Plan with a higher co-pay. I was relieved to be able to finally have health insurance, but the co-pays weren’t necessarily affordable. When it comes to health care and access to quality, affordable services, the cards are stacked against early educators. I stand firm in my belief that many providers have died early deaths due to a lack of health care and ignoring ongoing health problems for fear of losing their businesses and their livelihoods. No one can tell me that working 60-70 hours a week for 15-30 years does not contribute to an early demise. Research has demonstrated that women face unique barriers to health care. Inequities, compounded with gender roles and expectations, present unique burdens on women, and while costs of care are important, consideration of additional burdens women face is critical to finding equitable solutions.

    There is some good news, however. Child Care Providers United (CCPU), a union for early educators, has negotiated a health care reimbursement fund for the provider membership. To qualify for the reimbursement benefit, providers must have at least one child eligible for subsidized child care enrolled in their program. This fund reimburses licensed providers who are already enrolled in a health care plan. It does not replace their health insurance, nor does it offer a health care plan as a benefit. Licensed child care providers must be enrolled in a qualified health insurance plan to qualify for this reimbursement plan, which helps with out-of-pocket expenses such as service co-pays, prescription co-pays, and some monthly premiums. This is considered a good start, but it is not enough. The reimbursement fund is not available to all early educators, and it only covers the provider, not their family members. 

    We already know that child care is in crisis, statewide and nationally. We need healthy early educators and child care professionals on the job. Child care workers put their lives on the line during the pandemic. In the face of any emergency, these women always bridge the gap and show up when things can appear dire. The least we can do is create a pathway for these professionals to be healthy.

    Health care is complicated and expensive. We get it. Child care is expensive. We get it.

    State and federal policymakers must recognize the need to ensure that every practitioner is guaranteed an affordable option to stay healthy so that our children will have their caregivers and educators when they need them most.  

    •••

    Tonia McMillian is a recently retired family child care provider in Southern California.

    The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • The community college creating a home base for transition-age foster students

    The community college creating a home base for transition-age foster students


    Sky Celine Page, 20, in her subsidized home, which recently opened as part of a collaborative effort between Pasadena City College, Pasadena Community Foundation and First Place for Youth. “If I wasn’t here, and I didn’t have the opportunity to not pay rent, I probably wouldn’t be in school,” she said.

    Credit: Betty Márquez Rosales

    Sky Celine Page was not so sure that school was for her. She had spent the end of middle school ditching class and high school catching up on assignments as she moved between foster homes, and she was ready to quit college after performing poorly her first two semesters.

    “There was so much going on in my mind, and I was always so stressed out that I couldn’t just sit there and focus on schoolwork,” Page said.

    Nearly three years ago, she was couch surfing after leaving a foster home, and with nowhere to sleep consistently, school was placed on the back burner.

    Page is one of Los Angeles County’s transition-age youth — a term used to describe young adults aging out of the foster system. About 1,000 young people, 18 to 24 years old, age out in L.A. County each year, according to a 2024 report from the California Policy Lab. The same report also found that, in Los Angeles County, about 500 housing slots, including 206 housing vouchers, are available at any given time for youth who are no longer in care and have a closed case with the Department of Family and Child Services. This availability is likely insufficient to meet housing needs, and it doesn’t account for the challenges with accessing such resources, such as the difficulty of navigating complex public agencies.

    Studies have shown that transition-age foster youth have a higher risk of homelessness, but there is no reliable count of how many currently are. Housing instability, which at times includes changing schools often, disrupts relationships that students may form with classmates and educators, all of which has been linked to negative impacts on test scores and high school graduation rates, according to multiple studies, including a 2015 brief from the National Education Policy Center.

    A collaboration between Pasadena City College, Pasadena Community Foundation and First Place for Youth, an organization that supports successful transition of foster youth to adulthood, is providing housing to transition-age foster youth like Page, 20, who now lives in one of their units.

    A six-unit rent-subsidized apartment complex near Pasadena City College, where Page is now a student, opened last August. Ten additional units are being built next door.

