The difficulty California borrowers have repaying student loans is reflected here with data from the U.S. Department of Education and included in the Century Foundation report, “The Student Loan Borrowing Undermining California’s Affordability Efforts,” by Peter Granville. Once you look up the institution by name, you will also see its type and the estimated share of each category of borrowers – Stafford undergraduate, graduate and parents – who are in default, delinquent or not making progress three years into repayment. Included are only those institutions with at least 200 borrowers. The percentages are estimated rates because the federal agency reports the data ranges that were assigned to numeric values.
More than a thousand members of the Fresno Teachers Association rallied in late May and vowed to strike if the union and school district fail to agree to a contract by Sept. 29, 2023.
Credit: Courtesy of Fresno Teachers Association
The state’s third-largest school district, Fresno Unified, and its teachers union have tried since November to agree on a contract that invests in teachers.
The Fresno Teachers Association says its proposals are classroom-centered ideas to improve public education, including bettering teachers’ working environment, adding academic and social-emotional student support and increasing pay and benefits.
FTA President Manuel Bonilla said the school district hasn’t responded in a meaningful way, “really showing they have a lack of vision and honor the status quo.”
Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson disagrees.
“One of the things that’s frequently said is, ‘You have no vision,’” said Nelson, regarding FTA’s claims. “Our vision was to sit down and create a new way of bargaining, where we would work collaboratively on the things that really matter.”
Amid the tug-of-war of negotiations and a looming strike, both sides insist that they want to collaborate but continue to accuse the other side of stalling and impeding progress. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, and more than 70,000 students who are still dealing with learning loss from the pandemic will inevitably bear the brunt of the fallout.
While a compromise may be attainable on some issues, others — notably class size caps, lifetime medical benefits after retirement and ways of supporting students outside of class — are still elusive.
Perhaps pay is negotiable
The union argues that to recruit and retain high-quality teachers, Fresno Unified — the Central Valley’s largest employer with a $2.3 billion budget — should set the standard for salary and benefits, starting with raising pay to keep pace with rising inflation and the cost of living.
Bonilla said that the district has been “defunding teachers” for the past decade.
He cited a union analysis showing that, despite increased funding and a rising number of teachers, the district has invested a smaller portion of the overall budget on teacher salaries over the years. Ten years ago, for instance, the district allocated 41% of its budget to teacher salaries compared with 27% in the most recent budget.
The school district’s analysis of salary, inflation and cost-of-living paints a different picture.
District spokesperson Nikki Henry said that the district’s analysis of its salary increases between 2013-14 and 2022-23 shows that all staff have received 32.7% increases. On top of that, teachers received step increases and longevity stipends, amounting to an additional 40%. The salary increases outpace inflation over the same period, which was 30%, according to the district’s analysis.
The district estimates that the 11% raises it’s offering would put the average teacher salary at over six figures. Despite teachers being at different levels of the pay schedule, Fresno Unified said teachers earn an average of $90,650, in pay alone, for 185 work days, based on a $490 average daily rate — a number Bonilla said is inflated.
Based on Fresno Unified’s pay schedule, salary currently ranges from $56,013 for new teachers to about $102,000 for teachers with loads of experience, not including those with professional development.
The district has also agreed to fund medical costs at 100%, Nelson said. But that action stemmed from a health management board vote about the district health care fund, not from negotiations, Bonilla said.
One-hundred-percent district-funded health care happened, in part, Bonilla said, because there was enough money in the district’s health care fund to do so. The health care fund has a surplus of money, estimated at $47 million this school year, according to a June 2023 document shared with EdSource. At this level, FTA argues, the health fund can cover the costs of its proposal to restart lifetime medical benefits for retirees.
No agreement on lifetime benefits
Nelson maintains that restarting lifetime benefits puts the district’s fiscal solvency in jeopardy.
“I’m not going to make any decisions that I think would put the district in long-term fiscal danger,” he said.
Fresno Unified ended the practice in 2005, but 300 or so employees, including Superintendent Nelson, had qualified for lifetime benefits before it ended.
For the hundreds of current employees still eligible for lifetime benefits, Nelson said, estimated future costs total more than $1 billion. And, if lifetime benefits are restored or based on 2020 hire dates as proposed, the future costs will grow by hundreds of millions of dollars.
“It creates a fiscal cliff … a world of unknowns, none of which you can financially plan for,” he said.
Class size average vs. class size cap. Caps can lower class sizes, union says
Though lifetime retiree benefits are the top issue that the district won’t agree to, it’s not the only one.
Ninety-three percent of Fresno Unified’s 1,800 teachers who responded to an August and September 2022 union poll either strongly agreed or agreed that lowering class sizes would improve student learning.
Fresno Unified acknowledges the importance of smaller classes but “draws the line” on capping class size as the union proposed, stating that it forces schools to move students out of a class, or even a school, if a class reaches its cap.
“I can’t rationalize that in any fair way,” Nelson said. Henry added that such stringent measures would split families who attend their neighborhood school.
District wants contract to address student underperformance
Bonilla said that Fresno Unified insists on tying student performance to teacher evaluations, which “unfairly penalizes the teacher” for factors out of their control.
“The teacher could potentially be negatively impacted by that without having the authority to say, ‘We need to change these working conditions,’” Bonilla said about a teacher’s inability to control class size or students’ adverse experiences.
District officials say that using students’ outcomes in teachers’ evaluations is not meant to be punitive but to help educators grow.
Based on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, or CAASPP tests, most Fresno Unified students did not meet state standards in 2022: 67.76% failed to meet the English language arts standards, and 79.18% didn’t reach the math standards.
The school board is pressuring the district to address students’ underperformance, Nelson said.
“If kids are not thriving in a setting, for whatever reason, we have an obligation to go figure out why — and unapologetically,” Nelson said.
Proposals for student support shouldn’t be in the contract, the district argues
Also on the negotiation table are the union’s ideas for student support, which the district says go beyond teachers’ working conditions and don’t belong in the teacher contract.
Bonilla said most of the ideas came straight from educators, who work with students directly and know the factors outside the classroom that are impacting students’ ability to learn.
With clothing closets at nearly two dozen schools, Henry said, Fresno Unified already practices some of the common-good measures. While the staff at those schools started the ventures themselves, she said, the district will offer $10,000 startup costs for other schools wanting to start the initiative.
Nelson questions some of the other student-support ideas proposed by the union, such as utilizing school parking lots to serve the homeless population. “It’s not our area of expertise,” he said, adding that the district is willing to partner with experts serving that population.
“Is it the school system’s job to fix everything in regards to societal things? Absolutely not,” Bonilla said. Like other districts with 55% or more of students living in poverty, or are English learners, foster youth or homeless, Fresno Unified receives 65% more of its base funding.
