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  • Sexual harassment audit has changed my view of my campus

    Sexual harassment audit has changed my view of my campus


    Sonoma State University

    Credit: Rosie Padilla / EdSource

    How could the school where I feel so supported also have one of the worst sexual assault report rates of all California State University campuses?

    A detailed audit conducted and released by the state of California on July 18 has uncovered the mishandling of sexual assault reports and investigations on CSU campuses.

    Sonoma State University, where I attend school, has a student body of around 7,000. The campus had 43 reports of sexual harassment between 2016 and 2022 while the much larger California State University, Los Angeles, received 39 reports with around 27,000 students. California State University Maritime Academy is the only institution with a worse rate, at 10 reports with 880 students, as detailed in the audit.

    The audit closely reviewed a sample of 40 of these harassment reports in the CSU system; 21 of them were investigated by the Chancellor’s Office. Seven of those 21 cases were deemed deficient in their determination of whether sexual harassment really occurred.

    As a woman, I am already on guard a lot of the time. I have been sexually harassed outside campus, and know how degrading it can feel, but it has never been part of my educational experience. Knowing that there is a possibility of speaking up about an incident that deeply affects me but not getting the acknowledgment I wanted would be devastating. The campus Chancellor’s Office formally investigated only half of the reported incidents, so it pains me to know that there are possibly victims in these cases that weren’t taken seriously.

    These numbers have created a sense of unsafety and mistrust on the campus where I once felt so comfortable. As a transfer student, I quickly made friends, became accustomed to the culture of the school, and felt supported by faculty. The experience I have gained as a journalist has been largely from Sonoma State. Although I have felt a deep connection to the school, I have come to understand that others have not had the same luxury.

    Hannah Rock, a junior in Sonoma State’s Hutchins School of Liberal Studies reflects on a past scandal, “We heard about the Judy Sakaki allegations, but every other allegation was kept quiet. Now that the audit has been released, we finally know the real numbers,” Rock said. Sakaki is the former president of Sonoma State and was allegedly involved in a retaliation scandal against multiple female CSU employees. CSU paid a $600,000 settlement to the women that accused Sakaki’s husband, education lobbyist Patrick McCallum, of sexual harassment.

    The audit notes that a lack of “standardized data collection and analysis across its campuses” is limiting the CSU Chancellor’s Office from identifying, understanding and analyzing the problem of sexual harassment. I believe that because there is no standard data collection method, legislation should be passed to address the systemwide problem. A California state senator created a bill to do just that.

    California Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, introduced Senate Bill 808 in February to create a systemwide method of reporting sexual harassment cases to better handle them, as well as to reduce future incidents. The bill has passed the Senate and Assembly and is now waiting for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s approval.

    “The bill is focusing on one aspect: Schools have to report cases and reports to the Legislature and on school websites,” said Paul Payne, Dodd’s press secretary. “The audit made us aware of how serious the problem is, and it’s worse than anticipated.”

    SB 808 requires that reports and cases of sexual harassment be reported to the Legislature and published on a school’s website on or before Dec. 1 of each year. If there was mandatory annual reporting, I believe it would prevent some cases from happening because of extra transparency, both student-on-student and faculty harassment. I know that if I searched a school’s website and saw 30 cases of sexual harassment within a few-year period, it would cause me to question attending the school. I also know that mandatory reporting would make me feel safer.

    In addition to mandatory reporting, a new policy created by the CSU Chancellor’s Office says that any administrator who has been terminated or separated from the institution will no longer be able to “retreat” to a lower faculty position, a practice known as retreat rights. Currently, if an administrator is not terminated following a sexual assault allegation, they may remain at the school, according to the CSU policy.

    “Retreat rights will likely be dealt with in further legislation,” Payne said. “This audit has made us aware of further legislation that needs to be created.”

    The CSU system would benefit greatly from a more secure and honest report database. Students, faculty and administrators deserve to feel safe and supported on their campuses. Sonoma State has given me so many opportunities, but after the audit, I don’t feel as comfortable on campus.

    •••

    Olivia Keeler is a fourth-year communications and media studies major at Sonoma State University and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

    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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  • School board opponents in Orange Unified turn in signatures for recall election

    School board opponents in Orange Unified turn in signatures for recall election


    Packed crowd anticipates discussion on Orange Unified Parental Notification Policy on Sept. 8, 2023.

    Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource

    Organizers seeking the ouster of two conservative members of the Orange Unified school board announced last week they had collected more than enough signatures to put the recall to a vote in the next several months.

    The effort seeks the recall of board President Rick Ledesma and board member Madison Klovstad Miner, who was elected last November after defeating 22-year incumbent Kathryn A. Moffat by 0.2% — 221 votes out of 61,845 votes cast. Her election was pivotal in establishing a four-member conservative majority that had run on a uniform platform of parental rights. Ledesma and Miner had the financial backing of pro-conservative political action committees, including the Lincoln Club of Orange County, and the support of Jack Hibbs, an influential politically active pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, an evangelical megachurch.

    The new majority’s first action was to fire Gunn Marie Hansen, the district’s popular superintendent, with one day’s notice during the Christmas break, when Hansen was abroad. During the heated four-hour school board meeting, several angry parents vowed a recall election, but it took several months to organize a campaign. Although Hansen was fired without cause, Ledesma later said that under Hansen, the district was “focusing too much on the social politics of education,” and the board planned to revisit policies related to sex education, student equity and ethnic studies.

    The recall campaign is also running on a theme of fiscal responsibility, pointing to the cost of terminating Hansen’s contract, which, with vacation and benefits, was $505,000.

    Last month, the conservative majority made Orange Unified the sixth California school district to require school officials to adopt a gender notification policy, requiring school officials to tell parents and guardians if their child engages in activities designed for the opposite sex or changes gender pronouns.

    Darshan Smaaladen, recall committee co-chair and chief organizer, said the campaign had submitted more than 18,300 signatures — about 5,000 more than the 13,046 required. Organizers had to collect at least 10% of registered voters in the school district.

    Smaaladen, a parent of two graduates and one current Orange Unified student, said she was “elated” by the number of signatures collected and “looks forward to more knowledgeable public voting on the issues in future elections.” She said the signature-gathering was done mainly by volunteers attending festivals, stationing outside schools and going door to door. Three hundred volunteer signature collectors signed a code of ethics, committing to acting in good faith and staying true to the campaign message, she said. Some teachers, many of whom live in the district, were among the canvassers.

    “The Orange Unified Education Association is happy to see the petitions to be submitted weeks earlier than the deadline, and we see this as a statement of strength and support by the public for this recall,” said union President Greg Goodlander.

    Paid solicitors were hired to ensure meeting a Nov. 8 deadline and collected 2,000 signatures, Smaaladen said.

    In a lengthy email responding to EdSource’s request for a comment on the recall, district board member Miner wrote, “It’s essential to note that protecting students is my sole purpose, and the radical recall movement has made it clear that their quest for power over the children is nothing more than a strong political maneuver to influence and shape the children of OUSD. This has nothing to do with protecting or educating children.” (Go here for the full response.)

    The Orange County Registrar of Voters must now validate the signatures, initially examining a large random sample, then doing a full certification, if needed. The Orange Unified school board must choose a date for the recall vote. Smaaladen said she hopes the board chooses the March state primary election; tying the recall vote to that election will save the district about $1 million from the cost of holding an election on a separate date, she said.

    Located near Disneyland, Orange Unified draws from diverse neighborhoods in five cities plus unincorporated areas of Orange County; half of its 26,000 students are from low-income familes; 57% are Latino and a quarter are white.

    According to Ballotpedia, only about 1 in 5 recall campaigns nationally have qualified for the ballot since 2009. Of those, fewer than half have unseated board members.

    This effort could gain national attention and draw six-figure contributions on both sides. California Republicans and conservative PACs have targeted school board elections to outflank Democratic majorities in the Legislature, promote school choice, weaken teacher unions and oppose LGBTQ+ education. Democratic donors and the California Teachers Association in turn will weigh whether to encourage this and similar recalls, assuming it qualifies for the ballot, by donating heavily.