    “Many of our students were going from group home to group home, carrying their stuff in a trash bag,” said David Sigala Gomez, educational adviser at the college’s program for students with experience in foster care, who provides case management to Page and her neighbors. “A lot of our students didn’t have much because they were moving around so much. So having the means to now buy new clothes, wear new shoes, it just brings a whole different perspective.”

    Page’s new, fully-furnished studio apartment is decorated in various shades of pink, with books and school supplies spilling out of her desk that doubles as the dining table where she enjoys journaling. She lives a short drive from her college campus, where she will soon earn an associate degree in health sciences as she pursues nursing.

    Page is finally stable and, as she put it, she is healing. Her life now is a paradigm shift from her life just a few years ago, when she was 18 and couch surfing. It is even further from her life at 14 when she first entered the foster system.

    ‘If I wasn’t here … I probably wouldn’t be in school’

    Page was 6 when her mother died. She and her brother were sent to Palmdale in northern Los Angeles County to live with their father and stepmother, whom Page described as “a horrific person.”

    Page tried to ignore both how her stepmother would lash out and make inappropriate comments about her and the silence from her father, who most often “turned the other cheek” during arguments, she said.

    At 14, Page hit a breaking point. She was in school, but would ditch class often and walk the hallways “trying to make sense of everything that was going on” at home. She made the decision to open up about her disruptive home life to a teacher, who called the Department of Family and Child Services.

    “After that, I never went back home,” Page said.

    A series of short-term placements later, she was living in a foster home in the Pasadena area, the city where she still lives. She struggled with the transition into foster care and with every move from one placement to another.

    “I look at that time and my heart was so broken … because I didn’t understand. I felt like I was being punished; I was trying to get help and now I’m around all these people I don’t know,” Page said. “I just didn’t realize at that time that it would be for the better, but it was hard. It was definitely a hard transition.”

    The constant moves also weighed on her academically.

    It’s an experience that Sigala Gomez, the educational adviser at Pasadena City College, noted is common among foster students. “I have really high-functioning students; their goal is a master’s degree, I have students who struggle just because of instabilities, moving from different schools,” he said, referring to the students he supports through the Next Up and STARS programs, both for foster youth. “For them, we really have to break it down: ‘Hey, you went to class two weeks in a row. That’s success. That’s a goal.’”

    Page enrolled in high school but felt self-conscious about how often she moved and because she “didn’t have the nicest things,” she said. So, she opted to enroll in Pasadena Unified School District’s virtual academy.

    It was there that she developed an interest in the sciences after completing an internship with the Huntington Medical Research Institute. When she fell behind on assignments in school, her teachers allowed her to catch up by turning in items late.

    Despite the disruptions to her education, Page knew she wanted to graduate from high school. She was aware of the stigma that some foster youth feel when they are unable to complete high school, and she was determined to avoid giving “anybody more of a reason to make them think that I was uneducated,” she said.

    It was around this time that she could no longer stay at the foster home where she had been living, so she put her items into a storage unit, and for the next half-year, couch surfed and worked two jobs.

    The social worker she was assigned to didn’t appear to understand that she needed help urgently, Page said, so Page reported her — the first time she had taken such an action.

    The next social worker quickly connected Page with First Place for Youth, an organization that seeks to break cycles of poverty among young adults aging out of foster care by providing housing.

    Page was housed in Alhambra within weeks of making that connection. By this time, it was the fall of 2022. She decided to continue her studies, leaning on her love of learning that she couldn’t tap into for so many years. She struggled, but still enjoyed learning. The commute to Pasadena City College wasn’t helping, especially using public transportation.

    She was unaware at the time that the same organization that had housed her was working on a collaboration to convert existing structures into housing near her campus.

    The effort included an initial $2 million housing loan agreement with Heritage Housing Partners, the project developer, approved by the City Council’s finance committee in 2022, upped to nearly $2.4 million in 2023, plus $200,000 from the Pasadena Community Foundation and $10,000 from California Community Foundation.