In fact, 87% of Fresno Unified students fall into at least one of those categories, so on top of the more than $650 million in basic educational costs, the district gets over $249 million for its targeted students, according to the district’s Local Control Accountability Plan executive summary.
Bonilla said the ideas, such as the parking lot for homeless families to park their cars, are meant to start a conversation with district leaders.
“There are ideas on how we might do it because nobody else is thinking about these things,” he said. “Instead of coming to the table and designing something with us, they’d rather scrutinize the idea and shut down the conversation. Our ideas are not the end all, be all; they are a starting point. And if they have a better idea, let’s do that. But they don’t even want to have a conversation.”
Ideas or not, it’s a part of FTA’s last, best and final offer, Nelson and Henry said.
Nelson said the union has not deviated much from that proposal, even in July and September mediations, which to Nelson is an indicator that the union hasn’t moved toward a shared vision for the school district.
The union shared a similar sentiment about the district, saying that since contract negotiations started in November, Fresno Unified has focused on defending what it currently does in regard to pay and benefits, class size and student support.
Awaiting fact-finding report, which both sides have preconceived notions about
Negotiations have led to a May promise to strike, to both sides declaring impasse in July and to failed mediation attempts in July and during a Sept. 5-7 fact-finding.
“I’m holding out some hope that the fact-finder’s report will get us to a different state,” Nelson said.
In the fact-finding stage, FTA and Fresno Unified made presentations to a neutral third party, who will make a recommendation.
“They don’t come into this process trying to improve school systems,” Bonilla said. “They come into this process trying to settle a contract.”
The fact finder will most likely focus on salary and benefits, Bonilla said, not lowering class size, for example.
“That should be the leadership’s position of working with teachers in order to figure out how to design those systems,” Bonilla said, adding that Nelson will most likely propose adopting the findings, as-is, like he did in 2017 when teachers voted to strike but averted it. The teachers union, Bonilla said, will not write a “blank check” from someone who doesn’t know teachers’ day-to-day reality.
Despite the union attempting to “invalidate” the findings, as Henry described it, district leadership remains confident in the report, which is expected early next week.
If the union and district still don’t agree on a contract 10 days after the fact-finding report, the district must release that report to the public, leaving them with the option to impose a contract and allowing the union to vote to strike.
FTA had already imposed a Sept. 29 deadline for the school district to agree on a contract or face an Oct. 18 strike vote, which teachers may feel is the only route left to take.
Is striking the only option left?
Many teachers, according to Bonilla, do not feel supported and are disappointed by the district’s response — or lack thereof — to what the union considers solution-based methods.
“We went through the avenues that one should go through,” Bonilla said, noting how more than 100 teachers attended eight school board meetings. “We communicated with board members. We communicated with the superintendent.
“We’re here because Superintendent Nelson has failed to give vision (and) direction.”
Nelson’s vision, he said, was to change how bargaining traditionally happened: to be able to sit down and collaborate without a third party mediator having to step in.
Thinking long term, Nelson continues to believe that coming to — and staying at — the bargaining table is the best route for Fresno Unified.
“There’s no scenario — even the scenario by which they take the strike vote and actually strike — where you don’t have to sit down and have a productive discussion,” Nelson said.
If and when that conversation takes place, Bonilla said, the administration must listen to teachers.
“In many ways, we’re fighting for the heart and soul of this school district,” he said. “This model that doesn’t give voice to those actually in the classroom needs to end if we really want to be a school district that meets the needs of our students.”
Students pass beneath Sather Gate and onto Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley.
Credit: Steve McConnell / UC Berkeley
With the summer ending, I am spending most of my time finishing work for summer classes while figuring out how to prepare for one of the most pivotal points in my high school career: college applications.
I am tired of endlessly watching videos of students who were accepted into prestigious universities, explaining what they did in high school to get accepted, ranging from engaging in cancer research under university professors to being the youngest person ever to obtain a Google internship.
Now, it’s my turn to go through the process. I’ve put it off long enough. It is time to write the first draft of my college essay.
I opened up my document in Google Docs, filled with a list of random ideas I curated to fit the personal insight questions from the university. I typed away on my keyboard, only to end up with a singular sentence. I tried again; this effort resulted in random fragments of what I picture in my head — a broken draft filled with scrambled words that would not cooperate with one another.
“The sooner I get the draft done, the sooner I have one thing off my plate,” I grumble to myself.
I want to create a perfectly polished essay — to show I am a fit for the university of my choice. While this essay will acknowledge I have flaws, I can only hope that those flaws align with the college’s expectations.
Even if I manage to create a perfect application, the college admissions process itself raises concerns. Despite researching it for months, I still do not fully understand it.
I’m worried that I will do everything that is expected and still not be accepted anywhere. It happened to my friend. She did everything to ensure acceptance into a good college. She took Advanced Placement courses at her high school and had a cumulative weighted GPA of over 4.0. She also participated in many clubs. She worked hard all four years of high school but still wasn’t able to get into the university she wanted to attend.
Soon-to-be high school graduates must also decipher requirements from out-of-state and private schools, which adds to the pressure they feel as they navigate the constant changes in the college application process.
Applying for financial aid also contributes to stress and uncertainty. Will I qualify for federal student aid? Should I apply for financial aid packages from universities? Should I apply to dozens of private scholarships on the slim chance I could win scholarship money?
The college admissions process is always changing, but one of the most distinguished parts of my identity is being put to the test with the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action in universities.
I’ve always been told that if you’re an Asian, you should never acknowledge it in the demographics area of your application because it will be to your disadvantage. I have no clue what to do now that race won’t be considered in admissions. I’m still contemplating whether I should note my race in my applications. Will it hurt my chances or not?
I feel anxious about what the upcoming application cycle is going to look like. The college admissions process has undergone many changes in the past few years, and it seems that it will go through more in the coming years.
These concerns keep me up at night. I worry about the unexpected challenges I may face as I apply to colleges. It seems that I won’t know whether I will be able to go to a four-year college until admission decisions are made.
I know that there are other options besides a four-year university. I can start my college career at a community college and transfer through the University of California Transfer Admission Guarantee program for one.
Regardless of all the paranoia and anxiety that come with applying to college, I know that it will be worth it in the end.
•••
Saffiya Sheikh is a student education reporter for Sac School Beat in Sacramento County and a senior at Horizon Charter School. She plans to major in political science when she goes to college.
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.
Patrick Acuña is starting his final year as a social ecology major at one of California’s most prestigious universities. It’s in sharp contrast to his nearly 30 years inside state prisons on a life without parole sentence.
In the year since his release, Acuña transitioned between two historically dichotomous institutions: the prison he believed he would die in and University of California, Irvine brimming with opportunities for a man who completed high school while in juvenile hall decades ago.
“I’m so glad I didn’t get the death penalty,” said Acuña, who faced that sentence at age 19. “I would have never had the opportunity to get an education, to love, to make friends.”