    “Republicans have been talking about ratcheting up the fight on education policy for a few years. There have been some scattered skirmishes up until now, but this could be the all-out brawl that both sides have been anticipating,” said Dan Schnur, a longtime political observer who teaches political communications at the University of Southern California, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine University.

    A similar recall campaign is under way to unseat three politically conservative members in Temecula Valley Unified, including board President Joseph Komrosky, whom Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned for denigrating the assassinated gay activist Harvey Milk as a pedophile. On Wednesday, leaders of the League of United Latin American Citizens de Inland Empire and the local branch of the NAACP civil rights group announced they were joining the effort.  They have until Dec. 8 to turn in enough signatures to qualify.





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  • LGBTQ+ students in conservative crosshairs

    LGBTQ+ students in conservative crosshairs


    Parents rights supporters attend a rally in Simi Valley on Sept. 26. the night before the Republican presidential primary debate.

    Credit: Courtesy of Rebecca Holz / California Policy Center

    LGBTQ+ students are the latest target in a campaign to promote conservative policies in California schools under the banner of parental rights. Over the last two months, seven school boards have passed policies that require school district staff to inform parents if their children are transgender.

    Chino Valley Unified in San Bernardino County, Murrieta Valley Unified and Temecula Valley Unified in Riverside County, Orange Unified in Orange County, Anderson Union High School District in Shasta County, and Rocklin Unified and Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District in Placer County all require that teachers and other school staff inform parents, generally within three days, if a student asks to use a different name or pronoun, or to take part in a program, or to use a facility associated with a gender other than the one they had at birth.

    Other school districts will follow, predicted Jonathan Zachreson, a Roseville City Unified board member and conservative activist. Almost every school district in Placer County, near Sacramento, is expected to consider the policy, he said.

    Proponents of the parental notification policies have said that parents have the right to know what is going on with their children at school and that minors do not have a right to privacy. Opponents say these policies could endanger already vulnerable students who should be able to decide when they want to come out to their parents.

    The flurry of parental notification policies are dividing communities, pitting teachers against students and creating fear and anxiety for LGBTQ+ students. Teachers in those districts find themselves choosing between their jobs and their relationships with students. Some worry if they follow the district policy, and break state law, they could end up in court.

    California’s parental notification board policies have their origin in Assembly Bill 1314, proposed by Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Riverside, which was denied a committee hearing at the state Capitol in April. Since then, Essayli has worked with parents rights groups and attorneys to write a model board policy they would like school boards to use in their districts. Each community can customize the model policy to their standards, Essayli said.

    Zachreson, founder of Protect Kids California, is part of that effort. He ran for school board after creating the Reopen California Schools Facebook page for parents frustrated by school closures during the pandemic, and later by masks and vaccination mandates.

    “We will take it district by district,” he said of the parental notification policy.

    Culture wars result in frustration, hostility

    The parental notification policies have divided communities, leaving anger in their wake. On Sept. 6, hundreds of people overflowed the school board chamber at Rocklin Unified in Placer County. Speakers in support and opposition to notifying parents that their children are transgender gave heated and emotional testimony, both sides accusing the other of busing in supporters from outside the community.

    “Look at the division in this room and outside this building tonight,” said Travis Mougeotte, a high school teacher and president of the Rocklin Unified teachers union. “It’s hard to be excellent when we’re focused on things that have nothing to do with the classroom, that have nothing to do with education, have nothing to do with making our classrooms and schools safer and better, inclusive environments for our students.”

    Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource

    LGBTQ+ community rallies in solidarity, opposing the Social Studies Alive! ban in Temecula Valley Unified.

    One speaker in opposition to the board policy called it a solution in search of a problem, while others accused the board members of proposing it only to advance their political agenda.

    Board member Tiffany Saathoff disagreed. “I have had parents, I have had teachers, I have had staff members request this policy,” she said.

    LGBTQ+ students anxious about being outed

    These cultural conflicts come on top of a backdrop of anxiety and stress as students settle back into their classrooms after the Covid-19 pandemic, said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education at UC Berkeley.

    “I personally have a friend who would not be safe in his home if he came out to his parents as trans,” Asher Palmer, a Rocklin High School student who identifies as LGBTQ, said at the Sept. 6 meeting. “He would not be safe. His siblings would not be kind to him, and his parents would not be kind to him. … I hope you take my words into consideration and understand how unsafe children could become in their own households if this action is approved.”

    Many speakers highlighted the high rate of suicides among LGBTQ+ students. A national survey by the LGBTQ mental health nonprofit Trevor Project in 2022 found that 41% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered killing themselves in the past year. Transgender, nonbinary and people of color reported even higher rates. Less than 40% of LGBTQ youth felt emotionally supported by their families. About half of the 28,000 students surveyed said they felt their schools were gender-affirming, and those who did reported lower rates of attempting suicide.

    Rocklin resident Kurt Weidman spoke in support of the policy. “We believe we are protecting the children from those who destroy their innocence and exploit them for their own purposes,” he said. “On the whole, parents are the best protectors of children and have the natural right and duty for the care, custody and control of their children. Children in the main are naturally incapable of exercising self-governance until they reach the age of majority.”

    The day after the Rocklin Unified vote, many students and teachers wore rainbow ribbons to show support for transgender students. Teacher Mougeotte said that despite the outpouring of support, students in marginalized groups, such as transgender students, were quieter than usual that first day.

    A positive outcome of the debate was that students who may not have discussed gay rights before were having conversations about how the policy, how it affects their classmates and how it could affect other communities of students in the future, Mougeotte said.

    California Democratic leaders fight back

    Attorney General Rob Bonta says parental notification policies break state law and violate students’ civil rights and their right to privacy. He filed a lawsuit against Chino Valley Unified in San Bernardino County on Aug. 28. Bonta was granted a preliminary injunction to halt the parental notification policy to protect the safety of transgender and gender-nonconforming students while the court case proceeds.

    “The battle line has been drawn here,” Essayli told EdSource. “Somehow the government has decided they are the arbiters of information, and they decide what information parents can be trusted with and which they can’t.”

    Essayli said he would like to see the case get to the Supreme Court.

    “The court will reaffirm our rights and that kids are the domain of their parents and that the government cannot decide what information they can and cannot get,” he said.

    In another decision two weeks after the stay in the Chino Valley case, federal Judge Roger Benitez granted a preliminary injunction that prevents the Escondido Union School District from enforcing state guidance prohibiting school staff from informing parents if their children are transgender. It also forbids the district or state from disciplining the two teachers who are suing Escondido Union for requiring them to keep transgender students’ identities secret.

    Last week, Attorney General Bonta sent guidance to all California school superintendents and school board members reminding them of the Chino Valley Unified restraining order and that the state Department of Justice’s intent to enforce the law remains unchanged. A hearing in the Chino Valley Unified case is set for Oct. 13.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats in the state Legislature are pushing back against conservative board policies. Last week, the governor signed legislation that provides all-gender restrooms on school campuses and prohibits book banning and censorship of instructional materials. He also signed a bill requiring schools to train secondary school staff to support LGBTQ+ students and another that would establish a state advisory task force to identify and address the needs of LGBTQ+ students.

    Teachers widely disapprove of notification policies

    Teachers and union leaders have come out as major opponents of parental notification policies, saying they would drive a wedge between educators and students and endanger already vulnerable students. Some teachers in Rocklin Unified, including Mougeotte, say they simply aren’t going to do it.

    “Why are we creating an environment that’s unwelcoming to students?” Mougeotte asked the Rocklin board on Sept. 6. “No matter what happens here tonight, kids that walk into my classroom tomorrow will no longer feel as safe and protected as they did today, no matter what. That’s on you. That’s not on me.”

    Teachers at districts with these policies worry they could lose their jobs if they don’t comply. They are also concerned they could end up in court or have their credentials suspended if they disobey federal and state laws, and policies.

    Commission on Teacher Credentialing officials could not give a definitive answer about whether a teacher would risk suspension or loss of their credentials if they followed board policies that are at odds with state law. Each report of misconduct is assessed to determine whether it should be reviewed by the credentials committee, said Anita Fitzhugh, spokesperson for the commission. The committee would determine whether to recommend an action to the commission, she said.