    The conversion was completed in August 2024, with First Place for Youth and Pasadena City College providing case management. The college also subsidizes the rent cost via Lancer Care, which is their basic-needs department, in conjunction with Extended Opportunity Programs & Services’ foster programs. The amount subsidized is $1,000 per unit, per month, said Sigala Gomez, and students must be transition-age nonminor dependents to qualify for a unit.

    Since moving into her new apartment, Page is feeling more confident, her grades have improved, and she now has the freedom to reflect on her childhood.

    “I’ve lived double the life experience,” said Page, contrasting herself with the average 20-year-old. “I’m figuring out, ‘OK, this is what 20-year-olds do. This is normal … this was not normal … this is part of my trauma.”

    Page has spent the past two years adjusting to life on her terms. She sees her current housing as her chance at being able to focus solely on school without the burden of unstable housing or the high cost of living in her neighborhood. And that was precisely the point of these housing units, Sigala Gomez said.

    With rent, utilities and most school costs covered, Page and her new neighbors have just one primary task: focusing on themselves as they enter adulthood.

    “It allows me to go to school without having to worry and stress about cost,” said Page of her housing. “If I wasn’t here, and I didn’t have the opportunity to not pay rent, I probably wouldn’t be in school.”





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  • What parents and students need to know about LAUSD’s cellphone ban

    What parents and students need to know about LAUSD’s cellphone ban


    Credit: Pexels

    The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) voted 5-2 to develop its new cellphone ban last August — placing the district more than a year ahead of the state’s requirement for districts to limit the use of smartphones by July 1, 2026.  Students should expect to have their cellphones off and tucked away starting on Tuesday. 

    District officials hope that keeping students away from their phones will both boost academic performance and support their mental health. 

    “Kids no longer have the opportunity to just be kids,” said school board member Nick Melvoin, who authored the initial resolution, in a statement released by the district. “I’m hoping this resolution will help students not only focus in class, but also give them a chance to interact and engage more with each other — and just be kids.” 

    Here’s what parents and students need to know about what lies ahead. 

    Where will students’ phones be kept?

    It depends on how each campus plans to implement the district policy. 

    In some schools or classrooms, students might simply have to turn off their phones and put them into their backpacks. In other schools, students will have to place their phones into a storage unit, including pouches that are sealed magnetically. 

    Are there any exceptions to the rule?

    Yes, students who need access to their phones for health-based reasons — or because they have an individualized education program or 504 plan — will be able to hold on to their devices. Students who need help with language translation will also be excused from the policy, along with students who have any other local needs. 

    What about cases where there is an emergency? 

    Whether students can access their devices during emergencies has been one of the larger concerns of parents and other community members.

    In short, if there is an emergency, students will be granted access to their devices if staff members decide it is safe for them to have them. 

    But, if a student asks to use their cellphone because they believe there is a potential threat, they won’t immediately be able to do so. Instead, the school will have to complete a threat assessment and develop a safety plan; depending on what they find, students may be granted access. 

    Can my child have devices other than cellphones? 

    No. The ban also applies to other devices that “provide similar smartphone functionality,” according to a district presentation. These devices include earbuds, smartwatches and smart glasses. 

    Will phones have to be tucked away all day — or just when learning is taking place?

    Yes, cellphones and similar devices will have to be tucked off and away throughout the school day, including during lunch and any other breaks. 

    Students will be allowed to use their phones on campus before and after school hours, however. 

    What are the ramifications for students if they don’t comply?

    Verbal reminders and referrals to a counselor or other campus designee would be given to students who are seen with a device. School administrators could also contact a student’s parent or guardian. 

    Will individual campuses be able to tweak things as they see fit? 

    Local School Leadership Councils throughout the district — composed of school personnel, parents, students and community members — will work to determine how best to implement the policy at their sites. 

    LAUSD’s policy requires each school to hold a Local School Leadership Council meeting while the cellphone policies are being implemented. 





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  • Trump’s nominee says she may break apart, not shut down Education Department

    Trump’s nominee says she may break apart, not shut down Education Department


    Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, answers questions from senators during her confirmation hearing while surrounded by family members in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

    Credit: Allison Bailey/NurPhoto via AP

    The nominee to become the next and, President Donald Trump vows, last secretary of education assured U.S. senators on Thursday that there are no plans to shut down the Department of Education or to cut spending that Congress has already approved for the department.