Acuña’s transformation was decades in the making, with education remaining his constant guide.
“I wanted to prove that I was worthy … that I was more than just a prison number. And I wanted to show not just my loved ones, but society, that I was more than life without parole because life without parole is a death sentence and says that you are incorrigible,” said Acuña, 49.
Acuña began earning community college credits nearly two decades ago but didn’t think he’d go further.
“I always aspired to higher education, but it was just not available,” he said. “When Irvine came in with the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s, I wanted to take advantage of that.”
In 2022, the University of California inaugurated its first in-prison bachelor’s program, an expansion of college in prison. The community colleges run associate degree programs in almost all 34 state prisons, and the state university system runs nearly 10 bachelor’s programs. CSU Dominguez Hills is soon debuting the state’s first in-prison master’s program.
By chance, Acuña was not only at the same prison where the program launched but had just completed his second associate degree for transfer, which made him eligible to apply.
He became one of 26 incarcerated people at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County admitted to UC Irvine through the Leveraging Inspiring Futures Through Educational Degrees, or LIFTED, program. Their studies are funded by the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan, which covers tuition and fees for California residents with significant financial need.
Applying was challenging: With restricted internet access, he and his classmates couldn’t submit their own applications or request necessary information, such as Social Security numbers. They relied heavily on LIFTED to apply.
Acuña’s pursuit of higher education, along with involvement in activities like training service dogs, played a significant role in Gov. Jerry Brown commuting his sentence to 25 years to life in December 2018. He was originally sentenced when he was gang-affiliated and a lookout in a robbery that left a store owner dead.
A bill passed in 2018 that provided the chance to retry his case, and a judge found him not culpable for murder. He was released last October and moved to Irvine’s graduate student housing to complete his studies, the first from LIFTED to attend on campus.
He knows some people question why he should have this opportunity when his victim didn’t. “I can’t argue against that because I have personal responsibility,” he said. “I am sorry for what I’ve done, and I do regret what I have done.”
LIFTED became so crucial in Acuña’s life that its staffers picked him up after he was released. Their first stop, at his request, was UC Irvine.
“First thing I learned on campus was that nobody was taking it easy on students in [prison]. I was getting the same education inside that I was going to get outside,” he said.
He quickly learned how difficult the transition would be from studying in prison versus on campus.
With limited technology access, assignments were completed by hand or on highly restricted laptops. The technology barrier made the program far more demanding for students inside, said Acuña, but also presented a significant challenge when he got out because he hadn’t taken part in the momentous technology developments while incarcerated.
He initially felt intimidated. “I could be in a prison yard with a bunch of dudes that are in there for murder, and I was more intimidated sitting in the classroom at a university with a bunch of 19-, 20-year-olds,” he said.
It was the result of feeling like an impostor.
“I felt that I didn’t belong there, that I wasn’t smart enough to be there, that somehow, I was given some sort of leniency to be able to fit into the program, which it turns out is not true, but it felt that way,” Acuña said.
The prison environment was “toxic, highly alpha-driven, male-dominated,” he said. He quickly learned to navigate a distinct campus environment, noting he doesn’t always express himself in politically correct ways.
Perhaps most crucial was support from campus groups for students impacted by incarceration and foster care, which he was in for some time as a teenager. Acuña particularly credits three groups: LIFTED, Underground Scholars and Foster Youth Resilience in Education.
From a grant to fix his car’s transmission to navigating resources to making him feel welcomed, he said the groups “made the landing softer initially.”
“Without those three organizations, I don’t know if I would’ve stayed in school. And if I hadn’t stayed in school, I don’t know if I would still be in the free world,” said Acuña.
For most of his time incarcerated, community college was the only higher education option. Higher education for those inside is becoming increasingly possible, particularly with Pell Grant access recently reinstated.
Still, only about 230 of the state’s 95,600 incarcerated people are enrolled in bachelor’s programs this fall. Being released midway through such programs, as Acuña was, is even less common.
“We engage in education because once we get a taste of it, we understand that it transforms our lives in ways we don’t even initially understand. It broadens our perspective,” said Acuña about attending college while incarcerated. “You see there’s more to life than those blocks that you’re willing to die for and your friends have died for.”
He attributes that transformation as the reason why many of his classmates applied to UCI despite knowing they’ll remain in prison for the rest of their lives.
“One of the harshest things about being sentenced to life without parole… is that it’s a sentence to hopelessness. Every human being needs hope to thrive, to live,” Acuña said. “Whether you can do anything with that education as far as the outside world or career — you get to think and share ideas.”
Turning point in solitary
While in solitary confinement in his early 20s, an older man deeply entrenched in gang culture became Acuña’s mentor. It’s this man whom Acuña credits with setting him on his current path.
“He was guiding me out of the gang culture, but he could not openly guide me out because that would be a death sentence for him,” said Acuña. “He didn’t want me to make the same mistakes he had made and always told me: ‘You remind me of me when I was your age.’”
Acuña received his mentor’s copy of “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius and read it multiple times, afraid of not knowing an answer if questioned on the book about the musings of a Roman emperor and philosopher.
“There’s this pressure to walk this fine line; it’s like you’re walking on rice paper and trying not to tear it,” said Acuña about navigating prison without getting hurt. But his mentor was uninterested in punishments.
Instead, it became the first book Acuña wanted to read, even as he struggled with then-undiagnosed learning disabilities of dyslexia and dyscalculia.
Courtesy of Patrick Acuña
Patrick Acuña
“Something was awakened in me. I didn’t read better, but I got a taste of new understanding. I was hooked as if it was a drug on education and learning new things,” Acuña said. “That moment really changed my life.”
His mentor died in solitary, as they knew he would, but Acuña holds his lessons close, becoming emotional when he’s mentioned. He no longer has the book; he said a guard discarded it during a cell search.
“One of the last things he did was to help set me on a path that he knew was right, that he wanted for himself, but he was too entrenched to ever make the decision to do anything else,” Acuña said of his mentor. “In the pages of that book, he gave me a gift, not just education but a different life path. Something beyond the life we had lived up to that point.”
The book was filled with life lessons, such as: “Do not act as if you had 10,000 years to live. The inescapable is hanging over your head; while you have life in you, while you still can, make yourself good.”
Soon after, Acuña joined others appealing for education while at the Central Valley’s Corcoran State Prison.
“I started thinking: What does it mean to be a man or an adult?” he said. He saw education as the only way to “show [the next generation] that just because we come from not the best of areas … that they don’t have to travel the path that I traveled and endure the hardships that I endured as a result of it and at the same time have to live with the guilt of harming others.”
He’d struggled through grade school, unable to memorize multiplication charts or read by the third grade. From teachers, he received high marks in effort even as he internalized comments he received elsewhere: “that I didn’t try hard enough, I was just stupid, I’ll never be any good,” he said.