    Parental rights galvanizing Republican Party

    Across the country, conservatives — initially energized by unpopular pandemic school closures and safety restrictions — are using LGBTQ+ issues and critical race theory to rally supporters. In California, the Republican Party — which has struggled to win state seats for 30 years — has also turned its attention to local races, recruiting, training and endorsing candidates for school boards.

    Parental rights is the overarching issue for the Republican Party, but right now it is focused on the parental notification issue, Essayli said.

    “This is an issue we want to run on in 2024,” he said. “Parental rights transcend culture, language and faith. We had every faith group at the board meeting last night. It’s an 80/20 issue. I welcome this fight. I want the voters to know going into next year.”

    Parent rights proponents say school districts should make decisions for their students and not the state. They say parents are being ignored locally, but at the same time, they are taking direction from well-funded lobbies in Florida, Fuller said.

    “That cuts into their credibility,” he said.

    Parental notification could be on the ballot next year

    Protect Kids California has submitted a statewide proposition to the Attorney General’s Office that would require all state school districts to report transgender students to their parents, no matter what the community in that district or its school board wants. If they manage to collect 550,000 signatures it will go on the ballot in November 2024.

    “Generally, we will default to local school boards, but the issue is that the data we are seeing is harming kids,” said Zachreson, a co-founder of the organization.

    The organization also will ask the public to sign petitions for proposed ballot measures that would prohibit people who were born male from competing in women’s sporting events and another that would prohibit health care providers from prescribing hormones that stop or delay puberty or alter a minor’s appearance for the purpose of changing genders.

    Fuller thinks the initiatives will gain traction.

    “Especially when you have big Republican donors,” he said. “If you buy enough people in front of grocery stores pushing petitions, it’s likely they will get this on the ballot. It will have some appeal on the surface level.”

    What will conservative school boards target next?

    Teachers are worried about what conservative-majority school boards will turn to next.

    “We are really concerned about book bans,” said Mike Patterson, a California Teachers Association board member and South Lake Tahoe High School teacher. “As teachers, we have some academic freedom. We need to stay within the state frameworks, but we still have some academic freedom when we teach. I’m sure they are going to go after academic freedom and want us to go back to scripted learning, which we did a decade ago and was an abject failure. I wouldn’t be surprised if something like that is in our future.”

    Essayli is eying a California law that allows children as young as 12 years old to obtain medical treatment without parental consent in certain circumstances, such as obtaining birth control, treatment of communicable diseases, mental health treatment and treatment for drug or alcohol-related problems.

    But he’s focusing on the parental notification issue for now. “ The school board issue right now is sort of the flashpoint,” he said. “ It’s an issue that is easy to understand and articulate.”

     





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  • What you need to know about student loan debt and repayments | Quick Guide

    What you need to know about student loan debt and repayments | Quick Guide


    Student debt relief advocates gather outside the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 28, 2023, ahead of arguments over President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan.

    Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

    This month, payments on student loan debt for millions of borrowers across the country restarted after the three-year pandemic pause. California has some of the lowest tuition rates in the nation, but the state’s residents carry higher than average student debt balances, risky graduate school debt, and have a unique reliance on parent-held debt, according to a recently released report from The Century Foundation.

    Here’s what borrowers need to know if they already have student loans:

    When do repayments restart? 

    The pandemic-era pause on federal student loan payments has ended. Repayment for most borrowers resumed Oct. 1. Interest has already restarted accruing, as of September. However, if you’re currently enrolled in school or recently graduated, then for most federal student loan types, you have a six- to nine-month grace period from the moment you graduate, leave school or drop below half-time enrollment. And for most loans, interest accrues during your grace period. 

    The U.S. Department of Education is giving borrowers a one-year “on ramp” to repayment through September 30, 2024, that prevents people from falling into delinquency or default if they miss payments. Interest will still accrue, but any missed payments won’t lead to negative credit reporting.

    What repayment plans are available? 

    • Standard: Payments are a fixed amount that ensure your loans are paid off within 10 years, or 10 to 30 for consolidated loans.
    • Graduated: Payments are lower at first and then increase, usually every two years, and are for an amount that will ensure loans are paid off within 10 years or 10 to 30 years for consolidated loans. 
    • Extended: Borrower must have more than $30,000 in outstanding direct loans. Payments are fixed or graduated and will ensure loans are paid off within 25 years.
    • Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, formerly the REPAYE plan 
          • Monthly payments will be 10% of discretionary income, which the department defines as the difference between annual income and a percentage of the poverty guideline for a borrower’s family size and state of residence. 
          • Payments are recalculated each year based on updated income and family size.
          • Spousal income or debt is considered if the borrower files a joint tax return.
          • Any outstanding balance is forgiven if the loan isn’t repaid after 20 years for undergraduate study or 25 years for graduate or professional study.
    • Pay-as-you-earn repayment plan (PAYE) 
          • Must be a new borrower on or after Oct. 1, 2007, or received a loan on or after Oct. 1, 2011. 
          • Monthly payments will be 10% of discretionary income but never more than what you could pay under the 10-year standard repayment plan. 
          • Payments are recalculated each year based on updated income and family size.
    • Income-based repayment plan (IBR)
        • Must have high debt relative to income.
        • Monthly payments will be either 10% or 15% of discretionary income, but never more than what you could pay under the 10-year standard repayment plan. 
        • Payments are recalculated each year based on updated income and family size.
        • Spousal income or debt is considered if the borrower files joint tax returns.
        • Any outstanding balance.
    • Income-contingent Repayment Plan: Monthly payments are the lesser of what you would pay on a repayment plan with a fixed monthly payment over 12 years and adjusted based on income, or 20% of your discretionary income, divided by 12. Parent PLUS borrowers are eligible if they consolidated the debt into a direct loan.

    What about my interest rate? 

    Interest rates remain unchanged from what borrowers had prior to the pandemic pause. However, you may see a different rate if you chose to enter a new repayment plan or consolidated your loans.

    Interest rates are set by the Department of Education and tied to the 10-year Treasury note. Federal student loans borrowed after 2006 have fixed rates.

    Why does the government charge interest on student loans? 

    “One argument would be we want people to have incentive to pay back the loans, hence their interest rates,” said Peter Granville, a fellow at The Century Foundation studying federal and state policy efforts to improve college affordability. Other arguments include appealing to Congress to get rid of interest rates, or moving to debt-free college altogether, he said.

    “Having debt is an emotionally weighty circumstance to be in, and nobody wants to take on debt, but we do it to finance the education that people need,” Granville said.

    Does the federal government make money off student loans? 

    It’s unclear. Last year, a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found the Department of Education miscalculated the cost of the federal student loan program. The department initially estimated that it would generate $114 billion from federal direct student loans; however, the GAO discovered that as of 2021, the program cost the government $197 billion. Part of the shortfall is due to the cost of the three-year pandemic pause, but most of it is because the department failed to consider the percentage of borrowers who would choose to enroll in income-driven repayment plans, the GAO concluded.

    The GAO further explained it’s difficult to estimate future costs because borrowers’ incomes, family sizes and payment decisions change over time. It’s also difficult to examine past costs because there is a lack of historical data when new changes are introduced to student loan programs.

    The Congressional Budget Office in 2022 projected that the only loan program the government would see revenue from is the Parent PLUS program. The government loses money or subsidizes undergraduates, graduates and Grad PLUS loans.

    Tiara Moultrie, a fellow at The Century Foundation focusing on higher education accountability, said there is concern among those analyzing student loans that the government will lose more money on student loans as more people enroll in income-driven repayment plans like the new SAVE plan. The CBO estimates that by 2027, the total percentage of borrowers in an income-driven plan would increase by about 12% annually. Typically, for every $1 invested in an income-driven covered loan, the government loses 17 cents.

    Currently, out of 43.4 million borrowers, 8.5 million are in an income-driven repayment plan.

    What if I have trouble repaying my loan?

    Contact your loan servicer to discuss options. You may choose to change repayment plans as a way to lower monthly costs, request deferments, or enter forbearance, which allows you to temporarily stop making payments.

    What is the department’s relationship to loan servicers? 