    Linda McMahon, however, said she would be open to moving programs to other departments, such as sending the Office of Civil Rights to the Justice Department.

    Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, brought up funding early in the two-hour hearing on the nomination.

    “If the department is downsized, would the states and localities still receive the federal funding that they currently receive?” he asked.

    “Yes, it’s not the president’s goal to defund the programs. It’s only to have it operate more efficiently,” she said.

    Closing the department, a longtime goal of conservative Republicans, was one of Trump’s campaign promises. Calling the department a “con job” this week, he has said repeatedly that McMahon’s goal should be to shrink the department, to “put herself out of a job.”

    But Trump also acknowledged that only Congress can dismantle what it established in 1980 during the Carter administration. At the hearing, McMahon affirmed that she would work with Congress to follow the law.

    With husband Vince, McMahon, 76, founded a successful sports entertainment company that later became World Wrestling Entertainment, and served as its president, then its CEO for 30 years. McMahon served as Trump’s administrator of the Small Business Administration in his first administration. She also served for a year on the Connecticut State Board of Education in 2009 and is a longtime trustee of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, but otherwise has had little involvement in education. 

    Democratic senators did not press her on her lack of education experience, although Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, did push her to name a requirement for schools to show improvement under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the principal law determining accountability for K-12 schools. She could not.

    Instead, they questioned her on Trump’s plan to ship federal funding to states as block grants without federal oversight, his intention to expand parental school choice, and his threats to cut funding for colleges that allow transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports and for schools that continue policies for diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI.

    ‘Invest in teachers, not bureaucrats’

    McMahon made clear in her opening statement she is in sync with the president’s assessment of education.

    Calling the nation’s schools a “system in decline,” she said, “we can do better for elementary and junior high school students by teaching basic reading and mathematics; for the college freshmen facing censorship or antisemitism on campus, and for parents and grandparents who worry that their children and grandchildren are no longer taught American values and true history.”

    “So what’s the remedy?” she asked. “Fund education freedom, not government-run systems. Invest in teachers, not Washington bureaucrats.”

    McMahon expressed support for continuing federal funding for Title I in support of low-income students, and for students with disabilities under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). However, she will investigate whether IDEA should remain in the department.

    “When IDEA was originally set up, it was under the Department of Health and Welfare. After the Department of Education was established, it shifted over there,” she said. “I’m not sure that it’s not better served in Health and Human Services, but I don’t know.  If I’m confirmed, it is of high priority to make sure that the students who are receiving disability funding (are) not impacted.”

    Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, called her commitment to continued funding “gaslighting.”

    Even as the hearing was happening, Republicans in the House were working on “reconciliation” bills that called for possibly balancing massive continued personal income tax cuts with hundreds of billions in funding cuts for Medicaid and education. 

    This week, Elon Musk’s budget-cutting SWAT team known as DOGE, cut $881 million in research contracts without notice. Other education grants associated with DEI received termination notices, too.

    McMahon said DOGE’s “audit” of the department was appropriate. “I believe the American people spoke loudly in the election last November, to say that they want to look at waste, fraud and abuse in our government.” Trump recently fired the Department of Education’s independent inspector general, Sandra D. Bruce, whose job was to root out waste, fraud and abuse.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9QfK8zDU0

    Watch: Linda McMahon said DOGE’s “audit” of the department was appropriate.

    “I understand an audit,” Murray said. “But when Congress appropriates money, it is the administration’s responsibility to put that out, as directed by Congress who has the power of the purse. So what will you do if the president or Elon Musk tells you not to spend money Congress has appropriated to you?”

    “We’ll certainly expend those dollars that Congress has passed,” McMahon responded. “But I do think it is worthwhile to take a look at the programs before the money goes out the door. It’s much easier to stop the money before it goes out the door than it is to claw it back.”

    Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said schools across the nation are “scrambling because they have no idea what DEI means” and are worried they will lose funding. He presented two scenarios that pointed to ambiguities in the executive order.

    If a school in Connecticut celebrates Martin Luther King Day events and programming teaching about Black history, does it violate or run afoul of DEI prohibitions? he asked.

    “Not, in my view, that is clearly not the case,” McMahon said. “That celebration of Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month should be celebrated throughout all of our schools.”

    Murphy continued, “What about educational programming centered around specific ethnic and racial experiences? My son is in a public school. He takes African American History. Could you perhaps be in violation of this executive order?”

    “I’m, I’m not quite certain,” McMahon said. “I would like to take a look at these programs and fully understand the breadth of the executive order and get back to you on that.”

    As with all of Trump’s nominees so far, McMahon is expected to win a majority vote in the Senate, possibly along party lines, later this month.  





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  • West Contra Costa community rallies around educators protesting staffing cuts

    West Contra Costa community rallies around educators protesting staffing cuts


    United Teachers of Richmond gather at West Contra Costa school board meeting Wednesday to protest staff cuts approved a week earlier.

    Credit: Monica Velez / EdSource

    San Pablo mom Gabriella Garcia said her fourth-grade son sometimes comes home in tears after being bullied about his speech impediment.

    Her son receives help through Zoom calls with a speech specialist. 

    “Unfortunately, I don’t think this virtual format is effective for him,” Garcia said. “He continued to struggle with pronunciation, and it’s been tough for him.”

    Garcia pleaded with the West Contra Costa Unified school board on Wednesday night to stop cutting staff, including speech specialists, so her son and others like him can continue getting the hands-on support they need. 

    Her son’s teacher at Lake Elementary School, Christina Baronian, said she and the other students often have difficulty understanding him and that the only support available is online and through a contractor. 

    “It’s awful,” Baronian said during public comments. “It’s not giving him the support he needs; he needs an in-person speech therapist. Then I found out (the district) just cut some of the very few in-person (speech therapists) we have. This is his right. This is his future.”

    The United Teachers of Richmond also gathered at Wednesday night’s board meeting to protest the $13 million in budget cuts the board approved one week ago, saying the cuts are “unnecessary,” “harmful” and “devastating” to students. The $13 million in cuts will be spread over the next two school years.

    “We greatly appreciate the dedicated staff who continually serve our students and community,” interim Superintendent Kim Moses said in a statement to EdSource. “Although reductions are necessary, we are taking great care to address these reductions with minimal impact on staff and students.”

    More than 60 West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) educators showed up in person and virtually to urge the board to reconsider the fiscal solvency plan it passed. For nearly two hours, almost every speaker asked the board to reconsider the cuts. Union members wore matching red shirts, held up signs, and cheered after every public comment.

    Community members at Wednesday’s board meeting chanted “revote” throughout the meeting. 

    A speech-language pathologist and member of United Teachers of Richmond addresses the West Contra Costa school board during Wednesday’s meeting to protest the staffing cuts the board approved one week prior, which included speech specialists.
    Credit: Monica Velez / EdSource

    “We are urging the board to keep our schools stable,” said United Teachers of Richmond President Francisco Ortiz. “This is going to have a destabilizing effect, and they (the board) have the authority to (avoid cutting staff).”

    West Contra Costa Unified School District officials have said that to stay afloat, they need to cut a total of $32.7 million in funds between 2024 and 2027. The bulk of those cuts, $19.7 million, were slashed from the current school year’s budget. 

    Declining enrollment, expiration of Covid-19 relief funds, increased costs for special education programs, and underfunded mandates from state and federal governments left West Contra Costa strapped for cash, according to district officials. These struggles are being felt across the state, including nearby districts in San Francisco and Oakland which are grappling with budget cuts, school closures and consolidations.

    Meanwhile, the California Teachers Association last week launched a statewide campaign called We Can’t Wait, uniting teachers in 32 school districts to leverage their administrations for higher pay and benefits, smaller class sizes, and mental health support. As part of the campaign, more than 100 San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond educators rallied in a downpour in front of Oakland City Hall.