It took meeting his mentor in prison to give school another chance.
Acuña can’t recall his first interaction with police. He grew up in the South San Gabriel neighborhood of Los Angeles during the 1980s gang epidemic, where such contact was incessant.
“When we start peeling away the layers of when was the first time you came into contact with a policing system, for many of us, it’s almost impossible to say,” Acuña said.
Paired with negative academic experiences, Acuña saw few options for his future. “It was either military, labor jobs, or prison … and a lot of it was prison,” he said about the adults in his family.
“I kind of just fell through the cracks and wound up getting involved with other students that were probably falling through the cracks,” said Acuña. “And eventually that led to anti-social behaviors, gang affiliation, more crime and prison.”
Acuña, who identifies as Native American and Latino, was first arrested at 14 for robbery. He remained tied to the justice system through his teenage years. Then, at 19, he was arrested for murder.
“The damage I did was irreparable and so far-reaching that it goes beyond what I can imagine, and that’s just the immediate victim and the family,” Acuña said during a 2020 parole board hearing.
His attorney described Acuña that day as having transformed “from a violent, scared, damaged, terrifying young gang member to an upstanding person, a man with respect, integrity, who can be part of our society and give back to others.”
By then, Acuña had internalized the wide impact of crime on communities. He remains in school to reduce the damage.
There are many inside prison who are “languishing and have so much to offer,” he said. But because of “cruel and unusual” sentences like life without parole, he added, they don’t get to show any of their rehabilitation.
“As somebody serving the sentence of life without parole, you have no incentive to educate or stay out of trouble — yet they’re doing it,” said Acuña. It shows they’re not incorrigible, can be rehabilitated and deserving of having their cases reviewed, just as his was.
There was a time when he needed to be in prison, he acknowledged, but “did I need to be there indeterminately? No.”
Acuña currently advises professors teaching inside prisons and is a service-dog trainer; there was a time when he wanted to pursue a career in veterinary medicine. He isn’t sure what he’ll do after completing his degree, but he knows he’s staying in school. He’ll now have options: Those studying in prison are limited to the majors offered to them, most often in the humanities.
“You think there’s nothing else out there because you can’t see past those city blocks that there’s a whole world out there and you have every right to it,” Acuña said of his early life. “You don’t have to be redlined and cast aside, you don’t have to be cheap labor. You have options. And the key to that is education.”
Jennifer Molina produced the video for this story.
The graduation stage at all California State University (CSU) campuses are vibrant tableaus of dreams achieved. Each cap and gown tell a unique tale of persistence, ambition, and hope. But beneath the prestige and pride lies a sobering reality. For many students, obtaining a diploma also means accumulating debt.
The CSU’s recent decision to increase tuition by 34% over five years, at an annual rate of 6%, might intensify these disparities, potentially impacting the trajectory of many students’ dreams and futures.
While the CSU cites fiscal imperatives for the increase, it’s crucial to consider its effects on students, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds. Higher education, once the beacon of hope and socio-economic mobility, is slowly being priced out of reach for many. Making this path more expensive threatens to sideline those who are meant to benefit from it the most.
The data doesn’t lie, so let’s dive into it. Our recent collaborative report with The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) on the CSU system illuminates disturbing trends. While the CSU’s efforts to boost graduation rates are commendable, the cost of these achievements disproportionately impacts students from racially marginalized communities. We found that from the academic year 2021-22 a disconcerting 63% of Black bachelor’s degree recipients are grappling with student debt. In contrast, only about a third of their white and Asian peers face similar financial burdens. Moreover, only 48% of Black students secure their degree within six years. As these stats indicate, the increase in tuition could threaten the very essence of CSU, known for its diversity and inclusivity.
The data tells a story that reaches far beyond mere statistics. Picture the path of a first-generation college student from a marginalized background. They step onto campus, buoyed by dreams and shouldering the weight of their family’s expectations. As they navigate the academic world, they confront both systemic obstacles and personal challenges.
Yet, as graduation draws near, a looming debt casts a shadow over their achievements. Each loan statement they receive isn’t merely an invoice; it’s a stark reminder of the price of ambition, of wanting to change your life for the better. These are dreams recalibrated or paused, not because of a lack of drive, capability, passion, or talent but for the sake of survival. Thus, the narrative shifts from higher education being a bridge to dreams to a poignant query: Is the investment truly worth its promise?
Add to this the ramifications of the CSU’s recent decision. Annual tuition increases totaling 34% can lead to longer work hours, fewer academic credits, or even postponed semesters. Each subsequent loan statement, irrespective of graduation status, serves as a somber reminder of the tangible costs of dreams and the yearning for a brighter future. Such decisions don’t just delay dreams; they risk derailing them.
At this defining moment, the CSU must introspectively reassess its foundational principles. The recent tuition hike decision has resonated like an unsettling alarm throughout the CSU community. While certain factions might view this as a necessary step to counteract fiscal deficits, for many students, it’s an added layer to an already challenging academic climb. To paint a clearer picture, on most campuses, our most economically disadvantaged students would need to clock in twenty or even upwards of thirty hours of paid work a week, in certain regions, just to afford the cost of attendance.
Beyond individual concerns, society must recognize wider ramifications. Those students we’re most committed to elevating may increasingly feel academia’s gates slowly creaking shut. If financial burdens eclipse the dream of higher education, the entire society loses out. We risk sidelining tomorrow’s innovators, thinkers, leaders, and agents of societal change. The budding poet, poised to inspire an era, might remain silent; the aspiring scientist, on the brink of groundbreaking discoveries might opt for more immediate financial gains by taking a job instead. The community advocates, starting their journey in student leadership and deeply attuned to their community’s historical narratives, might never fully realize their potential to uplift and lead.
This is a rallying cry for unity. As the CSU system charts its course, it is vital that policymakers, educators, students, and the wider community actively participate in this critical dialogue. We must also confront the sobering truth that members of our community will disproportionately bear the inequitable burden of a college degree. It’s crucial that we safeguard against making the pursuit of dreams financially untenable. After all, dreams cultivated within the halls of academia should ignite, illuminate, and elevate – not ensnare.
•••
Dominic Quan Treseler is president of the Cal State Student Association and a political science major at San Jose State University.
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.
High school students in Monterey County’s Migrant Education Student Academy learn bioengineering from Stanford University students.
Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
Top Takeaways
In Monterey County, students brush up on English, math and science to fill gaps caused by moving schools.
California is suing the Trump administration for withholding funds from the nearly 60-year-old program.
Many current and former students call the program life-changing.
A group of high school students in Monterey County is spending their summer extracting DNA from sprigs of clover, making jewelry out of algae and shaping ceramic bowls, while also beefing up their math, reading and writing skills.