    Loan servicers like MOHELA, Nelnet, EdFinancial and ECSI are private contractors hired by the department to service loans. They are assigned to handle billing, payment plans, and advise and assist borrowers with their student loans at no cost to borrowers.

    Your servicer may have changed during the pandemic from one company to another because their contract with the department wasn’t renewed, or a new servicer was awarded a contract. These contracts typically last five years until renewal or cancellation. Sometimes a change happens when a borrower enters a new repayment or forgiveness program — for example, only one servicer handles Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

    The servicers should notify borrowers if there is a change.

    Can I discharge my loans in bankruptcy? Yes, but it depends on the terms of the bankruptcy court’s decision. Those terms may include full discharge, a partial discharge, or full repayment but with different terms like a lower interest rate. 

    How can I get my student loan forgiven, canceled or discharged? There are a variety of ways to get a federal student loan canceled. For example, teachers are eligible for up to $17,500 in forgiveness through the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program. Government employees, nurses, police officers, nonprofit workers and other people who work in public service may qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. For those with a disability, there is the Total and Permanent Disability Discharge program. Finally, borrowers who participate in income-driven repayment plans are eligible for loan forgiveness if they’ve been in repayment for 20 or 25 years. 

    Loans are also discharged or forgiven if your college or school closed while you were enrolled or shortly after you withdrew, or, if your college misled you or engaged in some other misconduct. Such forgiveness plans are known as closed-school discharge and borrower defense. 

    On Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced $9 billion more in student debt relief for borrowers under Public Service Loan Forgiveness, disability forgiveness, and other income-driven repayment plans.

    What happens to my loans if I die?

    Loans will be discharged after the required proof of death is submitted. 

    What happens to my parent’s PLUS loan if my parent dies, or if I die?

    The loan will be discharged if your parent dies or you, the student, dies. 

    For students applying for loans

    How do I apply for student loans? 

    You may be offered student loans as part of your college’s financial aid offer. Loans can come from a variety of sources, such as private banks, organizations and the federal government. 

    What types of federal student loans exist? 

    Undergraduate students who demonstrate financial need can receive Direct Subsidized Loans. Direct Unsubsidized Loans do not require students to demonstrate need. They are available to eligible undergraduate, graduate and professional students.

    Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Your college will tell you how to accept all or part of the loan offered. However, before receiving money you are required to enter loan entrance counseling and sign a Master Promissory Note. 

    There are also Direct PLUS Loans:

    • Grad PLUS loans are given to graduate or professional students to help cover expenses. Borrowers do not need to demonstrate financial need, but they are subject to a credit check. People with poor credit histories must meet additional requirements. 
    • Parent PLUS loans are given to parents of dependent undergraduate students to cover expenses. Borrowers do not need to demonstrate financial need, but they are subject to a credit check. People with poor credit histories must meet additional requirements. 

    How much can I borrow? 

    Undergraduate students can receive direct subsidized and unsubsidized loans from $5,500 to $12,500 per year, depending on the year they are in school and their dependency status.

    Graduate and professional students can borrow up to $20,500 each year for unsubsidized loans. PLUS loans are uncapped and determined by the student’s school to cover any expenses not covered by other financial aid. 





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  • It’s time to repair our fractured math system

    It’s time to repair our fractured math system


    A teacher helps a student with a math problem.

    Credit: Sarah Tully /EdSource

    Deep, active learning of mathematics for all students.

    We applaud this goal of California’s new math framework, an increasingly urgent priority in our data-rich, technology-enhanced age. However, the framework is only a guideline. Ensuring that schools and classrooms have the resources — including appropriate policies and high-quality teachers — to achieve the goal entails repairing fractures in our education landscape.

    Consider high school graduation requirements, which are literally all over the map:

    • Students in San Francisco and Palo Alto complete a minimum of three math courses, including Algebra II. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, East Palo Alto students attending Sequoia Union high schools can finish with just two years of math, and just one year of algebra. So can students in Sacramento.
    • Los Angeles has a three-year math requirement and permits Algebra II alternatives for the third year. In nearby Long Beach, all graduates complete four years of math, including Algebra II.

    This disarray is possible because California requires just two years of math to graduate from high school. It is one of only three states with such a low requirement. Admission to the state’s public universities, however, requires at least three years of math, preferably four. A majority of districts have set a higher bar that matches or approaches college admission criteria.

    But for many California students, the framework’s vision of all students completing three or four years of math remains just that — a vision, not a reality. Too many of them are being left out of the math opportunities that are increasingly important for participating in 21st-century professions and civic life. Research links taking four years of high school math to college access and success. But a quarter of California seniors take no math at all.

    The gap in requirements, however, is just one barrier to deep math learning — one that won’t be solved without bridging a second gap, a teacher gap. Doing that demands a commitment from our public universities.

    Two decades ago, California State University and University of California teacher preparation programs collectively enrolled more than 38,000 would-be teachers per year. The two systems now produce fewer than 10,000 teachers a year. Teacher preparation enrollments declined by 76% from 2001 to 2014 and have not recovered since.

    The Covid-19 pandemic didn’t help keep teachers in math classrooms. In a 2021 national survey of 1,200 school and district leaders, 46% of districts reported shortages of qualified secondary mathematics teachers. In California, nearly half of new math teachers enter the classroom without a credential, according to teacher supply reports.

    These shortages fall hardest on poor schools — those serving students with the greatest needs — which have 40% more teachers lacking qualifications than the richest schools do. One of us has witnessed this firsthand as a teacher, coach and professional development leader. In Los Angeles, some schools have few to no permanent mathematics teachers. In one middle school, for example, every math teacher was a long-term substitute. Students had multiple teachers each school year, sometimes for three years in a row. This continual churn of uncertified teachers virtually guarantees that little math will be learned and exerts a devastating impact on students’ preparedness for college,

    Confronting the crisis directly means building a teacher pipeline and investing in high-quality, ongoing professional development. A range of strategies would support this goal. They include expanding Golden State teacher fellowships and teacher residences dedicated to science and math teachers. Districts can also consider signing bonuses and retention bonuses for qualified math teachers as well as protection from potential layoffs. Teaching institutes, such as those the state funded in 2001, would also help ensure more and better math instruction.

    Instead, the latest contentious debates have focused on narrower issues, often centering on university admission requirements. In 2019, it was CSU’s proposal to add a year of math or quantitative reasoning coursework to admission requirements. It was ultimately shelved.

    Then it was the question—raised by an earlier draft of the framework — of middle school math acceleration. Without starting Algebra I in middle school, it is difficult for students to have calculus on their transcripts, which many perceive as a disadvantage in applying to selective universities. However, acceleration policies have traditionally contributed to tracking, in which Black and brown students have been assigned to lower-value math sequences. Vocal San Francisco parents — who objected to San Francisco Unified’s experiment and insisted that students be able to take Algebra I in middle school — are one reason the framework now leaves that decision up to local districts.

    A current dispute centers on including options such as statistics and data science — in addition to Algebra II — on the UC system’s list of math courses that fulfill the three-year requirement. After initially supporting expanding options, UC’s admissions board recently reversed itself.

    Those are important issues, but the skirmishes detract from more fundamental issues. When students take Algebra I and which math courses they are allowed to take in high school is immaterial if they take only two years of math or if they lack qualified teachers, period. Ultimately, ensuring math opportunity for students means investing in quality teachers. They hold the keys to deeper math learning.

    •••

    Kyndall Brown is the executive director of the California Math Project, which is mandated to implement California’s math standards with a focus on supporting low-performing schools. 

    Pamela Burdman is the executive director of Just Equations, a policy institute that works to rethink the role of math in education equity.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. 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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  • Lessons from the 1978 teachers strike in Fresno: Bonds, trust will suffer

    Lessons from the 1978 teachers strike in Fresno: Bonds, trust will suffer


    Credit: Thomas Galvez/Flickr

    Nearly 45 years ago, in the fall of 1978, teachers across Fresno Unified stood at the gates of their schools, rather than in front of dozens of students in the classroom. They’d made a decision to participate in what is still the district’s only strike in history.