    Will the board revote?

    No board member has indicated any plan to call for another vote on the budget.

    Board members Leslie Reckler, Cinthia Hernandez, and Guadalupe Enllana voted for the plan. Jamela Smith-Folds abstained, and Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy was absent. 

    “These reductions are not secret,” board President Reckler wrote in an email to EdSource. “They are part of a years-long public fiscal solvency plan that was approved by the Contra Costa County Office of Education. Further, Labor has worked alongside board members and staff to identify reductions. These reductions are necessary to align adults to declining student counts.”

    West Contra Costa has faced challenging budget deficits before. In 1991, the district became the first in the state to go insolvent and received a $29 million bailout loan, which took 21 years to pay off. 

    Board member Gonzalez-Hoy said in a statement that the district needs to stop concentrating on what to cut and begin focusing on where it needs to invest and how to bring in more revenue. He added that resources should be put into increasing enrollment, daily attendance and growing programs. He said he will ask the board president to form a task force to address these issues.

    “We as a whole spend more time getting rid of what is broken instead of trying to fix it,” Gonzalez-Hoy said. “If we just keep concentrating on cuts and reduction, eventually we will disappear. We are deeply divided as a community, and it is time for us to come together for the future of our students.”

    West Contra Costa is not currently considering school closures or consolidations, trustee Hernandez said in an emailed statement. 

    “As a board member, I deeply understand the profound impact these financial challenges have on our school community and the urgent need for essential services that may no longer be available,” Hernandez said. “These are difficult choices, and none were made lightly. However, our priority remains securing a fiscally responsible path forward that allows us to continue serving our students effectively.”

    Vacancies and staffing cuts 

    Emilia Calderón teaches math at Richmond High School, and she said she constantly has to sub for other classes during her free period because of the high number of vacancies.

    “Every year they cut teachers, and even though we are lacking teachers, they (the district) still cut teachers,” she said. “And so I’m subbing for classes with vacant positions, and then it feels ridiculous to have them turn around and say, ‘We’re going to cut more teachers.’ How does that make sense?”

    Over the next two school years, about 1.6% of the United Teachers of Richmond staff will be let go for a total savings of about $3.7 million, including teachers, social workers, speech therapists and assistant principals.

    But with looming cuts, students and staff have also felt the weight of having longtime vacancies. How do these exist at the same time? It’s a question the teachers union and community has been grappling with, Ortiz said.

    Francisco Ortiz, United Teachers of Richmond president, addresses the West Contra Costa school board on Wednesday during public comment to protest the staffing cuts the board approved one week prior.
    Credit: Monica Velez / EdSource

    West Contra Costa’s fiscal solvency plan uses multiyear projections based on fully-staffed schools, Ortiz said, which is about 1,600 educators. Currently, there are about 130 vacant positions, which is equivalent to nearly $19 million, he said.

    “It creates this crisis that we have to reduce but we don’t have fully staffed people,” Ortiz said. “If we had a fully staffed school district, then that could potentially make sense, but we don’t have a fully staffed school district.” 

    But Moses said that when there are vacant positions, the district still needs to pay for substitutes, overtime or contractors to cover services. 

    “These replacement costs offset the salaries that have been set aside for the vacant positions,” Moses said. “Due to current vacancy levels, we expect that there will be a certificated job available for all current WCCUSD educators for the 2025-26 school year.”

    The deadline for the district to send layoff notices is March 15.

    “A lot of the folks we have in our district, they’re either homegrown or they choose to come here,” Ortiz said, referring to district educators. “We want to provide them with an incentive to stay in our district, and we’re currently not doing that with these haphazard or ill-conceived moves.”

    But in the meantime, the educators who are choosing to stay in West Contra Costa are trying to help students in ways they weren’t trained to.

    “We not only provide curriculum and teaching, but we’re literally like their parents sometimes and emotional support,” Calderón said. “Since they’re cutting all these social workers, guess who gets the brunt of that emotional support? I try my best, but I’m not a therapist, and it’s quite honestly dangerous to try and have a math teacher be a kid’s therapist.”





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