This Migrant Education Student Academy is one of dozens of federally funded migrant education programs in California that help the children of agricultural workers fill gaps in academic instruction as they move with their parents from job to job.
Fourteen-year-oldOmar Flores said the program offers classes that he has never had access to, like ceramics and BioJam, a bioengineering class taught by Stanford University students.
“I like how we get to build with clay, and we get to express our feelings with clay. I like BioJam too because we further our knowledge and look in microscopes. I’ve learned a lot about genes and how we can modify genes,” Flores said.
Educators say Migrant Education Programs help boost students’ academic skills and put them on track for college and careers, which is backed up by some research studies.
But this program and others like it throughout the state may soon disappear. Migrant education is one of five programs for which President Donald Trump withheld federal funds that are usually distributed to states on July 1. California is now suing the Trump administration over the frozen funds, which total about $121 million for migrant education in the state, according to an estimate by the Learning Policy Institute.
The president has proposed eliminating the program in the next fiscal year’s budget, which is yet to be voted on in Congress. In his budget proposal, he implied that it was not in the nation’s interest to prepare migrant education students for college. “These programs have not been proven effective, are extremely costly, and encourage ineligible non-citizens to access U.S. IHEs [institutions of higher education], stripping resources from American students.”
Yet many migrant education students are U.S. citizens. The Migrant Education Program, established almost 60 years ago, serves students whose parents work in agriculture, fishing, dairy or logging, and have moved in the last three years for work, regardless of their immigration status.
Loss of funds would be ‘devastating’
In California, 47,225 students were enrolled in Migrant Education Programs statewide in 2024-25. Monterey County’s program is one of the largest, with 4,328 students in 2024-25, for which it received about $14 million in federal funds. In addition to academic instruction and counseling, many counties also offer health services. San Diego County, for example, brings a mobile dental clinic from USC each year to provide dental cleanings, fillings and other treatment to migrant students.
Monterey County and many others are keeping their programs through the end of the summer, but after that, their future is uncertain. The elimination of the funds would be devastating, said Constantino Silva, senior director of migrant education in Monterey County.
“The support system for the migratory students will not be there,” Silva said. “Hopefully, there’s enough caring people who will still keep these students on their radar, right? But I’m afraid the students will fall through the cracks. I’m worried that only a few will continue to thrive as opposed to many.”
Silva credits the Migrant Education Program with preparing him for college. He was a migrant student himself, after he moved with his family from Mexico to Monterey County when he was 6 so they could be with his father, who moved back and forth for work.
King City fifth graders discuss a book called “Radio Man” about a student from a migrant farm-working family.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
Students discuss the book they’re reading in the Migrant Education Student Academy summer program in King City.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
King City fifth graders discuss a book called “Radio Man” they read in a summer program for migrant students.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
First and second graders in the King City summer Migrant Education Program practice the sounds the letters O and A make together.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
Students in the Migrant Education Student Academy in King City learn a dance from a visiting teacher from Mexico.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
Students learn a dance from a visiting teacher from Mexico in the Migrant Education Student Academy in King City.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
Students in the migrant education summer program at Soledad High School learn bioengineering from Stanford University students.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
A student examines a sprig of clover in the Migrant Education Student Academy in Soledad.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
A Stanford University student prepares a sample for a DNA experiment in the Migrant Education Student Academy in Soledad.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
High school students made jewelry out of algae in a bioengineering class in the Migrant Education Student Academy summer program in Soledad.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
A bowl crafted by a student in the Migrant Education Student Academy summer program at Soledad High School.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
Constantino Silva is the senior director of migrant education for Monterey County and a former migrant student himself.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
“It made a huge difference for me. By the time I got to high school, I was taking college prep courses, right? I could speak and write in English on a very high level. And my math was great too. So I was propelled into college prep, and then I went to college, and I really credit that to the additional support that I received through the migrant program,” Silva said.
‘I learned a little bit more words here’
Silva’s first school in the U.S. was Santa Lucia Elementary in King City, where on a recent Wednesday, first and second grade migrant education students were learning the sound O makes when it’s before an A. In unison, they read sentences aloud: “They load the boat,” “Goats like to roam,” and ‘The soap will float.”
In another classroom, third and fourth graders practiced the moves for a dance they learned from a visiting teacher from Mexico. Piñatas the students made by hand hung from the ceiling.
Fifth graders discussed a book they were reading, “Radio Man,” about a child in a migrant farm-working family. Teacher Keyla Robles asked them to talk with their classmates about what happened at the beginning of the book, and then what happened in the middle.
Daleysa, 10, said she was excited to read a book about migrant workers like her own family, who travel each year from Yuma, Arizona, to King City. Both of her parents work in the fields, she said.
“I like it a lot because it’s about a boy who moves to different places to get different fruits and vegetables. And it’s kind of like how we do it, but we only go to two different places,” Daleysa said.
Oliver, 10, whose parents work in the lettuce fields, said he learned multiplication and more English during the summer program.
“I learned a little bit more words here,” he said, adding that it has also helped his friends who do not speak fluent English. “It helps them a little bit more than the normal school, because the normal school doesn’t really tell you to repeat those words.”
Their teacher, Robles, is passionate about teaching the children of migratory farmworkers because she was one herself. As a child, her dad worked in Arizona for six months out of the year and in Monterey County the other half. Her family’s constant moves made it hard for her to do well in school or learn English, she said.
“I experienced that big gap,” she said. “It took me years to pass the ELPAC, for example, because I wasn’t having that support that I know that Migrant Ed gives our students.” The ELPAC is the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California, a test that all students who speak a language other than English must take until they are considered proficient in English.
Keyla Robles is passionate about teaching migratory students.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
Now, Robles is trying to help fill the gaps she sees in her own migrant education students. “It’s basic phonics, phonemic awareness that as they’re progressing from grade level to grade level, they just go over their head. They never actually get that understanding of basic letter sounds, basic addition, subtraction,” she said.
Robles applied for a job as a full-time migrant resource teacher with the Monterey County Office of Education, but the job was put on hold after federal funding was frozen.
“It’s really disappointing for me,” Robles said. “Because I feel like I have such a big impact on the students.”
Setting students up for success
A few blocks away at Chalone Peaks Middle School, students gushed about how much they learned in the summer migrant education program’s STEM class, putting together hand-cranked light bulbs and building palm-sized radios.
“The Migrant Education Program is different from regular school because it teaches you a lot more,” said 12-year-old Evelyn, who travels back and forth between Yuma, Arizona, and King City every year. “In school, you mostly review stuff. Here in the STEM class, they teach you real science, and you actually do stuff for yourself.”
Clicking through different stations from banda music to talk shows on her new radio, Evelyn said she will “definitely” use it.
High school migrant education students from Monterey County spent a few days at the University of California, Santa Cruz, this summer. Others attended a summer program at California State University, Fresno. Migrant Education Program coordinator Karla Caliz said the program makes it more likely for these students to attend college.