    Students were no longer with the teachers they’d grown to know. They had to contend with substitute teachers or administrators who gave them packets of work in combined classrooms or in the cafeteria.

    As the two-week-long strike continued, some teachers returned to their classrooms, while others, with signs in hand, remained on strike to demand better working conditions.

    “At many schools, it was very traumatic, especially for the younger ones,” retired teacher Barbara Mendes said. Mendes, 84, was the teachers union representative at Lane Elementary and had been teaching for about three years when she and others went on strike in 1978.

    Each day, Mendes and other Lane Elementary teachers, standing at the school’s perimeter, greeted students in the mornings as they entered school and again in the afternoon as they left.

    “Just to smile,” Mendes said. “Just a smile at the students, so they’d know we were OK and that they’d be OK.”

    That smile, a “hey” or a handshake were subtle ways to mitigate the effects of the strike, which was meant to put pressure on the district but affected students as well.

    Fast forward 40 plus years: Thousands of teachers in the over 70,000-student school district must, once again, choose whether to walk away from their students in a standoff with the district, which must decide if not compromising with teachers on contested issues is what is best for Fresno Unified students.

    Both sides must take steps to bridge a widening communication gap before a heated strike makes matters worse, as it did in 1978.

    While the 1978 strike eventually led to better communication between the district and union — a victory, it also damaged relationships among teachers and shattered whatever trust existed between teachers and administrators.

    40 years later, teachers are fighting for the same issue

    Collective bargaining for teachers in California started in the mid-to-late 1970s, and the 1978 contract that resulted from the strike was the first-ever negotiated agreement between Fresno Unified and its teachers union, according to Nancy Richardson, 78, who was first elected to the school board in 1975. Other employee unions, Richardson said, closely monitored contract negotiations and strike actions with plans to come to the district for “me too” clauses on pay and benefits.

    Back then, the school district had also just desegregated staff and schools, Richardson said, so tensions were already high.

    However, class size was the driving force for the 1978 strike, something current teachers know too well.

    “We just wanted our class size lowered,” Mendes said, whose husband was also a teacher. She can’t recall the exact language of the union’s proposal for reducing class size but said that “anything would’ve been better” than what many teachers had to endure each day.

    “My husband had so many children in his high school classroom, he had some of them sitting on the vents that ran along the window,” she said. “He didn’t have enough desks.”

    Now, in 2023, the teachers union wants class sizes capped, in addition to a change in contract language offering parents the choice of moving their children to smaller classes before the cap is exceeded or giving teachers an increased stipend.

    Strike was ‘devastating’ for staff

    The 1978 strike lasted between eight and 10 days. To this day, people’s recollection of the strike differs because some educators crossed the picket line.

    Some teachers can’t afford to go without the pay, Superintendent Bob Nelson said.

    “They have to make very hard decisions about what they intend to do,” he said. “That puts teachers at odds with one another.”

    It was difficult for Mendes and her husband, who started working in the district office later in his career and who joined the strike, to go 10 days without a salary, and just as hard to watch their colleagues return to work because they had no choice.

    “It was hard on them,” Mendes said. “They had bills to pay. They went back for monetary reasons, not because they changed their minds about the reasons for the strike.”

    Those who returned to their class before the strike ended were often chastised by others for that decision, Mendes and Richardson recall. So during and after the 1978 strike, Mendes worked to mend relationships. While she views her reconciliation efforts at her elementary school as somewhat successful, she admitted that many relationships elsewhere never recovered.

    “There are teachers, to this day, who won’t speak to each other because one struck and the other one didn’t,” Mendes said.

    Richardson summed up the lifelong impact of the strike experience in one word: devastating.

    “Nobody gets out without damage,” she said. “There wasn’t anybody who wasn’t scarred.”

    And that went for administrators too.

    Principals, responsible for keeping schools running, were left with angry teachers divided by the strike, she said.

    As school board president, Richardson was the face of the board, and she was bombarded with angry calls about class size, pay and benefits, and even threatening messages.

    The teachers union at the time posted the school board members’ phone numbers. Messages, such as, “You’re going to pay for this,” made Richardson fear for her children’s safety.

    She graphically detailed how members of the union held a candlelight vigil outside her home and walked up and down her street, frightening her fifth-grade daughter. Richardson’s daughter has distinct memories of that moment, but not any of the reasons behind the strike.

    “Things happened that people never forget,” she said.

    This year’s collapsed negotiations may lead to district’s second strike

    Even though the last teachers strike was 45 years ago, the school district and teachers union have been on the brink a few times. In 2017, teachers voted to strike, but a third party stepped in and negotiated a compromise.

    This time is very different from 2017, both Fresno Unified and the Fresno Teachers Association say.

    Manuel Bonilla, union president since July 2018 and a member of its bargaining team before that, said a strike seems more “urgent and real” to address what has become teachers’ daily work: meeting students’ social-emotional needs.

    “I think people are more upset now by the ignoring of the issues — of the disconnect of the reality of what people are going through,” Bonilla said.

    In a way, teachers shouldered the school system’s burden by going above and beyond their duties during and following the pandemic, he said, but now, teachers feel “undervalued.”

    Superintendent Nelson attributes the differences between now and 2017 to Sacramento City, Los Angeles and Oakland school districts pursuing strikes in line with what he considers a California Teachers Association playbook that unions are following.

    “It feels like what has happened in other school districts up and down the state,” he said.

    In 2017, when teachers voted to strike, teachers hadn’t worked under a contract in 18 months, according to Nelson, who’s been superintendent since 2017. This year, teachers are just over three months out of the previous contract, and teachers are even closer to a strike, he said.

    “We’re just in a different place now (from 2017),” Nelson said.

    The school district and teachers union have declared an impasse in negotiations and failed to reach an agreement despite multiple mediation attempts. In late May, upon giving its last offer, the Fresno Teachers Association imposed a Sept. 29 deadline for the school district to agree on a contract or face an Oct. 18 strike vote.

    The district and union did not meet that deadline.

    Mending relationships, rebuilding trust becomes more challenging if strike happens

    At this point, weeks ahead of a possible strike, scant trust exists between FUSD administration and teachers. This has likely worsened over time, Richardson said.

    “I’m sure they (board members and district leaders) know how extremely problematic it is to get to this point — or go further — because of the erosion of trust,” she said. “And I’m sure they know that whenever there is a strike, anywhere, building back trust takes so long and is so difficult.”

    Mendes, the retired teacher, believes the only way for the district and union to avoid a strike is for the district to “really listen” to teachers and for there to be better communication between them.

    “Listen to what their problems are,” she said over and over. “Don’t tell them what they should be thinking. Just listen to what the teachers are complaining about and promise to do something about it.”

    If it takes a strike for that communication to happen, rebuilding trust becomes an even greater challenge.

    The 1978 strike might’ve lasted longer than it had, if not for communication.

    Richardson, according to Mendes, visited various schools to talk to striking educators.

    “Seeing us on the picket line broke her (Richardson’s) heart,” Mendes said.

    Eventually, Richardson, union leaders and the superintendent met to discuss ways to end the strike.

    “We did that sitting down together,” Richardson said.

    She urges teachers and administrators to consider what could be lost if teachers strike.

    “Think about how it’s going to go afterwards,” she said, “and focus on the kindness and respect it will take for people to work together successfully afterwards.”

    But is a strike worth it?

    The teachers’ strike in 1978 didn’t quite lead to lower class size, Mendes said, but teachers had an impact.

    “I think that it was important to let the teachers know that they could do something that would make an impact, as hard as it was on everybody,” she said.

    Still, four decades later, Mendes isn’t sure if that impact outweighed the trauma and broken relationships.

    “Every strike is questionable,” she said. It was rewarding for those who took part, she said, and it opened lines of communication.

    Even so, was the strike worth it?

    “I don’t know; I really am not sure,” Mendes said. “But it does get the attention (of the school district).”





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  • Teachers of recently arrived immigrant students to get help under new law

    Teachers of recently arrived immigrant students to get help under new law


    Oakland International High math teacher David Hansen teaches newcomer immigrant students fractions using the game of checkers.