“Many of our students will narrate how it’s life-changing for them,” she said. “We do believe that without programs like these, we would have students who would not be able to access the information or the process to enter [college].”
Jose Perez, the migrant resource teacher for the King City Union School District, said the summer Migrant Education Program helps set students up to succeed during the school year.
“Sometimes we have students who haven’t had any formal education, so they don’t know about social expectations, and this is a good way to teach them norms in the United States, because in the regular setting, during the regular year, these students may be seen as troublemakers or just being defiant, and they just need to learn our system,” Perez said.
It hurts, Perez said, to know the program could end.
“In my experience in this community, even the district itself, they rely on me a lot,” he said. “I don’t see these students having the chances without the migrant education support.”
For nearly 20 years, academic strategies, support and policies focused on closing long-standing achievement gaps in STEM between boys and girls. These efforts paid off, and by 2019, girls’ achievement in math and science equaled or exceeded boys’. Then the pandemic hit, and the gaps that took two decades to close were back.
My colleagues and I at NWEA, an education assessment and research company, examined how the pandemic impacted achievement for boys and girls in math and science. We looked at scores from three large national assessments (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, the National Assessment of Educational Progress and NWEA’s MAP Growth). The data highlighted two main trends:
The achievement gap in math and science reemerged during the pandemic, once again favoring boys. However, an achievement gap did not resurface in reading, where girls continue to outperform boys.
Looking at high-achieving students, boys showed significantly higher scores across assessments than girls in both math and science. For low-achieving students, however, boys’ scores were lower than girls’.
These trends are not limited to the U.S. Other English-speaking countries show similar gaps, pointing to a broader issue. A similar trend is seen more locally. On the NAEP assessments, which provide California-specific data for eighth grade math, the results mirror the nation. In 2019, California boys and girls had an average math score that was not significantly different. By 2024, however, boys had an average score that was 6 points higher than girls’ in math.
Our research also looked at enrollment by boys and girls in eighth grade algebra across 1,300 U.S. schools. Enrollment in this math course is often used as a predictor of future enrollment in higher-level math in high school, as well as a predictor of participation in college and career opportunities in STEM fields. In 2019, girls enrolled at higher levels than boys in eighth grade algebra (26% vs 24%). By 2022, enrollment had declined for both groups, with the drop-off for girls being slightly sharper than for boys. While the decline was experienced by both, enrollment for boys in algebra had bounced back to pre-pandemic levels by 2024.
Taken together, the results of this research signal that the effects of the pandemic were not felt evenly by boys and girls. More significantly, this data does not provide the “why” for these setbacks and the reemergence of achievement gaps. One area to spotlight is the trend of girls reporting more emotional challenges, like depression and anxiety, during and after the pandemic that may have impacted their learning. Notably, the widening gender gap emerged after students returned to in-person school, pointing to factors in the school environment as potential contributors, like the reports of rising behavioral issues among boys, leading teachers to pay more attention to them in class.
While many of the concerns in the last few years about gender differences in school have focused on the ways that boys are struggling more than girls, our research has illustrated an overlooked area where girls could use more support. As schools continue to focus on academic recovery and approaches that drive academic outcomes for all students, it’s crucial that those efforts are measured and evaluated effectively to ensure new inequities don’t arise or old ones don’t take permanent root. We have three primary recommendations to address these gaps:
Monitoring participation in STEM milestones by boys and girls, over time, and not just within a single year to gain a better view of trends. For example, eighth grade algebra enrollment in 2024 appears to be balanced by gender, but it overlooks a critical trend that boys’ enrollment has returned to pre-pandemic levels while girls’ enrollment is still below 2019 levels. Analyzing longitudinal trends within each group is key to uncovering and addressing setbacks that may be hidden by a single-point-in-time snapshot.
Providing specific academic and emotional support to students. Girls reported feeling more stress, anxiety and depression than boys, and noted it as an obstacle to their learning during the pandemic. Addressing both the academic needs and emotional needs of students may be critical in closing these emerging gaps in STEM skills.
Evaluating classroom dynamics and instructional practices. If shifts in behavior and teacher attention during the pandemic disproportionately benefited boys in STEM subjects, understanding these shifts may help address the re-emerged achievement gap. Targeted professional learning that promotes equitable participation and inclusive teaching practices in STEM can help ensure all students have equal opportunities to succeed.
As our schools continue to navigate this long path toward academic recovery, it’s important that those efforts don’t unintentionally grow existing inequities or create new ones. More and more evidence is emerging that the pandemic was not an equal opportunity hitter, and its disruptions affected students differently. For girls in math and science, moving forward will require renewed attention to addressing achievement gaps, targeted support and careful monitoring of progress. Reclosing STEM gaps will take time, but with the right focus, it is possible to not only recover, but to build a more equitable STEM education system that ensures both boys and girls have immense opportunities to succeed.
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Megan Kuhfeld is the director of growth modeling and analytics for NWEA, a division of the adaptive learning company HMH, which supports students and educators in more than 146 countries through research, assessment solutions, policy and advocacy, and professional learning.
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.
Credit: Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for American Education
For folks in the literacy world, the bitter fight over California’s math framework sounded eerily familiar. On one side, proponents of the framework argued that students need to learn to love math, see themselves as math people and grapple with math concepts. On the other, traditionalists argued that the framework spends too much time on unproven, poorly researched ideas that fail to equip students with the foundational knowledge they need to learn more complex math.
For good measure, there’s even a popular Stanford professor, Jo Boaler, who’s been tagged as the Lucy Calkins of math and whose research has become a lightning rod for criticism from math researchers and educators nationally. Sounds just like the reading wars and the fight between balanced literacy and phonics, doesn’t it?
For those talking about the new “math wars” and calling for a “science of math,” that’s where the similarities end. Yes, there are serious differences between the two sides of the California framework debate on how to teach math in the elementary grades, when students should take algebra and the importance of calculus. But unlike reading, these pedagogical differences are far from being resolved.
That’s because the “science of reading” didn’t happen overnight. It was a multidecade movement engaging every sector of our education system including research, media, advocacy, state and local policy and business to tackle an issue — early literacy — that was broadly understood by the public.
One could argue that the math crisis is far more severe with overall results far behind English and enormous achievement gaps. It is also just as consequential for students, given the connection between early math proficiency and access to higher-level math coursework, post-secondary education and technical careers. To get the attention that math deserves, advocates should learn from the multiyear, multifaceted strategy that’s driven the science of reading movement.
The first step is articulating how poor math instruction affects a child’s life and harms the most vulnerable students, especially students with dyscalculia, a condition that makes it hard to do math. For years, reading advocates have hammered away at the connection between third grade reading results and the school-to-prison pipeline. Meanwhile, dyslexia advocates showed how poor reading instruction harmed children with reading difficulties. Their efforts expanded public consciousness and led to massive philanthropic and government investments in reading research.