    Theresa Harrington/EdSource

    As soon as Jenna Hewitt King asked students in her senior English class for newcomers to introduce themselves, she knew she was in over her head.

    “I saw this look of fear in their faces, like, ‘What? I have to talk out loud?’ There was a lot of whispering in their home language,” said King, who also wrote a commentary about the experience for EdSource. “We were both looking at each other like deer in headlights and you could sense this was not something that any of us were prepared for.”

    A bill signed over the weekend by Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assembly Bill 714, will begin to provide much-needed guidance and data for teachers like King, who often don’t have training or experience in how to teach newcomer students — defined as students between 3 and 21 years old who were born in other countries and have attended school in the U.S. for fewer than three years.

    King had expected to be able to teach the class in a way similar to how she teaches other senior English classes at San Leandro High School in Alameda County. Those students read three novels over the course of the year and write multiple essays.

    But the students in her newcomer class had recently arrived from other countries and did not know much English. Most of them spoke Spanish, and a few spoke Mandarin or Cantonese.

    King speaks only English and had no experience or training in teaching English language development to students learning English as a second language, let alone students new to the country.

    “I was just ridiculously ill-prepared. Teaching English in high school, we don’t teach phonics, we don’t teach language in the immense detail that elementary or English learner teachers do,” King said. “Most of last school year was me running around like a crazy person asking ELD teachers on campus, ‘What am I doing? What can you share with me?’”

    King’s experience is not an isolated one. Researchers and educators who work with teachers throughout California say it is common for teachers of newcomer students to feel unprepared.

    “What happens is that they’re basically thrown into the classroom and it’s either sink or swim,” said Efraín Tovar, who teaches seventh and eighth grade newcomer students at Abraham Lincoln Middle School in Selma Unified School District in the Central Valley and is also founder and director of the California Newcomer Network.

    Tovar said most school districts, charter schools and county offices of education do not have experts in teaching newcomers.

    Assembly Bill 714 will require the California Department of Education to put together a list of resources on best practices and requirements for teaching newcomer students. In addition, the law requires the state to consider including content on newcomers in the next revision of the English Language Arts and English Language Development curriculum framework and to include resources on newcomer students in any new instructional materials for grades one to eight.

    “As a teacher, I’m excited. It’s historic. It’s a light. It’s hope,” Tovar said. “Finally, newcomers are being brought to the forefront.”

    The bill also requires the state’s Department of Education to report the number of newcomer students enrolled and their countries of origin. There were about 152,000 newcomer students enrolled in California schools in 2020-21, according to data obtained from the state by Californians Together, but this data is not readily available to the public.

    Separating data on newcomers from other English learners is important, said Jeannie Myung, director of policy research at Policy Analysis for California Education, or PACE, an independent research center at Stanford University that focuses on education.

    “We know that what we don’t measure, we don’t really understand, and what we don’t understand, we can’t really improve,” Myung said.

    The bill originally would have also required the department to report newcomers’ scores on standardized tests, to be able to compare them to other groups of English learners. But that requirement was removed from the final version of the legislation.

    In 2021 and 2022, PACE brought together leaders from California’s departments of Education and Social Services, the Legislature, school districts and universities to discuss how to improve newcomer education, resulting in six reports on newcomers in the state.

    Myung said there is expertise and knowledge about how to best teach newcomers, and how it is different from teaching other English learners, but that information is not reaching most teachers.

    “California’s a local control state, and local control is often good in decision-making. But local control shouldn’t mean that every teacher in every classroom is repeating the wheel when it comes to how to educate newcomer students,” Myung said.

    Myung said an example of best practices is materials created for older newcomer students. Most texts available for English learners are created for younger students, but many newcomers are often teenagers, who would find a picture book about playing with a toy too juvenile. They need access to materials that are at their level of English but also deal with content at their age level, she said.

    In addition, teachers need to know how to help students who speak different home languages talk to each other in English.

    In King’s class at San Leandro High, she relied on Google Translate to communicate with her students. After realizing her students would not be able to read the novels she had planned for other seniors, she scrambled to find other materials. She found one novel written in short poetry with pictures, and she had her students watch a movie version of another novel and then read short excerpts of it rather than the whole text. This year, she is using some books in students’ home languages, but she is still struggling to figure out how to facilitate discussion between them.

    “If you can imagine having a group of newcomers where you have three, four, five, maybe up to eight languages represented in your classroom, that requires a special skill set,” Tovar said.

    Newcomer students also need support understanding their new communities in the U.S. and how they fit into them, said Magaly Lavadenz, executive director of the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University.

    “It’s not just about teaching them to learn English better, but how to better integrate into society and be a fully participatory citizen,” Lavadenz said.

    Lavadenz said it is crucial for schools to help newcomer students and families access social services they may need, like food, housing and mental health therapy.

    As a teacher in Glendale Unified in the early 1990s, Lavadenz said she saw many students who had fled war in Central America draw pictures of the violence they had witnessed. She saw that again while conducting a case study of San Juan Unified’s newcomer program, published by PACE. She said children were asked to draw the flags of their countries and one boy from Afghanistan described his drawing by saying, “Red is the color of blood spilling on the streets.”

    “These are things that children should not see, that we should not see as adults. They’re seeing this and they’re experiencing this, and those images stay with them,” Lavadenz said. “That experience opened my eyes about what the effects of trauma are on young children and how schools could be more ready.”

    King said AB 714 is a small but good step forward.

    “I still haven’t received any additional training,” she said. “Each time I ask, I’m told, ‘Yeah, find a training.’ I don’t know where to go or what to do.”





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  • Buffeted by change, California charter schools continue to grow amid scrutiny

    Buffeted by change, California charter schools continue to grow amid scrutiny


    A student at Rocketship Public Schools in San Jose works on a math problem.

    Credit: Andrew Reed / EdSource

    Top Takeaways
    • Charter schools’ enrollment has grown slowly since the pandemic; they now serve one out of eight TK-12 children in California.
    • Most charter schools will seek renewal within the next three years under new rules.
    • High-profile cases of fraud have led to calls for tighter controls, with bills now before the Legislature.

    California charter schools are having a strong year — at least by one metric: enrollment. As the state’s traditional public school population continues to decline, charter school enrollment has risen to nearly 728,000 students, accounting for 12.5% of all public school students across 1,280 campuses and independent study programs.

    Most charter schools are also performing well academically. In the 2023-24 California School Dashboard, 16.5% of charter schools earned the highest performance rating, qualifying them for renewals of five to seven years. An additional 76.8% are eligible for five-year renewals, while just 6.7% face closure.

    However, this growth comes amid increasing scrutiny. State lawmakers are pushing for stricter financial oversight following high-profile fraud cases, while local districts now have more authority to reject charter petitions. Teachers unions are gaining influence within charter schools.

    Looming is the potential for another religious charter school case making its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, adding more complexity to the already politically charged environment. If the court rules in favor of taxpayer funding of religious charter schools, it could have significant implications for public education funding and policy at the state level. Combined with the uncertainty over the future of the U.S. Department of Education and the Trump administration’s support for private school vouchers, the charter school sector faces political challenges not unlike those of 1992, when California enacted its charter school legislation.

    The tension is annoyingly familiar to Myrna Castrejón, president and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). Despite charter schools’ successes in academic achievement, dual high school and community college enrollment, and competitive admission rates to the University of California and California State University for Black, Latino, and low-income students, Castrejón described the current political climate as a “bare-knuckle” fight.

    “Every year we have to rally our troops and tell our stories and speak to legislators about who we are and who we serve and why our mission is so important,” said Castrejón. “I can’t sit here and say charter schools are doing great and the politics are better — they are not. Make no mistake, we still have opponents who are not going to stop until they strip out our autonomy entirely and/or cripple us.”

    Fraud and oversight

    A key focus of that anger is Assembly Bill 84, introduced by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, who chairs the Assembly Education Committee. The bill aims to enact sweeping anti-fraud reforms proposed in a trio of reports released last year, following the largest charter school fraud in California history.  

    Muratsuchi, who is running for state superintendent of public instruction in 2026, told EdSource that he has no intention of “going after the charter schools that are acting responsibly and providing good educational services for their kids.” AB 84, he added, “is about going after the bad actors that are committing fraud and engaging in corruption through the current lack of transparency and accountability that we have with our statewide charter oversight system.”