For years, ways to teach reading with names like “explicit direct instruction,” “whole language and “balanced literacy” fought it out, creating dissension and confusion down to the classroom level. Over the last decade, stunning advances in neuroscience have resolved most of these conflicts. We now know that learning to read is a complex neurological process marked by explicit sequential stages of learning and interlocking skill development. Approaches like early phonics instruction work for the bulk of students, especially kids with reading difficulties like dyslexia while other popular methods like whole language don’t.
Unfortunately, when it comes to research, math is where reading was 20 years ago, with a similarly animating set of conflicts like the recent California Framework fight pitting “problem-based learning” against procedural knowledge such as memorizing multiplication tables. As we did with reading, we should heavily invest in the neuroscience research that can definitively answer what works in the classroom and what doesn’t.
Simultaneously, we should build the understanding and the will of state and local policymakers and community leaders about the math crisis, its implications for students and the importance of investing in high-quality math instruction from the earliest grades. This means that school districts shouldn’t wait two years for the state to publish a list of approved materials. Most math curricula in California classrooms are low quality and almost 10 years old. Districts should use the flexibility provided by state law to purchase a new highly rated math curriculum and provide ongoing professional learning and coaching for teachers, especially elementary teachers who are often math averse.
As we improve our knowledge of the neuroscience of math, state and local leaders shouldn’t sit on their hands. They should build capacity in state and local agencies by creating math departments that rival the size and influence of their literacy departments, hiring senior math administrators and building a cadre of math coaches so that best practices are quickly disseminated to districts and schools. Using current research, they should regularly revisit their math standards to establish a balance between procedural knowledge and problem-based learning. They should adopt the most vigorous quality metrics for math curriculum and intervention materials and require they are up to date, eliminating lags longer than three years between online updates and district adoptions.
It may be a few years before we have a “science of math” as impactful as the “science of reading.” But with the right focus, research, investments and infrastructure, California can get there with just as many lifelong benefits for our students.
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.
Two students in a combined second- and third-grade class read together.
Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education
English learners need foundational skills like phonics and vocabulary in addition to instruction in speaking and understanding English and connections to their home languages.
Those are two agreements laid out in a new joint statement Tuesday authored by two organizations, one that advocates for English learners and the other for the “science of reading.” The organizations, the National Committee for Effective Literacy and The Reading League, had previously appeared to have deep differences about how to teach reading.
The authors hope that the statement dispels the idea that English learners do not need to be taught foundational skills, while also pushing policymakers and curriculum publishers to fully incorporate English learners’ needs.
“I hope we stop hearing so much about the science of reading being bad for English learners and emergent bilinguals. And I hope that it helps move those who are working to build the knowledge in the science of reading to think of English learners or emergent bilinguals in Chapter 1 rather than Chapter 34,” said Kari Kurto, national science of reading project director at The Reading League.
“We came together with a common goal: to develop proficient readers and writers in English and, we hope, in other languages,” said Martha Hernandez, executive director of Californians Together, which advocates for English learners in California, and a member of the National Committee for Effective Literacy. “I think we both kind of learned that we had more in common than we didn’t.”
Several contributors said they hope the statement could help California move past roadblocks to adopt a comprehensive literacy plan to ensure that all children can read by third grade, including important skills for students learning English as a second language.
“We can stop arguing about whether foundational skills are important. We can stop arguing about whether we value bilingualism in and of itself. We can stop bickering and identify what are the challenges out in the field to make these things happen,” said Claude Goldenberg, professor of education emeritus at Stanford University.
Only 42% of California’s third graders can read and write at grade level, according to the state’s latest Smarter Balanced test. The state has faced increased pressure to adopt a plan with a clear focus on reading skills known as “foundational” — phonics (connecting letters to sounds), phonemic awareness (identifying distinct units of sound), fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Advocates for English learners had raised concerns that an increased focus on phonics might exclude other critical skills, such as learning to understand and speak the language and connections between English and other languages.
The joint statement makes it clear that English learners need explicit instruction in phonics, vocabulary and comprehension, and that they also need to have instruction in oral language development — learning to speak and understand English — to make sure they understand the words they are learning to sound out.
Not only is understanding meaning important for reading comprehension, but brain research has also shown that it’s needed in order to begin recognizing words. When students sound out a word they know, their brain begins to recognize it for future reading, a process known as “orthographic mapping.” But if a student doesn’t know the meaning of the word they’re sounding out, the brain can’t file away the word as recognizable, Goldenberg said.
In addition, the authors agreed that when possible, students should have access to dual language instruction, in which students learn to read and write in both their home language and English.
“A student’s home language is an asset that should be valued and nurtured,” reads the statement. “Instructional practices in which teachers explicitly encourage students to make connections between their home language and English benefit their language and literacy development.”
“It’s so significant because we have had so many decades of policy and many practices of thinking of English learners, labeling them as deficient in many ways because they don’t know English,” said Magaly Lavadenz, executive director of the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University.
The statement, which was signed by more than 190 individuals and 80 organizations, is the culmination of months of discussion that began in 2022, after the National Committee for Effective Literacy published a white paper raising concerns and discrediting some practices implemented under the name of the “science of reading.” After many months of discussion, The Reading League and NCEL held a joint summit in Las Vegas in March, where experts from both groups spoke.
At that summit, many people began to realize they agreed on more than they had previously thought, said Kurto. For example, she said, someone who was considered a science of reading expert would say something, and experts on English learners would clap.
“And they were just looking at each other like, ‘Wait, you believe that too?’” Kurto said. “I feel like that happened throughout the room.”
A large part of the statement deals with defining the term “science of reading.”
The statement emphasizes that the term “science of reading” refers to a large body of research on reading and writing, including research on teaching phonics, vocabulary, and other foundational skills, and also on teaching students to read in a second language.
Making sure that the research on how English learners learn to read is included in what is considered “science of reading” is crucial, said Hernandez.
“I think it really points out the research to implementation gap, that when translating knowledge to practice, sometimes there are misconceptions,” Hernandez said. “It identifies practices that are currently implemented in schools under the name of the science of reading that do not align with the research of how English learners and emergent bilingual students learn to read.”
It clarifies that the “science of reading” is not just one curriculum, a “one-size-fits-all” approach, or a focus only on phonics.
“Science of reading is not one size fits all, and it is incumbent on us as professionals to keep those misconceptions at bay and stop perpetuating them and not allow others to perpetuate them,” said Becky Sullivan, director of K-12 English language arts curriculum and instruction for the Sacramento County Office of Education.
California-based contributors to the statement said they hope the state pays attention to it when creating the literacy road map proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in his state budget bill.