    The most notorious case involved A3 Education, a network of 19 virtual schools whose operators stole over $400 million in public school money by falsifying student enrollments. A3 exploited “a completely failed system not designed and operated to protect itself from theft,” said Kevin Fannan, a former San Diego County deputy district attorney who worked on the case. While this was an extreme case, charter advocates acknowledge the sector’s vulnerabilities and are among those calling for stronger safeguards.

    “We are not in denial that we have a problem,” said Eric Premack, founder of the Charter Schools Development Center (CSDC). “It’s extraordinarily painful for us to have even a slow drip of these.” But Premack, Castrejón and other charter advocates believe that Senate Bill 414, which they sponsored, offers a more targeted solution than AB 84, which they view as imposing onerous administrative provisions that have nothing to do with fraud. Both bills have passed their respective houses and will ultimately be amended before a final version is approved and sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

    Nonclassroom-based schools’ rapid growth

    The rapid expansion of “nonclassroom-based” charter schools presents challenges in regulation, but the term itself is a “misnomer,” according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) and the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) in their anti-fraud report commissioned by the state Legislature. Under state law, a charter school is classified as nonclassroom-based if less than 80% of instruction occurs in a traditional classroom. As a result, hybrid programs, like those that require students to attend classes three days a week, fall into the same category as entirely virtual schools.

    For example, Northern Summit Academy (NSA) in rural Shasta County converted a former grocery store in Anderson into a dynamic learning hub for its 200 independent study students in transitional kindergarten through high school. The school offers optional in-person instruction in core subjects like math, social studies and science, as well as an enviable maker space with career technical education in fields such as digital embroidery, video production and robotics.

    The academy also provides career pathways in nursing, cosmetology, energy and power, and has a veterinary assistant program with state-of-the-art equipment that has a 100% employment rate for graduates. Students meet weekly, in person or online, with their teacher of record. Despite this hands-on learning, NSA is classified as nonclassroom-based. The LAO-FCMAT report found that nearly two-thirds of nonclassroom-based schools in 2023-24 used hybrid models where much of the instruction was in person.

    That still leaves more than 100,000 students in schools that are mainly virtual, and more are expected to seek authorization when a legislative moratorium on new nonclassroom-based charters ends on Jan. 1, 2026. These schools have attracted the most scrutiny due to their disproportionate problems with oversight, especially when authorized by small districts that stand to receive substantial income in oversight fees, which “raised some red flags for us about whether we can have quality authorizing in that situation,” explained Edgar Cabral, the LAO’s deputy legislative analyst for K–12 education. The LAO-FCMAT report identified 14 small districts in 2022-23 that authorized virtual charters whose enrollment far exceeded their district’s own, including most of the six districts conned by the founders of A3 schools.

    AB 84 seeks to limit enrollment in nonclassroom-based schools authorized by small districts, but critics argue this could undermine well-run programs and stifle the innovation that is a hallmark of the charter school movement.

    Kevin Humphrey, superintendent of Guajome Park Academy, based in Vista in Central California, notes that hybrid programs are essential for students who cannot thrive in traditional settings, offering flexibility for those facing anxiety, health issues or bullying. “These programs don’t just protect our students — they give them a future,” Humphrey said.

    Local vs. county

    About 84% of charter schools are authorized by local school boards. Nearly all the rest are under county offices of education. A few dozen that are authorized by the State Board of Education have until 2028 to find new authorizers under Assembly Bill 1505. Approved in 2019, AB 1505 was a sweeping charter reform aimed at giving local districts more control over charter authorizations. But there is growing concern among charter critics that more petitioners will bypass local school boards and turn to county offices, which are seen as more charter-friendly.

    Adam Weinberger, president of the California School Employees Association, the union representing school staff, decried it as a “blatant end run around local school boards,” undermining the intent of AB 1505.

    Adding to the pressure, more than 1,000 charter schools are due for renewal over the next three years due to a pandemic-era pause. This renewal process is a highly detailed and time-consuming task that will strain both local school districts and county offices of education. The rigorous evaluations required for renewals will assess each school’s academic performance, financial stability and legal compliance.

    Shrinking enrollment, increasing competition

    Ten to 15 years ago, large urban districts saw charter schools as a solution to overcrowded classrooms and split sessions. Now, with statewide enrollment at 5.8 million and declining, districts are competing with charters for a shrinking pool of students. Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which once enrolled nearly 672,000 students, now serves fewer than 517,000, with charter students making up a record 28% of that total, costing the district about $2.8 billion in state funding. In recent years, the LAUSD board has become more wary of charters and is currently in a legal battle over its efforts to restrict charter schools from sharing campus space with district schools.

    Assemblymember Muratsuchi recognized that some districts with declining enrollments have “significant consternation with local charter schools taking away enrollment and enrollment-based funding.” But he also acknowledged that many families choose charter schools and “that is a reality that school districts need to deal with.”

    To win back and hold onto students, some districts are expanding choice programs, such as magnet schools and independent study programs. During the 2023-24 school year, more than 277,000 students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade were receiving at least half their instruction through independent programs run by districts and county offices of education, according to the California Department of Education.

    While charter enrollment is still rising, the pace has slowed, as has the number of new schools; only 12 opened in 2023 compared to 53 in 2019. Some long-running charters are closing due to enrollment declines. Downtown College Prep, which opened its first charter high school in San Jose in 2001, shut that campus and its two middle schools last month, citing a $4.5 million budget shortfall and a 35% drop in enrollment in six years.

    Pondering this trend, Tom Hutton, executive director of the California Charter Authorizing Professionals, wonders if there will come a point in declining enrollment environments “where, even though choice is impactful, there just are too many schools — both district and charter — creating more risks of making all of them weaker instead of strengthening public education overall.”

    At this time, the organization’s most pressing concern is helping authorizers as they face political and public pressure to improve authorizing practices. Its mission is ensuring that charter students receive a high-quality education.

    “Charter schools were introduced to inject some new energy into addressing persistent challenges in California’s education system, especially for students with unique needs and those in underserved communities, and in many ways they have succeeded,” Hutton said.

    But, as the nation’s largest and second-oldest charter system, he added, “We’re experiencing growing pains and challenges in finding the right balance between continuing to innovate and committing to greater accountability. We see that as an opportunity to strengthen the system.” 

    Kathryn Baron is an education reporter based in California.





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  • We need all hands on deck to ensure students get the financial aid they need for college

    We need all hands on deck to ensure students get the financial aid they need for college


    Parent Raul Zuniga and his daughter Sandy, a senior at La Habra High in Orange County, receive help with financial aid forms from counselor Rosa Sanchez at a “Cash for College” workshop.

    FERMIN LEAL/EDSOURCE TODAY

    California is better off when more people have education and training to power our economy and support thriving communities. Financial aid that reduces or fully covers the cost of college or job training is an investment that benefits all of us.

    About $550 million in federal and state aid goes unused annually when thousands of eligible California students miss out on financial aid. Many are unaware of financial aid, don’t know how to apply or if they qualify, or fear sharing personal information because of their immigration status.

    A new law is helping to ensure that financial aid is not left on the table. Schools must help all high school seniors complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or California Dream Act Application unless the student formally opts out. Students submit one of these applications, depending on their residential status, to access the grants, scholarships, work-study opportunities, student loans and other forms of aid available to help finance postsecondary education or training.

    Providing support for all students as they complete financial aid applications is an equity-driven game changer. This policy encourages students to plan for and attend college or job training programs and ensures that all students and families can make informed plans and decisions about their life after high school.

    Achieving universal participation in this student-centered systemic approach to financial aid requires planning and collaboration among K-12 school leaders, counselors, educators, student groups and community organizations. California’s All in for FAFSA/CA Dream Act campaign supports K-12 education partners as they work to achieve universal FAFSA/CADAA completion. Local progress can be tracked on the state’s Race to Submit dashboard. The data can help target assistance for students who may need extra support and encouragement to complete and submit a financial aid application. It also helps us to identify, learn from and share best practices with schools and districts across the state.