They also hope it pushes California school districts to fully implement the English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework, which was adopted in 2014 and encourages explicit instruction in foundational skills and oral language development instruction for English learners. But many districts are not following those guidelines, experts said.
State education law requires that English learners receive specific instruction in the English language both within their classes — integrated English language development — and separate from their regular classes — designated English language development.
“We have not fully implemented designated ELD across the state,” said Lavadenz. “We need to do more and better work at the local level in providing designated ELD, because it’s in those spaces where specific attention to literacy development for English learners takes place.”
Kurto said she hopes the agreements in the joint statement will also help classroom teachers, who may have been confused or hesitant because of the perceived differences between experts in the “science of reading” and English learner fields.
“It’s hard enough to be a teacher right now,” Kurto said, “and when you’re hearing voices saying you should not listen to those people or these people, it makes it really hard to do your job.”
May 12 began as a typical school day for Temecula Valley High School drama teacher Greg Bailey.
But when he opened his mailbox, he found a printed copy of an email, sent on May 7, complaining that he taught the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Angels in America” by Tony Kushner, which deals with the AIDS epidemic in New York during the 1980s.
Allegations mounted that Bailey was grooming students and that he forced them to perform a short, explicit scene involving a gay man who makes questionable choices while dealing with the pain of his partner who was dying of AIDS.
Two days later, he was called to the principal’s office at Temecula Valley High School, and about 48 hours after that meeting, he was pulled out of the classroom and placed on paid leave, leaving his students in the hands of a long-term sub and the theater department that he runs in limbo.
“Most kids who take Drama 1, that’s the only drama class they will ever take in high school, and my whole goal is to bring in the most important, most talked-about plays,” Bailey said during an August interview.
“I tell them that it is about the AIDS crisis in the ‘80s in New York, that it contains adult language, that it has graphic situations in it. And it’s clear from the very first day of class in the fall semester that if students are uncomfortable with anything in the material or the way that anyone talks about them, that they just need to come to me, and we’ll make them comfortable because being comfortable in drama class is really, really important.”
While Bailey has since returned to the classroom awaiting potential discipline, his three-month-plus suspension has had a chilling effect on district teachers, many of whom are having to censor course materials, compromising student learning, for the sake of keeping their jobs.
“You just never know what someone else takes as the main focus of what you’re trying to say in a lesson or side conversation, or take something out of context,” Diaz said, adding that teachers fear they’ll be accused of violating the state’s education laws and losing their teaching credentials. “If your credential comes under fire, then you’re no longer able to carry out work anywhere in the state. And that’s a scary thing.”
The Temecula Valley Unified School District did not respond to EdSource’s requests for comment in response to Bailey’s story or to the allegations raised by teachers.
In the theater
Bailey, who has taught in the district for five years, often incorporates a unit focused on American playwrights.
At the start of the unit, he briefly introduces and summarizes 10 plays, and students pick one of them to study in groups. “Angels in America” was listed as one of the 10 options.
During the unit, students are also asked to complete a project that can involve performing a monologue or a scene, or they can bypass performance altogether and focus instead on set or costume design. Even if a student wanted to perform an explicit scene, Bailey said he would not permit it.
“I’m not against safeguarding or protecting the students,” Bailey said. “And if there are safeguards that need to be in place that I was somehow, you know, unaware of not putting in place, I’m willing to do what is right to make my students and their parents feel safe in my class. But that’s not the discussion that’s being had.”
Rather, Bailey — who has denied all allegations — said he feels like he’s being used as a “pawn in a much bigger political game,” and he anticipates other teachers will face similar accusations.
He said he’s still concerned about the larger effects on students’ education.
“If they’re going to fire me, I hope that they choose to do it soon so they can hire someone else, so that my students have a teacher and they have some kind of direction for their future of the program,” Bailey said.
Off stage
Temecula teachers have had to adjust the content of the lessons they teach and how they teach them, from taking down posters of Black activists, veering away from discussing current events and even removing classroom libraries.
“What happened to Mr. Bailey was scary for all of us,” said Jennee Scharf, a high school English teacher and department chair. “So I think that some teachers are even more cautious after that situation. So even if I tell them ‘It’s OK, it’s board approved,’ I don’t know that it’s always really believed 100%.”
Although the department’s curriculum already includes George Orwell’s “1984,” Scharf said they want to teach the graphic novel version and are worried about getting it approved by the board.
Teachers have also been apprehensive about asking for more copies of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” as some parents in the district have characterized as pornographic a scene in the book where the main character examines herself and realizes she has cervical cancer.
In addition to being concerned about what pieces of literature they can teach, teachers like Scharf are having to change their approach to books that have already been approved, such as Bryan Stevenson’s “Just Mercy.”
“‘Just Mercy’ is … not just about the systemic racism, but systemic failures throughout or isms — ableism, sexism — throughout the justice system, and I might be a little more hesitant to point that out and have to really hope that the students can pick up on that on their own,” Scharf said.
Now, she avoids questions that make her students think critically about systemic injustices the book addresses.
“If I’m not even allowed to suggest that (these injustices) might be happening, how can the kids get to the part where we will come up with solutions for preventing these things in the future?” Scharf said.
Several teachers — including Margarita Middle School English teacher and activities adviser Rafael Loza — said they routinely send notices to parents if there is anything that might be sensitive about a piece of literature they’re teaching.
For example, whenever Loza teaches “Lord of the Flies,” he informs parents of the violent scenes and tells them that if they are uncomfortable with the material, he can have their child sit out of the class discussion or complete an alternate assignment.
He feels removing the book from the shelf altogether, however, should not be an option.
“The majority of my kids are going to, you know, partake in our discussion, our Socratic seminars in class. … I’m not going take away that aspect of critical thinking because I have one or two parents that … don’t want them to do that for whatever reason,” Loza said.
“Teachers call their students ‘my kids’ because of the bond and the trust that we build with those students. And it’s sad that the actions of three (school board members) with political motivations have undermined that trust.”
‘Censorship always fails’: A broader picture
In the long run, “censorship always fails,” according to Brent Blair, a professor at USC’s School of Dramatic Arts.
“As one of the richest countries in the world, we’re living in one of the greatest impoverishments of our cultural imagination in our history, where people can’t see metaphor, or they can’t imagine any kind of message … ‘Angels in America’ is sexual violence? That’s staggering to me,” Blair said.
He added that for those who are religiously conservative, “Angels in America” can also be read from a perspective of “great faith.”
“I often speak to those students who are concerned or worried about sexual content or about a general sense of some of the work that we’re doing, just to remind them what a rebel, and what an exciting, radical revolutionary Jesus was,” Blair said.
“I think if they could have a deep dive into ‘Angels in America,’ they can understand that this is also a play against sexual violence,” he said. “It’s against burying ourselves and shutting down our hearts. It’s an epic love poem to acceptance.”
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