    Since universal participation was required, the number of California students applying for financial aid increased significantly. More than 60% of California’s high school seniors submitted financial aid applications by March 2, the deadline for students planning to attend a four-year college. By Sept. 5, the deadline for students heading to community college, the total FAFSA or CADAA completion rate for the class of 2023 climbed to nearly 75%. More than 24,000 financial aid applications were completed this year compared with the same time a year ago.

    The progress achieved with California’s universal financial aid requirement is due to the hard work of K-12 district leaders, high school principals, counselors and teachers, California Student Opportunity and Access Program counselors, Cash for College workshop coordinators, community-based organizations, and students and their families. They went all in to help more high school students than ever complete financial aid applications.

    In a few months, the U.S. Department of Education will release a revised federal aid application called the Better FAFSA. The good news is that the redesigned application will be easier to complete. The bad news is that the Better FAFSA application window will open two months later than in a typical year. This compressed timeline could most disadvantage students and families who need greater support to complete the aid application — and who have the most to gain from filling out the form.

    We will need all hands on deck at the state, district and high school levels to keep making progress and ensure that students don’t lose ground in this inaugural year of the Better FAFSA. The California Student Aid Commission will continue to support K-12 districts and high schools as they work to meet the universal FAFSA or CADAA requirement. We have confidence that with planning, collaboration with partners, clear communication and purpose, California can ensure that all high school seniors complete the FAFSA or CADAA, and California’s vision of increasing access to higher education for all students will become a reality.

    •••

    Catalina Cifuentes is chair and Marlene Garcia is executive director of the California Student Aid Commission.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. 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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  • Parents of English learners in the dark about their children’s language progress

    Parents of English learners in the dark about their children’s language progress


    Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.

    Yosadara Carbajal Salmerón was always a very involved parent, from the time her children were in Head Start.

    She would volunteer in the classroom and sign up for parent committees throughout elementary and middle school.

    But Carbajal Salmerón didn’t realize that her children, who attend school in Pomona Unified, were still considered English learners after years of school, or how that might affect them. Then one day she received notification that her son had been reclassified as fluent and English proficient when he was in eighth grade.

    Her first question was, “Why hasn’t my daughter reclassified?” 

    Carbajal Salmerón’s daughter Mia Mirón was younger and had never learned to speak Spanish fluently, in part because she had always spoken English with her older brother.

    “I couldn’t understand it,” Carbajal Salmerón said in Spanish. “My son was the first born and he only spoke Spanish when he entered school. But why would my daughter still be an English learner, if she had had a harder time learning Spanish?”

    Courtesy of Yosadara Carbajal Salmerón

    Yosadara Carbajal Salmerón (right) with her children Andrew and Mia Mirón at Mia’s eighth grade graduation.

    Parents of English learners are often unaware of their children’s progress learning the language, according to advocates from the Parent Organization Network, based in Los Angeles.

    The organization is launching a campaign to help parents learn to monitor their children’s progress and advocating for changes in how districts communicate the information to families.

    Students are classified as English learners when they first enroll in school if their parents speak a language other than English at home and they do not score high enough on the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC). English learners have to continue to take the test every year, until they show proficiency in English, in addition to meeting other requirements, such as meeting grade level on state standardized tests in English language arts. At that point, they are reclassified as “fluent English proficient.”

    As long as students are classified as English learners, they must take English language development classes in addition to their regular classes. If they are not reclassified before middle and high school, those language classes can take up so much of their schedule that they cannot take as many electives as other students, and they may not be able to access as much academic content in other classes.

    Araceli Simeón, executive director of Parent Organization Network, said that parents often rely on report cards to monitor their children’s academic progress. “If they’re getting A’s and B’s, they don’t look at anything else,” she said.

    Districts have to send information to parents of English learners every year about their children’s progress on the ELPAC, but the reports are often sent in the mail, separate from a child’s report card. Even when parents do receive the scores, they do not always understand what they mean or what their children need to do in order to be reclassified.

    In addition, more and more districts are using online portals to share students’ scores on state standardized tests in reading, math and English language proficiency, Simeón said. Often, those portals can be difficult to navigate for parents who don’t speak English or aren’t as comfortable with technology. 

    “If you don’t know how to navigate that, then essentially years go by without you receiving a note about your child’s progress on the test,” Simeón said.

    Last year, staff from Parent Organization Network trained more than 80 parents in three districts – Los Angeles Unified, Long Beach Unified and Pomona Unified.

    In one of those trainings, Carbajal Salmerón learned for the first time about the process for students to be reclassified.

    “For the first time, someone explained to me the exam that they have to take once a year and that they have to learn how to write, listen, speak and read. The teachers had never told me that my daughter had a 3 in reading, for example, or a 2 in writing. No one had ever told me that,” said Carbajal Salmerón.

    Maribel Bautista is another parent who took the training. She has 14-year-old triplets in Long Beach Unified. All three were classified as English learners when they entered kindergarten because the family speaks Spanish at home. When Bautista would receive reports on how her triplets were doing in English, she assumed it was in English language arts, rather than learning the language itself. 

    When Bautista took training with Parent Organization Network and began to analyze the reports she had received, she realized that one of her triplets was reclassified in second grade and another in third, but one had never been reclassified, and he was in eighth grade.

    “I think the most important thing is explaining to parents what the classification of English learner means, why their kids are being placed there, and what steps they need to take to pass the exam before they go to middle school,” Bautista said in Spanish. “It’s about communication.”

    Courtesy of Maribel Bautista

    Triplets Nick, Jeson and Kendrick Figueroa attend school in Long Beach Unified.

    Asked what steps they are taking to help parents understand the reclassification process and their children’s progress, the districts where Parent Organization Network trained parents responded in different ways.

    The superintendent of Pomona Unified, Darren Knowles, said that collaborating with Parent Organization Network “led to a complete overhaul of the documents that we use to inform parents about the reclassification process.”

    Knowles said over the last four years, Pomona Unified redesigned a resource page for parents about reclassification criteria in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. The district also conducts regular presentations and training for parents about what students need in order to reclassify. In addition, he said the district is printing ELPAC score reports to give to families during parent-teacher conferences. Recently, he said the district sent out information about ELPAC scores to parents and offered in-person meetings if they wanted to review their children’s progress. He said 92 parents from 18 different schools requested an in-person meeting.

    Spokespersons from Los Angeles Unified and Long Beach Unified shared fewer details. “Our families have various opportunities including notification and consultation letters,” said the LAUSD statement. “The District also offers over a dozen meetings throughout the year where families can deep dive into their student’s educational journey. In addition, families are welcome to call and set up a school visit with the English learner designee or school principal.”

    “Long Beach Unified is dedicated to ensuring parents of English language learners receive student progress and reclassification information,” said Long Beach Unified School District spokesperson Evelyn Somoza. “Parents of students who have not yet been reclassified receive information on their student’s English language proficiency at the start of every school year through U.S. mail and our online portal. Parents receive phone calls and emails when test scores from assessments completed during the school year become available.”

    Both Bautista and Carbajal Salmerón attended universities in Mexico and want their children to go to college, too. They want their children to be able to enroll in the college preparatory classes they need in high school, which can be hard for students if they are still classified as English learners.

    After understanding the process, they began to push for more help for their children and encourage them to work on their English reading and writing skills to improve their scores on the ELPAC. 

    Carbajal Salmerón’s daughter Mia took a summer school intensive English class, began to attend English classes on Saturdays, and started focusing on improving her reading.

    Finally, in the first semester of ninth grade, she was reclassified, allowing her to stop taking English language development classes and freeing up her schedule to take more electives.

    Now a sophomore, Mia hopes to go to college to study ethnic studies. She credits her eighth grade English language development teacher, who spoke with her and other English learners and explained to them that they had to pass the English proficiency test in order to be reclassified as fluent. 

    “She was a teacher that really wanted everybody in the class to reclassify, and she put in the energy and time to really create a connection with every single one of us,” Mia said. “I feel like personally it’s all in the teacher. If they motivate you and make you see that you personally are capable of doing and achieving and reclassifying, it’s the greatest compliment ever.”





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